talkRA
By Eric Priezkalns and the talkRA team
To listen to an audio podcast, mouse over the title and click Play. Open iTunes to download and subscribe to podcasts.
Podcast Description
If you want to stay up to date with what is happening in revenue assurance, you came to the right place. talkRA is the podcast and website for people interested in revenue assurance news and views. We cover revenue assurance, revenue management, data integrity and fraud management for telecommunications network operators, electronic communications service providers, and other industries as well. Our contributors are experts in their respective fields, and come from all around the world. They are genuine and experienced practitioners, selected as amongst the best and more interesting exponents of revenue assurance. Everybody in the talkRA team has extensive hands-on experience from working in the industry. Between them, they cover the full range of roles - everything from RA Directors in telcos and freelance business consultants to entrepreneurs and software developers. Founded by RA veterans Eric Priezkalns and Matt Clark, talkRA quickly established itself as the most popular website for people wanting to find out what is happening in revenue assurance and related fields. Since 2006, Eric has written hundreds of entertaining and informative blogs about RA. In 2008, the formation of talkRA saw Eric joined by a first-class team of collaborators, all wanting to take their discussions beyond the remits of traditional conferences and members-only clubs. The talkRA podcast contains exclusive material including interviews with key personalities and topical debates with panels involving participants from around the globe. Eric Priezkalns, well-known RA consultant and commentator, is the host. The mission of talkRA is simple. talkRA is dedicated to promoting the development of the practice of revenue assurance, fraud management, revenue management and business intelligence in telecommunications service providers and other industries. It provides a platform for thought leaders, allowing them to communicate and exchange ideas without imposing any limitations based on employment or affiliations. Members of the talkRA team are invited to join based on their personal track record in pushing the boundaries of knowledge and freely sharing their insights with peers. We will regularly review the mix of opinions held by talkRA members, and where necessary will seek to recruit in order to represent a fair balance of opinions held by the wider community of practitioners. The podcast is an extension of the content provided at talkRA.com. All opinions represented are those of the individuals who contribute them, as talkRA has no official opinion. talkRA provides a common ground for debate and may be used by team members to promote unconventional or unorthodox points of view. In lieu of academic rigour, it is hoped that this free expression of opinions will help industry bodies like the TM Forum (also known as the TMF and formerly known as the Telemanagement Forum), the various groups dedicated to interworking, regulation and fraud prevention like the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the European Telecommunications Network Operators' Association (ETNO), and training companies like the Billing College and the RA Academy/Global Revenue Assurance Professionals' Association (GRAPA) to consider all perspectives before reaching decisions that will affect RA practitioners. At present, talkRA's website and podcast is owned and paid for by Revenue Protect Limited, the consulting business of Eric Priezkalns. In future we would like to make the site self-financing. Until that becomes practical, we will make our best efforts to support good governance by being transparent. Information about the ownership and finances of talkRA is presented at http://talkra.com/who-is-behind-talkra-and-who-pays-for-it and a full list of members of the talkRA team is available at the home page of http://talkra.com.
