BLOG.wedotechnologies.com a is space for sharing knowledge and experiences about Enterprise Business Assurance with voluntary contributions from WeDo Technologies' staff, our customers and special guests. Read a selections of the best articles published on BLOG.wedotechnologies.com in 2014. Enjoy it!

1. com

2. 2
BLOG.
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tech-
nolo-
gies.com

3. 3
“BLOG.wedotechnologies.com is a space for sharing knowledge and experiences
about Enterprise Business Assurance with voluntary contributions from WeDo
Technologies’ staff, our customers and special guests.
It takes a lot of work and energy to produce a great article, so we strive to publish the
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thought-provoking and can be used as a reference in the industry.
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our customers and other industry players about best practices, different ways to
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It was a tricky decision, but for this book we put together a collection of the best
articles published in 2014 on BLOG.wedotechnologies.com, between the 43 articles
published from 31 unique authors.
The 2014 collection spans a wide range of topics: Fraud Management, Revenue
Assurance, Big Data, Customer Value Management, Mobile Money, Product Usability
and much more.
For 2015 we hope to achieve even more.
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4. 4
Battling
Next
-Gen
Fraud
Requires
Next
-Gen
“The best way to
safeguard against
fraud is to have a
security and fraud
management teams
working together”

5. 5
Wireless fraud is on the rise, thanks in part to today’s all IP networks, which provide
fraudsters more opportunities than ever before. The global communications industry
lost $46.3 billion from fraud last year, roughly 2 percent of global revenue, according
to the Communications Fraud Control Association (CFCA).
According to the CFCA, the top five methods for committing fraud last year were:
Subscription Fraud USD$5.22 Billion
PBX Hacking USD$4.42 Billion
Account Take Over/ID Theft USD$3.62 Billion
VoIP Hacking USD$3.62 Billion
Dealer Fraud USD$3.35 Billion
Battling Next-Gen Fraud Requires Next-Gen Tactics
Written by
Pedro
Fidalgo
Director, Service
Delivery North
America & Caribbean
at WeDo Technologies
25/02/2014

6. 6
Each of these areas represents significant losses to operators and their subscribers.
In addition, the fraud challenge is constantly changing. There is always something
new on the horizon and as one exploit used by fraudsters is closed, a new threat
emerges to take its place.
For Fraudsters, Complexity + New Technology = Opportunity
Identifying and stopping these types of fraud before big losses accrue can be
difficult. As wireless technology becomes more complex, the types of fraud being
perpetrated also grow more elaborate. It used to be that wireless networks were
fairly ‘closed’ and threats to operators originated from local sources. Now, however,
most operators are in the process of migrating to all IP networks, where hackers
are able to gain access via the internet from half a world away. And today’s smart
devices have higher processing capabilities and continuous connections to the
internet, making them more vulnerable to attacks and malware.
Fraud is typically the result of weak internal risk management controls, which is
often what happens when a new technology is introduced, such as LTE. Many
departments in a wireless organization may be struggling to adapt to the new
requirements and keep up with change, focused instead on their own silos of
information and meeting their own KPIs.
These individual departments often can’t connect the dots to spot alarming trends
and fraud scenarios. To effectively reduce fraud, the focus needs to move beyond the
realm of the typical fraud department and become a larger corporate issue, where IT,
billing, customer care and network security play a part. The entire organization needs
to collaborate more closely, sharing information to help stop these new threats.
Managing Fraud in an MPLS Environment
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a standards-approved technology for
accelerating network traffic and making it easier to manage. MPLS is the common
backbone ‘cloud’ connecting today’s fixed and wireless networks, providing internet

