Overview
RAG’s 2020 American conference was streamed live on September 15-16. You can replay all the presentations, panels and live audience Q&A.
Agenda
The conference will cover risk management, revenue assurance, fraud, cybersecurity, billing accuracy, margin optimization, cost management and other kinds of business assurance. The biographies of confirmed speakers can be found here. Keep scrolling down for the current state of the agenda. This agenda is updated each time an additional speaker is confirmed.
Agenda Day 1: Tuesday 15th September |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session | Speakers | Topic | Time | |
| New York | ||||
| Intro | Eric Priezkalns Rachel Goodin Nixon Wampamba Tony Sani |
The conference compères explain the day’s activities and how to interact with speakers | 8.00am | |
| Talk | Ashwin Menon Shashank Shekhar |
Active Risk Intelligence Subex’s Product Director and the Head of their AI Labs explain how telcos could extract greater value from network data by supporting a more varied range of business objectives whilst also implementing inline controls that anticipate leakages before they occur. |
8.15am | replay |
| Panel | Jim McEachern Jeffrey Ross Sergey Okhrimenko |
Stopping the Spoofing of Calls! The expert panellists will discuss and compare the leading solutions for the validation of the origin of calls and prevention of CLI spoofing. These include STIR/SHAKEN and the A&B Number Handshake. |
9.00am | replay |
| Break | 9.45am | |||
| Talk | Gina Pesheva | Risk and Consumer-Driven Business Assurance One of the foremost champions of business assurance talks about why telcos need to adopt new approaches to business assurance, how to measure the performance of the assurance team, utilising RAG’s leakage inventory, and adopting a risk-based philosophy for business assurance. |
10.00am | replay |
| Panel | Katia Gonzalez Gutierrez Elgiva Sibisi Leila Hakemifar Penelope Matloga Nixon Wampamba |
Race and Gender Diversity in Telecoms Risk Management Specialists from different backgrounds at different stages of their career seek to identify common factors that discourage women and people of colour from being recognised as leaders in the field of telecoms risk management. |
10.45am | replay |
| Break | 11.30am | |||
| Panel | Kathy Romano Hakim Akayour Cherrill Swint |
Assuring the Costs and Revenues for Digital Content The line between comms networks and content providers has blurred, whilst consumption patterns have undergone a revolution. Experts from Verizon, BT and Discovery explore how to ensure all content-driven revenues are collected, all costs are tracked, and all rights are understood. |
12.00pm | replay |
| Talk | Jacob Howell | Blockchain: A Tool in the Business Assurance Toolbox TEOCO’s lead innovator explores the potential to use distributed ledger technology to reduce losses and improve the profitability of telcos. |
12.45pm | replay |
| Panel | Nixon Wampamba Katherine Butterworth Ingrid Azzopardi Donald Reinhart |
Trends in Fraud Management Which frauds are up, which are down, and what is new? |
1.30pm | replay |
| Break | 2.15pm | |||
| Panel | Kathy Romano Sebastian Milczanowski Lionel Dawson Mohammad Sha’ad Hossenbaccus Floriano Paulino da Costa Neto |
A Vision for Revenue and Business Assurance 10 Years from Now Veterans and pioneers of revenue assurance and business assurance from telcos around the world discuss how they expect the discipline to evolve over the next decade. |
2.30pm | replay |
| Talk | Martin Laesch George Bolt |
Layered Revenue Protection: The Changing Modern World of CSPs This presentation details the issues and offers solutions for the revenue assurance, fraud management and revenue protection challenges that need to be addressed by revenue management and fraud systems when dealing with 5G and IoT. |
3.15pm | replay |
| Panel | Parthiban Balasubramanian Divya Shridhar Padraig Stapleton John Brooks Felipe Sebastián Escárate Garrido |
Data Integrity and Analytics The science of data and the art of making money are brought together by professionals with experience of generating value from data, and what can go wrong with data. |
4.00pm | replay |
| Talk | Taruna Ranjan Christophe Oliver Adrian Lazar Adler |
End to End Billing Verification at T‑Mobile US A case study about the techniques used to ensure T-Mobile customers always receive accurate bills. |
4.45pm | replay |
| Close | Eric Priezkalns Rachel Goodin Nixon Wampamba Tony Sani |
The compères bring the first day of the conference to a close. | 5.20pm | |
Agenda Day 2: Wednesday 16th September |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Session | Speakers | Topic | Time | |
| New York | ||||
| Intro | Eric Priezkalns Rachel Goodin Nixon Wampamba Tony Sani |
The conference compères explain the day’s activities and how to interact with speakers | 8.00am | |
| Panel | Lionel Dawson Lee Scargall |
The Strategic Risk Landscape Monetising 5G, low orbit satellites, and tensions between China and the USA will all have a profound impact on the telecoms sector. Our senior risk executives will share their opinions on how telcos will navigate the difficult terrain ahead. |
