Section 5 : Chapter 3

SECTION 5 : CHAPTER 3

INVESTIGATION AND
PROSPECTING

The world of revenue assurance has many sides: a strategic side, as

defined by the baseline reports, a tedious side, as defined by mon-
itoring and auditing, and, if there is a glamorous side to revenue
assurance, it is definitely in the area of investigation and prospect-
ing.

The previous chapters in this book have largely been concerned with
checking and rechecking columns of numbers and values of CDRs.
This may be interesting, but it is also regular and predictable.

Exactly the opposite can be said about investigations.

WHAT IS INVESTIGATION
AND PROSPECTING?

Investigations and prospecting commence when those involved in

revenue assurance have identified potential leakage areas for which
no predefined reports or audits are available to assess the situation.

When revenue assurance was first invented, it consisted solely of in-

vestigations. Over time, as certain investigations proved valuable,
they became institutionalized as baselines, monitoring reports or au-
dit procedures.

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