7. 7
access at different points. The challenge for managing fraud in this environment is
that it is always accessible.
Risks to customers and network infrastructure are typically low, but other systems
or networks connected to the internet are more open to attack. Customer portals, for
example, can often open a door for sensitive customer data to be stolen. And if these
customer-facing portals are hacked, it is likely that more sensitive networks might
be breached as well, enabling fraud and abuse within the operator itself. Network
hacking is commonly used to commit International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF),
Service Reselling, Interconnect Fraud, and information theft, among others - and IP
networks are ripe for attack.
Network Security and Fraud Management
- a Critical Partnership
Although technology can make it easier to stop network security threats, no system
is bulletproof. Whether it is botnets, spam, phishing, identity theft, denial of service
attacks, advanced persistent threats, malware in general, or hidden backdoors for
espionage or sabotage, no operator is 100 percent safe from an attack that can later
lead to fraud. We believe that the best way to safeguard against fraud is to have
security and fraud management teams working together.
Fraud Management and Network Security are commonly seen as two separate
departments. Network security relies on information that might be a combination
of reputational analysis, firewall logs, network packet data and more contextual
information. This common network security information can be extremely valuable
to any fraud management organization, used to determine if an actual attack or
compromise has occurred. In a perfect world, security teams would have input into
how new services are designed and offered, and would be warned of changes to the
infrastructure. Unfortunately, this usually isn’t the case. Security departments are
usually seen as service ‘inhibitors’ by the rest of the organization.

8. 8
Taking an Enterprise-Wide Approach
Operators can take advantage of pairing fraud and security-related information and
adopt an enterprise-wide case management approach built on collaboration. This
can greatly improve fraud detection and prevention efforts and streamline fraud
investigations.
This approach, along with a system capable of taking advantage of network status
information, can help operators to spot fraud trends and ‘outliers’ more quickly,
leading to more accurate and timely fraud detection and resolution. Tackling
today’s fraud challenges requires a system that can leverage data from across the
organization, collecting and correlating information to spot fraud and abuse before
it ever happens, or at least before the losses accumulate and subscribers lose
confidence in their wireless providers’ ability to protect their accounts.
Just when you think you have one fraud problem solved, another one will pop up in
its place. There will always be some new fraud challenge to battle. It really comes
down to having the right systems and business practices in place – one that pairs
both Fraud and Security information, to help stop fraud in its tracks.

9. 9
For Fraudsters,
Complexity
+ New Technology
= Opportunity
CreatedbyLuisPrado•NounProject

10. 10
“You must
test the outcome
of your projects
with
usability
tests
on real users.”
Per-
sonalized
User
Experi-

11. 11
People always ask me what are the best usability applications on the market,
and the answer is always a question. “What do you want to do with the application?”
Usability isn’t everything. You can provide a singular application that follows
all the ten Nielsen’s heuristics, but in the end, nobody likes it.
Usability is just a piece of the puzzle. The perfect recipe combines best-of-breed HCI
guidelines, superior design, focused functionalities, and creativity. Following
the guidelines is somewhat easy and, though more subjective, a consensual superior
design can be agreed upon after a few interactions. Providing focused functionalities
can be a bigger challenge. The same functionality can be used by multiple users with
different roles, different business domain knowledge, and different levels
of expertise. One size doesn’t fit all in modern applications.
Written by
Carlos
MartinsUX Architect
at WeDo Technologies
27/02/2014
Personalized User Experiences

12. 12
Personalized user experiences are the path to success. The recent movie “Her”
takes this to another level, but also pinpoints this path.
So the million dollar question is, “How do I create a memorable and personalized
user experience for my application?” This is the moment where I challenge the
philosopher Socrates. Socrates said, “Know thyself.” I say “Know your users.” An in
depth of knowledge your users is the only way to build personalized experiences.
Anticipate the user’s next step, remove unnecessary steps from the software, show
answers when the user will need them, display notifications to user only when
needed. All of this is achievable when you start to feel the needs the same way your
users feel it - it’s not by understanding their needs, is by feeling their needs.
Having a development or implementation methodology that embraces the users’
needs by feeling them challenges everyone to include Personas. Personas are a great
tool to challenge your ability to increase users’ goodwill (and if you need to give it a
touch of reality please don’t feel awkward on wearing the sunglasses). Try to make
Personas as real as possible, and if you have a real life inspiration, the better your
persona will be. Personas are users. They have neither the compassion, nor the
goodwill to handle bugs and issues. They will constantly push you to improve your
current solution, and in the end they must be a part of the great novel - a coherent one!
The first experience I had with the use of a Persona was in one of the Norman
Nielsen’s Usability courses. The trainer appeared in the room wearing a pair of
Aviator sunglasses (I’m not going to mention the brand, but it’s easy to guess it; yes,
that one...), a scarf, and a rough aviator jacket. The class immediately began to laugh
at the Persona. The trainer started talking like a real Aviator (with a Texas accent),
and he began to discuss the needs of amateur aviators and factors that would
prevent them from having a profitable business. And in that moment the whole room
felt like an aviator, too, and writing user stories became so easy that in the end, the
amateur aviator seemed more professional than the business one. What the trainer
did was create a Persona through personification. Humans react better to and are
more likely to help on stories narrated in the 1st person (i.e., personal stories).
How can you be sure that your Persona is a good one? You must test the outcome
of your projects with usability tests on real users. These tests will ensure that you