8.15am | replay |
| Panel | Anurag Aggarwal Robert Gerstmann Tony Sani |
Industry Initiatives for Messaging Fraud Abuse of A2P SMS and other messaging services has become commonplace. The expert panellists discuss how the industry is responding. |
9.00am | replay |
| Break | 9.45am | |||
| Talk | Arnd Baranowski | SIP and Fraud: The Underestimated Problem The CEO of Oculeus discusses the implications of telcos transitioning to IP networks and relying upon the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The weaknesses exploited by fraudsters can also be harnessed for superior fraud prevention. |
10.00am | replay |
| Talk | Joseph Nderitu | Mobile Money Risk Management RAG’s leading expert on controls for mobile money talks about global best practice and recent advances in tools and techniques. |
10.45am | replay |
| Break | 11.30am | |||
| Talk | Geoff Ibbett | COVID-19 and the RAG Leakage Map Geoff Ibbett of Symmetry Solutions explores the impact of the pandemic on risks tackled by business assurance teams, and how the crisis has reinforced the benefits of using the crowdsourced inventory of leakage points that he maintains on behalf of RAG. |
12.00pm | replay |
| Panel | Clodagh Durkan Danielle Royston Patrick Donegan Eric Priezkalns |
Moving Telcos to the Public Cloud Experts in security and the cloud talk about managing the risks of moving key telco functions, such as billing, to the public cloud, and why telcos are willing to take those risks to acheive significant cost savings. |
12.45pm | replay |
| Talk | Timo Vainionpää | The Small Carrier’s Perspective The owner of an international carrier offers a different point of view on what the industry does well and where it needs to improve. |
1.30pm | replay |
| Break | 2.15pm | |||
| Panel | Vernon Kitay Ken Bessant David Rogers MBE Amyn Sarif Derick Cassidy |
Security Priorities in a Risky World Experts in security governance and technology from two telcos, a vendor, a consultancy and the GSMA discuss the areas where telcos should invest in order to reduce their security, equipment and data risks. |
2.30pm | replay |
| Talk | Kenneth Mouton Carlos Marques |
Bringing Mobileum and SIGOS Together The acquisition of SIGOS by Mobileum has changed the vendor landscape, combining two of the largest firms that offer analytics and testing for the management of telco risks. Two of their most experienced managers discuss how it will change the market for risk management. |
3.15pm | replay |
| Panel | Kathy Romano Jenny Schultz Robert Keyser Matthew Reader Mark Potter |
The Challenge of Assurance in a Wireless Operator Revenue assurance is a team effort, so we will examine the teamwork and relationships that have been central to realizing assurance in one of the USA’s leading telcos. |
4.00pm | replay |
| Closing Panel | Eric Priezkalns Rachel Goodin Nixon Wampamba Tony Sani |
Wise Heads Panel and Survey Results The compères close the event with RAG’s interactive free-for-all, reviewing anything and everything on the conference agenda and many things we forgot to include. And for the first time, the panel will announce and review the results of a global industry survey conducted during the conference. |
4.45pm | |
Playback on Demand
Ashwin Menon and Shashank Shekhar: “Active Risk Intelligence”
Subex’s Product Director and the Head of their AI Labs explain how telcos could extract greater value from network data by supporting a more varied range of business objectives whilst also implementing inline controls that anticipate leakages before they occur.
Jim McEachern, Jeffrey Ross, Sergey Okhrimenko and Eric Priezkalns: “Stopping the Spoofing of Calls!”
The expert panellists will discuss and compare the leading solutions for the validation of the origin of calls and prevention of CLI spoofing. These include STIR/SHAKEN and the A&B Number Handshake.
Gina Pesheva: “Risk and Consumer-Driven Business Assurance”
One of the foremost champions of business assurance talks about why telcos need to adopt new approaches to business assurance, how to measure the performance of the assurance team, utilising RAG’s leakage inventory, and adopting a risk-based philosophy for business assurance.
Katia Gonzalez Gutierrez, Elgiva Sibisi, Leila Hakemifar, Penelope Matloga and Nixon Wampamba: “Race and Gender Diversity in Telecoms Risk Management”
Specialists from different backgrounds at different stages of their career seek to identify common factors that discourage women and people of colour from being recognised as leaders in the field of telecoms risk management.
Kathy Romano, Hakim Akayour and Cherrill Swint: “Assuring the Costs and Revenues for Digital Content”
The line between comms networks and content providers has blurred, whilst consumption patterns have undergone a revolution. Experts from Verizon, BT and Discovery explore how to ensure all content-driven revenues are collected, all costs are tracked, and all rights are understood.
Jacob Howell: “Blockchain: A Tool in the Business Assurance Toolbox”
TEOCO’s lead innovator explores the potential to use distributed ledger technology to reduce losses and improve the profitability of telcos.