| Name | Description | Released | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1 |
CleanThinking Ahead with Hanno Allolio | Hanno Allolio was my guest for talkRA podcast 14. Hanno is a founder, partner and Managing Director of Allolio & Konrad, an international consulting business that prides itself on its intelligent approach to satisfying its telco and utility customers. With his experience of providing data-centric consulting, I was keen to hear what Hanno thinks about the current state of progress in the art of delivering revenue assurance. I also asked Hanno about what comes next, and how telcos compare with utilities. As the boss of a successful independent consultancy, not tied to any vendor, Hanno can talk more freely about the options and challenges for those working in the field of RA. He did so on this podcast. You can download the mp3 file for this podcast from here or listen to it through the browser player. You can also subscribe to the talkRA podcast for free at the iTunes store. | 3/13/11 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
2 |
CleancVidya Sniffs Out Internal Fraud | I interviewed Tal Eisner, Senior Director of Product Strategy at cVidya, for talkRA podcast 13. You can download the file from here or listen to it in the browser player. Tal told me about the new fraud management offerings from cVidya, including one they consider unique: 'sniffing' for evidence of internal fraud. Enjoy the 45-minute long podcast here at talkRA, or you can subscribe to the talkRA podcast for free at the iTunes store. | 12/6/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
3 |
CleanDiscussion Panel at WeDo’s WUG | They do things differently in Portugal. Normally the prospect of sitting through a software vendor's user group meeting would have me grinding my teeth and clenching my buttocks. Such events normally involve three kinds of sales technique: cross sell, up sell and hard sell. But at the WeDo Technologies User Group conference (the "WUG"!) they tried a fourth approach: the no sell. Instead, they took care of customers and every last detail, sat back and let their guests talk about what they do and how they do it. To borrow from an ad campaign for Carlsberg... "WeDo don't do industry conferences, but if WeDo did do industry conferences, they'd be the best industry conferences..." Let us just say that if WeDo write software as well as they host events, then they must have written some immaculate and smooth-running code. Perhaps the very best marketing technique is just to take care of the environment and allow the customers to talk about what they do (and how they use your products to do it). They say the best advertising is a word of mouth recommendation, and WeDo must be confident they can rely on that. Perhaps they are right - look at what I just wrote! WeDo amassed a really high-calibre panel for their 2010 WUG. Unfortunately, for all their perfect planning, they did make one mistake - they let me sit on the panel too. Luckily the other guests were so clever and knowledgeable that my insane ramblings only served to make them look even better. Listen to podcast 12 to hear the panel session at WeDo's WUG, which turned out to be a really entertaining and insightful discussion about the current circumstances and challenges faced by revenue assurance, business assurance and fraud management. Not counting me and my big mouth, the star-studded panel consisted of: Tony Poulos, Head of the Revenue Management Sector at the TM Forum, Anchor for The Telecom Channel and too many other things to mention; Nick Mann, former Head of Fraud, Risk and Security at Vodafone Group and ex-Chairman of the GSM Association's Fraud Forum; Susan McNeice, Global Director at Stratecast, the strategic research and forecasting division of Frost & Sullivan; and the chair was Alun Lewis, respected independent telecoms writer, consultant, and man of deep thoughts as well as fine words. Many thanks to WeDo for hosting an excellent event, and to both WeDo and my fellow panelists for permitting me to share the recording with you. | 5/29/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
4 |
CleanGrowth in Managed Services | Podcast 11 is dedicated to the topic of managed services - services which might have been performed in-house but are instead delivered by an external supplier. It is a topic that gets considered from time to time by telcos wanting to improve their revenue assurance and fraud management, although it is not so common to see initial conversations progress to completing an actual deal. Indian firm Subex is a market leader in supplying revenue assurance and fraud management software, and also earns a significant chunk of its revenues through managed services for those functions and others. I asked them to talk with me about the current status and future potential for managed services. Vinod Kumar, Subex's Group President, joined me from India, and Des Rehinsi, their Director of Sales for Managed Services, joined me from the UK. We talked about the reasons why telcos opt for managed services, the factors that drive competitive advantage in this market, and their expectations for future sales from managed services. You can listen to the full podcast at talkRA.com, or by subscribing through the iTunes store. | 2/24/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
5 |
CleanNew RA Book by Yelland and Sherick | Mark Yelland joined me for talkRA podcast number 10. Mark has just co-written a new book with David Sherick, entitled "Revenue Assurance for Service Providers". You can obtain the book from Amazon.com by following this link. The book is also available from Amazon.co.uk and Authors OnLine. We talked about Mark's experience as a revenue assurance practitioner and how he has translated this into practical advice which is especially useful for the smaller operation that wants big RA results without necessarily needing to buy big RA systems. You can listen to the full hour-long conversation at talkRA.com, or by subscribing to the talkRA podcast through iTunes. | 1/16/10 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
