Operators focused on boosting revenues by going ‘diverse’ are in the danger of failing to keep track of their revenue streams. In such a scenario,revenue assurunce becomes more important than ever before.

Common market pressures are forcing telco operators to look for new avenues of growth and this growth is leading the evolution of products, billing services and the entire value chain. Operators are now compelled to attract customers through new, more interactive and more customized products that are rolled out quicker than ever before. In parallel, multiple partners have been introduced into the revenue stream; content providers, sponsors and service providers are lining up to have their share of the pie.

Unfortunately, this evolution of products and partners has also led to some new  challenges such as convergent billing, multi-partner billing and dispute management. Each of these challenges pinches the operators where it hurts the most: the top line or the revenues. Due to the increased complexity of the revenue chain there is a need for ensuring accuracy of revenues.

Driver of diversity

The dynamic nature and momentum of the telecommunications industry result in various market trends (Integrated product development as a measure to counteract increasing complexity in the telecommunications industry, Julius D. Golovatchev 2010, page 393.). These do not only include the intensification of competition but also decreasing market prices, increased customer expectations regarding functionality and individuality of products, shortened product lifecycles and order lead time. Therefore, the development and introduction of new innovative products is vital for the survival of telecommunication companies, in mature as well as in emerging markets.

In order to realize sustained growths of their revenues and market share, operators are forced to handle the above mentioned market trends. One of the reactions to these developments is to diversify their products through innovation and partnerships. The key drivers for such diversification are:

• Market prices: With diverse price levels telecommunication companies are able to attract a wider range of customers with a different willingness to pay for their products.

• Functionality of products: Increased customer expectations towards the functionality of telecommunication products forces operators to add constantly new functionalities to their products. Thereby, they automatically diversify their product range.

• Individuality of products: Not only the need to constantly add various features in general but also the need for adding individual attributes challenge today’s operators. Customer’s required individuality of their products highly increases the complexity of one’s product range.
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