Katherine Butterworth, Ingrid Azzopardi, Donald Reinhart and Nixon Wampamba: “Trends in Fraud Management”
The panel discusses which frauds are up, which are down, and what is new in fraud management.
Mohammad Sha’ad Hossenbaccus, Sebastian Milczanowski, Lionel Dawson, Floriano Paulino da Costa Neto and Kathy Romano: “A Vision for Revenue and Business Assurance 10 Years from Now”
Veterans and pioneers of revenue assurance and business assurance from telcos around the world discuss how they expect the discipline to evolve over the next decade.
Martin Laesch and George Bolt: “Layered Revenue Protection: The Changing Modern World of CSPs”
This presentation details the issues and offers solutions for the revenue assurance, fraud management and revenue protection challenges that need to be addressed by revenue management and fraud systems when dealing with 5G and IoT.
Parthiban Balasubramanian, Divya Shridhar, Padraig Stapleton, Felipe Sebastián Escárate Garrido and John Brooks: “Data Integrity and Analytics”
The science of data and the art of making money are brought together by professionals with experience of generating value from data, and what can go wrong with data.
Taruna Ranjan, Adrian Lazar Adler and Christophe Oliver: “End to End Billing Verification at T‑Mobile US”
A case study about the techniques used to ensure T-Mobile customers always receive accurate bills.
Lionel Dawson and Lee Scargall: “The Strategic Risk Landscape”
Monetising 5G, low orbit satellites, and tensions between China and the USA will all have a profound impact on the telecoms sector. Our senior risk executives will share their opinions on how telcos will navigate the difficult terrain ahead.
Anurag Aggarwal, Robert Gerstmann and Tony Sani: Industry Initiatives for Messaging Fraud
Abuse of A2P SMS and other messaging services has become commonplace. The expert panellists discuss how the industry is responding.
Arnd Baranowski: “SIP and Fraud: The Underestimated Problem”
The CEO of Oculeus discusses the implications of telcos transitioning to IP networks and relying upon the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The weaknesses exploited by fraudsters can also be harnessed for superior fraud prevention.
Joseph Nderitu: “Mobile Money Risk Management”
RAG’s leading expert on controls for mobile money talks about global best practice and recent advances in tools and techniques.
Geoff Ibbett: “COVID-19 and the RAG Leakage Map”
Geoff Ibbett of Symmetry Solutions explores the impact of the pandemic on risks tackled by business assurance teams, and how the crisis has reinforced the benefits of using the crowdsourced inventory of leakage points that he maintains on behalf of RAG.
Clodagh Durkan, Danielle Royston, Patrick Donegan and Eric Priezkalns: “Moving Telcos to the Public Cloud”
Experts in security and the cloud talk about managing the risks of moving key telco functions, such as billing, to the public cloud, and why telcos are willing to take those risks to acheive significant cost savings.
Timo Vainionpää: The Small Carrier’s Perspective
The owner of an international carrier offers a different point of view on what the industry does well and where it needs to improve.
Ken Bessant, David Rogers MBE, Amyn Sarif, Derick Cassidy and Vernon Kitay: “Security Priorities in a Risky World”
Experts in security governance and technology from two telcos, a vendor, a consultancy and the GSMA discuss the areas where telcos should invest in order to reduce their security, equipment and data risks.
Kenneth Mouton and Carlos Marques: “Bringing Mobileum and SIGOS Together”
The acquisition of SIGOS by Mobileum has changed the vendor landscape, combining two of the largest firms that offer analytics and testing for the management of telco risks. Two of their most experienced managers discuss how it will change the market for risk management.
Jenny Schultz, Robert Keyser, Matthew Reader, Mark Potter and Kathy Romano: “The Challenge of Assurance in a Wireless Operator”
Revenue assurance is a team effort, so we will examine the teamwork and relationships that have been central to realizing assurance in one of the USA’s leading telcos.
The RAG RAFM Survey
Thanks to everyone who participated in the survey. The results will be found on the dedicated survey page.
Risky Business: The Risk Assurance Game
Conference attendees can learn and compete to be the RAG Americas Online risk champion. Lets see who can get the highest score!
Please note the game may not work correctly on mobile devices.
About Our Sponsors
RAG is a not-for-profit enterprise, and telcos and regulators may participate in our events for free, as do many specially invited experts. That means we rely on the generosity of the businesses that host our meetings and pay for everything from our web server to the coffee we serve attendees. We would like to thank the following businesses for contributions that have made this conference possible.
Gold Sponsors
Neural Technologies, Oculeus, SIGOS, Subex, Symmetry Solutions, TEOCO
Silver Sponsors
Araxxe, FraudBuster, GBSD Technologies, LATRO Services, Mobileum
Bronze Sponsors
Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Six Degrees, Trustonic
If you would like to host a future RAG event or if you want to learn about sponsorship opportunities then please get in touch. We will be glad to hear from you!