6 |
CleanStreamlining RA Management: Qtel and Symbox | For episode 9 of the talkRA podcast I was joined by Lee Scargall, regular talkRA contributor and Director of Risk and Revenue Assurance at Qtel, and Paul Lewis-Borman, owner of software house Symbox. Before you wonder, Symbox does not make simboxes. Symbox develop software used to 'webify' business processes, and in particular have worked with telcos like Qtel to enhance their revenue assurance management. For all the software created to do revenue assurance reconciliations, many RA departments still pour time and effort into consolidating the status of their work and presenting it to executives. We talked about the ways software can automate the management and reporting of revenue assurance, eliminating manual tasks that add no value and which limit the ability of the RA department to explain their performance to C-level execs. You can exclusively listen to the full 30-minute conversation at talkRA.com, or by subscribing to the podcast at iTunes. | 12/11/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
7 |
CleanAfrica and Beyond: Talking RA with Nitin Patel | My guest for episode 8 of the talkRA podcast was Nitin Patel, revenue assurance consultant. He told me about his experiences from different countries, in particular focusing on what he has learned from working on revenue assurance projects in African telcos. Nitin recounted some interesting anecdotes. His stories conveyed some very telling insights about the best and worst examples of how to do revenue assurance, and it was a pleasure to talk with him. You can exclusively listen to the full 30-minute conversation at talkRA.com, or by subscribing to the podcast at iTunes. | 8/20/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
8 |
CleanRA Accreditation and More – Talking RA with Geoff Ibbett | Geoff Ibbett is an independent consultant with tremendous experience in the field of revenue assurance. Over the years he has held a string of senior roles at businesses like Subex, Azure, Connexn and Telecomms Consultancy & Solutions. I asked Geoff to join me for podcast 7, and we talked about the new revenue assurance training and accreditation program Geoff has developed for the TM Forum. We also talked about his work on the TMF's new leakage framework, as well as his views on trends in the RA software market and about the professionalization of RA. You can listen to this informative interview by playing or downloading the podcast from talkRA. Better still, subscribe to the podcast via iTunes, and you will never miss a future episode. The first of the TMF's RA training and accreditation courses will be held in London, England and runs from September 14th to September 16th. Geoff told me there are still some spaces left, so if you are interested in booking a spot, you can find out more by visiting the TMF's website. | 6/28/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
9 |
CleanRevenue Assurance for International Groups | Lee Scargall, fellow talkRA author and Director of Enterprise Risk Management at Qtel International, joined me for podcast 6. We talked about a topic of increasing importance: how to deliver revenue assurance across international groups. Fewer and fewer telcos are run as stand-alone entities. Economies of scale has made it harder and harder for small national telcos to match the profits of large international groups. Cost reductions and efficiency savings increasingly drive groups to build scale by expanding overseas. At the same time, group-level executives see revenue assurance as vital to ensuring shareholder value is maximized in each national operation. I cannot think of anyone better placed to give advice on revenue assurance in groups. Lee was recruited to Qtel, the Qatari operator with ambitious plans for growth and international expansion, and tasked to implement their group function for risk management, revenue assurance and fraud management. He joined them after performing a similar role across the disparate overseas subsidiaries of Cable & Wireless. You can hear Lee's frank advice about how to manage group revenue assurance by listening or downloading the podcast from talkRA. You can also hear and subscribe to the podcast using iTunes, meaning all future episodes will be downloaded as soon as they are available. | 5/25/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
|
10 |
CleanPanel Debate: Data Warehouses and Revenue Assurance | For podcast 5, I was joined by not one, but three guests. Mike Willett, Director of Fraud and Revenue Assurance for Telstra, President of the Australasian Telecommunications Fraud and Risk Association, and fellow talkRA blogger, put the kids to bed and dialed in from Australia. Glenn Hovey, ex-Global Revenue Assurance Manager for Vodafone Group, took time out from packing his possessions before he moves home. Last but not least, Guy Howie, Director of Business Intelligence And Assurance Solutions (BIAAS) managed to find a precious half-hour slot between conference calls with his clients. I am grateful to all three for making the time to talk with me. As ever, all opinions expressed are those of the individuals participating, and need not represent the views of their businesses or other organizations they are affiliated to. For the first debate, Mike, Glenn, and Guy discussed a perennial topic, but one that still causes a lot of disagreement: if, when, and how should RA utilize an enterprise data warehouse? Half an hour was barely long enough to hear what they each had to say. To compensate, I hope they will all participate in many more panel debates for talkRA. You can listen to the podcast by playing or downloading it from talkRA. Better still, subscribe to the podcast at iTunes, and you will never have to worry about missing a future episode. | 4/7/09 | Free | View In iTunes |
| Total: 10 Episodes |
Listeners also subscribed to
- Private Practice Marketing
- David Steele
- View In iTunes
- Executive Career success
- Harvey Nash
- View In iTunes
- Create Your Personal Wheel of Life
- Anne M. Bachrach
- View In iTunes