13. 13
have a strong connection with the real world and that your Personas provided the
adequate requirements and assumed the correct reactions. Even if you completely
misjudged it, you can be sure that your Personas will be more accurate on the next
project or iteration. After the tests, you will fix most impactful issues to the complete
experience, and test it again until the whole experience is working seamlessly. The
more users you include in your test, the better your final result will be.
Personas and usability testing are an integral component of WeDo Technologies’
product development cycle and have helped shape RAID7 into the product it is. We
cannot even begin to express our gratitude to the real-world usability testing users
that continuously help us improve the usability of our software, and to Jane Bullock,
Alan Williams, Rob Dickens, Layna Fisch, Tom Powell and Mike Con (our favorite
Personas)!

14. 14
The
Hidden
Genie
In the
“Big Data”
“I believe that the
biggest proof that
Big Data is
transformational
is the effect it will
have on how we perceive
the human interaction.”

15. 15
Let me begin with a disclaimer: Initially I was not convinced that Big Data was going
be a big deal.
I’ve read extensively about it, with lots of very intelligent people insistent that it will.
I don’t hear a lot of dissent. I was just not sure that automatically qualified as “the
truth.”
All great leaps forward have been met with at least some opposition. Not Big Data,
though, so I’ve started wondering why. Is it too soon? Have people not awakened yet
to the Big Data “issues”? Maybe everyone believes it’s just a technology thing, like a
longer-lasting light bulb.
Written by
Rui CruzDelivery Manager
for Eastern Europe,
Middle East and Africa
at WeDo Technologies
06/03/2014
The Hidden Genie In the “Big Data” Lamp

16. 16
In writing this article I didn’t want to come across as a nihilist. I’ve come to believe
that Big Data is the opposite of nihilism; it’s the digital representation of the “what
does it all mean” questions, which is actually closer to existentialism.
I trust that life really has meaning, and I was curious as to what, if anything, the
meaning of Big Data would have meaning. So, with my metaphysical hat on, I went
to work.
As humans tend to do, I carry some status quo bias. This means that we are quite
effective in searching and finding reasons why it shouldn’t work, i.e., “resistance to
change”.
There are loads of reasons, of course. It’s too big. There’s no computer that can work
through it. You can’t find a holistic meaning. It can only work through some form
of sampling. It’s a matter of asking the right questions, as you can’t know the right
answers. The list goes on.
These are very reasonable. However, the world has already decided to go for it. As
with human flight, it may take some time, but it will happen.
The answers may not be what you would expect. I think that the very reason we are
going into Big Data is that we want to find answers that would, at first glance, seem
implausible to find using current methods. We want to find the genie in the Big Data
lamp.
Let’s face it, we’ve looked everywhere else that seemed plausible, and so now we
must look for that last truth that by elimination must be the correct answer, as
Sherlock Holmes would put it.
Elementary? Maybe. Time will tell? Maybe it will. Too many questions, just like with
Big Data.
Is Big Data the realization of determinism? Are we, in the end, predictable? Is
life random, or does it just seem that way? Can our choices be anticipated with
mechanical precision? Is there such a thing as free will?

