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Study Reveals Fraud Contributes Greatest Revenue Loss Among Latin American Operators17 November 2005
Azure Solutions, the global revenue-assurance company, today revealed that global telecoms operators are losing an estimated 11.6 percent of revenue (over $170 billion) through fraud and other types of revenue leakage in 2005, compared to 10.7 percent in 2004. The study also shows that Latin American operators experience more loss than the global average, with an estimated 13.2 percent of total revenue leakage ($14 billion). These are key findings of annual research Azure conducted in conjunction with telecoms analyst firm, Analysys, into global telecoms revenue losses. The 'Operator Attitudes to Revenue Assurance 2005' report reveals that fraud is the single largest cause of revenue loss for Latin American telecoms. * In particular, operators suffer from internal fraud at a rate of four times (400 percent) the global average. * External fraud also is a major concern, with Latin American operators losing 50 percent more than the global average. * Overall, taking all forms of fraud into account, including internal, external and operator-to-operator fraud, Latin American operators reported losing double (100 percent) the global average. On the upside, Latin American operators scored better in: * Managing pre-paid and post-paid customer accounts. * Stemming losses due to call-routing errors. * Lowering credit-management losses, typically delinquent accounts and poor credit -- that Analysys attributes to high levels of pre-paid customers in the region. "The Latin American market continues to grow at a rapid rate and with that growth comes the challenge of managing more sophisticated OSS programs and dealing with the increase in fraudulent activity," said Steven Bruny, president of Azure's North and Latin American operations. "We see an increase in focus and resources being allocated to stem these losses and expect these percentages to decrease in the coming years as operators take a more enterprise-centric approach to revenue-assurance and fraud prevention." The report surveyed more than 100 operators from different regions of the world to investigate levels of revenue loss. The major sources of revenue loss continue to be fraud, credit management, least-cost-routing errors, interconnect/partner-payment errors, and poor processes and systems. The report reveals that fraudulent activity, in particular, has risen since last year and is now the single largest area of revenue leakage (2.7 percent). Other findings reveal that fixed-line operators continue to lose less than their mobile counterparts and once again there were strong regional differences. Operators in North America, Central and Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, in particular, suffered more revenue leakage than the global average. However, the report did reveal the importance of revenue assurance is continuing to grow. For instance, more than 60 percent of respondents believed revenue assurance to be more important than in previous years. Azure is the world's largest revenue-assurance company. It enables operators to reduce losses and safeguard profits from malicious and unintentional revenue leakage, such as billing errors, poor processes and fraud. Azure has more than 65 customers across the world comprising fixed-line and mobile telecoms operators and cable TV companies among others. Its heritage can be traced back to BT (British Telecommunications plc), one of the world's best telecoms revenue-assurance performers. Danny Dicks, principal analyst at Analysys, said: "This is the fourth year we have carried out the research and it is clear that operators are becoming more realistic about loss levels. Consequently many operators now have dedicated revenue-assurance teams and are investing in external help, in order to reduce their losses." John Cronin, CEO and president of Azure Solutions, said: "While revenue assurance is moving up the agenda for many operators, research figures show that there is still a long way to go. The higher value and added complexity of emerging next-generation services mean that operators need to plan for and implement revenue assurance now, otherwise they risk losing significant due revenue." The full 'Operator Attitudes to Revenue Assurance 2005' report is free to operators. To receive a copy of the report please go to http://www.azuresolutions.com/survey05 About Azure Solutions (http://www.azuresolutions.com) Azure Solutions is the world's largest revenue-assurance company. It is headquartered in London, with people in Westminster (Colorado), Ipswich, Paris, Frankfurt, Madrid, Barcelona, Islamabad, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Singapore, Sydney, Melbourne and Mexico City. Azure's end-to-end revenue-assurance product portfolio for current-generation networks includes Data Integrity, Wholesale and Interconnect Billing, International Settlements, Fraud Management, Mediation Management, Translation and Rating, Event Integrity and Route Optimisation. Azure has launched Azure Inter-Party Management and Azure Fraud Control System as the first products in its next-generation portfolio. Azure provides individual products or complete revenue-assurance solutions using a common platform and any combination of products that a customer might need. Customers can choose a system that they own and operate themselves or a bureau that Azure manages on their behalf. Azure has over 65 customers across the world comprising PTTs, mobile operators, national operators, carrier's carrier and cable TV companies. Azure has significant carrier experience and understands the problems faced by all these operators. The company's heritage can be traced back to BT in the early 1990s. Azure was spun out of BT in April 2003 and is backed by New Venture Partners, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures and Intel Capital. Recently Azure won the 'Best Revenue-Assurance Project' award at the World Billing Awards 2005 in London, and 'Most Promising Company' at the TeleStrategies Billing & OSS World Excellence Awards 2005 in Philadelphia. About Analysys Analysys provides strategy and management consultancy, information services and start-up support throughout the telecommunications, IT and media sector. Our firm grasp of market dynamics, our distinctive combination of creativity and rigour, and our renowned objectivity enable us to consistently exceed the high levels of quality and innovation which our clients expect. We have over 130 staff in offices in Cambridge, London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Singapore and Washington DC, and work with associates in Auckland and Melbourne.
Source: PR Newswire
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