Four steps to creating an income guarantee program for your business

Revenue guarantee is a term generally, but not always, used in the telecommunications industry. Refers to a process of identifying profit “leaks” through data analysis and improvement of processes that affect revenue and cash flow. Due to its comprehensive nature, there is a need for coordination between all departments within the company: marketing, IT, finance and human resources, among many. It has been hypothesized that the average profit “leakage”, not including fraud-related events, ranges from 1% to 20% of total trading revenue. This being the case, it is financially prudent for any telecommunications business to employ it as a first line of defense against this reduction in profits. Here is a simple plan to boost this process:

Step 1: Prioritize Income Guarantee

Let’s face it, without clear, written business objectives and priorities, the best-laid plans often fail. The smartest way to let the process work for you is to set up a dedicated Income Assurance Department. This will ensure that there is coordination and cooperation between the business units; particularly between Finance and Technology, but also including Marketing, Human Resources and others.

Step 2 – Use Every Angle Possible

To get the most out of your insurance plan, you need to be sure to look at all possible sources of income. This includes analyzing data to ensure billing accuracy, determining network to invoice reconciliation, performing credit monitoring and product margin monitoring, determining and controlling dealer commission costs, and employ analytics from mobile virtual network operators. Implementing a data analysis program that can analyze and evaluate all of these different data sets would be the optimal tool to start your analysis.

Step 3: Team Training

First of all, the team selected to run your Revenue Assurance Department should consist of highly trained individuals who have the ability to analyze revenue streams. Ideally, at least one member of the team should be certified by the Global Assurance Revenue Professional Association, but all members should be technology and data experts.

Step 4 – Create a subteam

It’s a good idea to get buy-in from all your departments. To this end, it’s in your best interest to assemble team members with a working knowledge of the data to assist the Revenue Assurance Department as needed. These team members can brainstorm potential revenue opportunities based on the results of the data analysis or help team employees gain a more fundamental understanding of the data source. Certain revenue assurance software that is highly visual can allow less skilled people to access the data and give you greater ability to include input from team members from other departments.