Qtel’s Revenue Assurance Program Aims to Deliver $105 Million to the Bottom Line  Lee Scargall joined Qtel International at the end of 2008 to work at the head office in Qatar. His role is to drive and exploit synergies across the diverse operations, an important part of which is standardizing toolsets and processes. He says, “I went straightaway to TM Forum’s Revenue Assurance Maturity Model,” which is part of the Forum’s Business Benchmarking program. TM Forum conducts both the Revenue Assurance Maturity Model study as well as the Revenue Assurance Performance Study. Scargall had taken part in benchmarking studies before when working for a previous employer and understood the benefits it can deliver.
He explains, “It is something we needed to do as a Group because some companies were mature in terms of their revenue assurance capabilities and some were not. In 2009, we started a maturity assessment across the Group to help us identify gaps and weaknesses to figure out what steps we needed to take in terms of improving our people, tools, processes, organization and influence.”
It quickly became apparent there were no standard toolsets across the Group, processes were inconsistent and controls inadequate. Scargall says, “Some of our companies were very good at revenue assurance and had toolsets and robust processes, while others had no revenue assurance measures in place.”
Having carried out the assessment, Scargall proposed a 3-year program to move everyone up to level 4 of the maturity model, which, he explained, would deliver more than $105 million annually straight to earnings, before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The Qtel board agreed to the proposal and provided the funding to roll out the program, although it is completely self-sustaining.
Typically, Qtel International pays for a short-term pilot for an operating company to showcase the benefits of using specialist toolsets, then the operating company decides whether to enter into a commercial arrangement with the supplier. Scargall explains, “The whole thing is part funded centrally, and part funded locally to ensure ownership remains at the operating company going forward after a trial.”
“We set each operating company a target to detect and recover leakage that is linked to TM Forum’s Maturity Model assessment; so if a company is at level 1, then we expect a 1 percent detection rate, if at level 2, then a 1.5 percent detection rate and so on.”
Every operating company submits a monthly report about how much leakage was detected and recovered, and to which leakage point, as described in the GB941-Annex D guidebook: more than 100 leakage points have been identified by TM Forum, so each incident is logged against one of the categories.
Scargall says, “We look at all the incident information from all the operating companies, we track it, check whether incidents are open or closed, how much revenue is at risk, what the recovery rate is and so on. In other words, head office tracks all the incidents relating to revenue leakage across the Group and can help the operating companies to manage them by providing advice and assistance.”
David Stuart, assistant director of revenue assurance and fraud management at Qtel, adds, “This holistic approach at the head office allows us to identify those leakages that would impact more than one operating company. For instance, if one operating company reports a systemic leakage, and we have the same system in five other operating companies, we will distribute the incident information to the others to ensure closure across the Group.”
Qtel International acts on each of the five aspects identified by the Forum’s Revenue Assurance Maturity Model (for more detailed information, see our Business Intelligence Quarterly report on Revenue Assurance, published in November 2010, which is free to members.
Scargall says, “On the tools side, we have a signed two frame agreement to standardize the reconciliation software suppliers across the entire Group. We like a dual supplier approach to toolsets because it ensures there is always competition on price, and the operating companies have a choice of option A or option B, which strengthens buy-in at the local level. They feel more part of the procurement process rather than having a single supplier imposed upon them.”
“Concerning our people, we have established a training academy in Doha, Qatar, that educates our people in revenue assurance using TM Forum’s training program for which we receive Forum accreditation. Our aim is to see that all of our staff becomes accredited. We also provide best practice guidance across the Group, and we’ve implemented a wiki where staff can exchange information and ideas. In addition, we have also enabled tweet alerts and online chat capability so we can share information across the Group in real time. This is particularly important when we are dealing with fraud, so having the ability to share vital information quickly can be critical in preventing leakage.”
He continues, “The more you know about fraudsters’ activities across different territories, the stronger the position you are in to counter them. Developing a Group mentality is very important, people need to feel they are part of one team all moving in the same direction, and we want to embed this in our culture.”
Scargall is encouraging competition among the operating companies by setting up a league table around revenue assurance targets. At the same time, he fosters a sense of community, in part by holding Group revenue assurance forums for some 30 people in total, “sharing information benefits everyone around the Group,” he states.
“The heads of revenue assurance are the greatest influence, and we all meet twice a year in a different location. We discuss the hot issues and how best to work together. Between the meetings, we have regular phone calls and on-site follow-up visits. We also work to raise the profile of RA with the local management teams to gain recognition and support for what we do: we need the CFOs, CTOs and CIOs to all work together to realize the potential benefits of a successful RA program across the Group.”
The Qtel Group is making excellent progress towards its goals. Scargall says, “We are exceeding our targets in terms of revenue recovery, with over $50 million being added to the bottom line in the first year of our 3-year program.”
There is no complacency however. Scargall acknowledges there is much more hard work left to do. “We are making good progress and report back to the steering committee each month. This is a big program, and there’s significant financial benefit for the Group. The operating companies appreciate the leadership and coordination from the head office,” he states.
He continues, “We are also trying to standardize our processes, establish centers of excellence across the Group and take the experiences of what is being done well and apply it elsewhere. We have a range of operating companies that are at level 1 and 2, and the only way we’re going to get everyone to level 4 is by being more proactive.”
Since embarking on the program in 2010, there has been a noticeable improvement to all five aspects of the Maturity Model, with the operating companies beginning to rise to level 3. As Scargall concludes, “Reaching level 4 across them all is the goal for the next two years.”
This and many other success stories will be featured in the new edition of TM Forum's Case Study Handbook,which will be available in March 2011.
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