REVENUE ASSURANCE

Main findings of a survey carried out by Analysis, an independent research corporation; highlight the following facts directly from worldwide operator responses:

• Average revenue leakage has increased from 10.7% last year to 11.6% of turnover this year.
• The major sources of revenue loss have not changed from last year, although losses due to fraudulent activity have again risen
• Revenue assurance continues to rise up the corporate agenda, with over 60% of respondents believing revenue assurance is more important than previous years.
• Fraud is the single largest area of revenue leakage at 2.7% this year, with credit management, least cost routing errors, interconnect/partner payment errors and poor processes and systems being other main causes.

In the largest OSS survey of 2004, Azure was rated as one of the world's top 3 revenue assurance and fraud companies.  Azure supplies a broad range of specialist products and services to telecoms operators.  Azure's earliest work was in BT and dates back to 1990 with the patented work on interconnect billing.  The company was formally spun out of BT in April 2003 by NVP Brightstar.

In 2004, Azure Solutions acquired both Connexn Technologies and Anite Calculus, with the result that Azure now has the broadest portfolio of revenue assurance solutions in the world.  Azure Solutions Ltd, now with over 200 employees, retains many of the original staff and 10 international patents.  Azure has over 100 installations with over 70 customers.

In June 2005, Azure secured USD 15 million in funding from two new investors, Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures and Intel Capital, and existing investors New Venture Partners, AG Edwards and Hexagon Investments. We have teamed up with Azure Solutions to implement Azure's End to End RA architecture that includes products and tools in the area of Revenue Assurance/Data Integrity, Fraud Management, Interconnect Billing, Margin Management, Mediation, Switch management and supporting RA functions in selected customers.