17. 17
Will Big Data find a use for all those “likes” on Facebook, or mentions on Twitter,
articles on blogs, buying patterns, savings patterns, paying patterns, linking them
to good customers vs. bad customers, good employees vs. bad employees, good
students vs. bad students?
Aren’t we doing that already in some form or another? Will bringing Big Data in allow
for a new era of meaningful employment, buying experiences, and student selection,
or will we be painfully aware of our idiosyncrasies and how they really affect our fit
into our perceived place in the world?
Let’s say that life really is predictable and that we can find models to explain most
things. If so, will Big Data love me? I mean, maybe I won’t get picked as a “good
customer.” Maybe there is really such a thing as a “bad customer” and I’m it. Wouldn’t
that be scary? How would I take it if I were to be discarded a priori from Amazon, for
instance?
What if it were a job? Maybe Big Data will tell you that you’re unemployable. What if
your kid could not get into college because he posted 27 times on Facebook on the
27th of March, and Big Data knows that this type of behavior indicates he will not
fare well academically?
Are we facing a new type of segregation, digital-driven segregation?
I believe that the biggest proof that Big Data is transformational is the effect it will
have on how we perceive the human interaction. Also, the effect it may come to have
on our very lives.

18. 18
The
End of
Roaming
Charges
in the
EU...
Death
or Rebirth
“This is an opportunity
for roaming operators
who will need to have a
strong and innovative
strategy to explore
the new challenges”

19. 19
After many signs and statements from the European Commission that roaming
charges have been a barrier for the consumers travelling within EU, after a sequence
of price caps set over the last few years reducing the roaming tariffs for voice,
text messages and data access, after implementation of bill shock prevention
mechanisms after regulations to introduce new players for roaming (Alternative
Roaming Providers) and local breakout for internet access in roaming (these last
two planned to start at 1st July 2014), after all of this, the ultimate decision has been
made: roaming charges will be abolished in all 28 countries of the EU by December
2015.
The move was announced by European Parliament on 3rd April 2014, following a
resounding vote in favor of the reform; 534 to just 25 votes!
Written by
Mário
RosasProduct Architect
for Roaming &
Interconnect at
WeDo Technologies
11/04/2014
The End of Roaming Charges in the EU...
Death or Rebirth of Roaming?

20. 20
The move includes key changes to neutrality of internet which guarantees that all
internet traffic is treated equally – essentially meaning operators cannot potentiate
their services by blocking or forcing a different speed for providers working on top of
their network. Examples of these services are Skype, Facebook and many others.
Being realistic, this measure is no longer a surprise. Recent actions and comments
from EU lawmakers made it easy to predict and finally the proximity of the European
elections worked as an accelerator for it. Operators for sure were already expecting
it. In fact, we have already seen some operators with “roam like home” offers.
From the consumer point of view, this is clearly a welcome change! Users will
surely feel more comfortable using their mobile phones while travelling in the EU,
particularly when it comes to using data. Seeing this change together with the
increasing mobility of people inside EU, and the exponential evolution of quality
of service for data access with 3G and 4G networks, the industry is expecting a
considerable increase in roaming traffic.
From the operators’ point of view, this means added pressure to already tight profit
margins following the effects of the previous shake up of roaming regulation. During
discussions with regulators, operators warned that abolishing roaming charges
altogether could lead to increased global prices, decrease in the quality of service
due to reduced investment and could ultimately work as a barrier to the evolution of
the sector.
But, if we come back to consumer behavior, we realize that nowadays it is very
common to see users blocking roaming data before traveling to another country,
or buying a local SIM card as soon as they arrive in their destination, or even
guaranteeing a local WIFI connection in order to avoid roaming charges. Together
with the exponential increase of consumer demand for data access through
smartphones and tablets, this has contributed to a considerable revenue loss for
home operators. Interestingly, there seems to be a reluctance for some operators to
face any of these problems head on.
At this level, consumer behavior will surely change as users will use their mobile
devices in the same way as they use them in their home countries. This is an

21. 21
opportunity for roaming operators who will need to have a strong and innovative
strategy to explore the new challenges and guarantee that this traffic remains in their
networks. Operators will also need to monitor user behavior and quality of delivered
service in order to proactively prevent churn; have strong mechanisms to prevent
revenue leakage and roaming fraud that is still significant and with the increase
of traffic will become even more significant; implement a combined strategy for
wholesale, retail and interconnection to minimize costs and maximize revenues; have
a strong focus on deals with roaming partners to potentiate roaming visitors in the
home network and the best wholesale prices when visiting partners networks; and
explore new services based on LTE networks.
There is also the “disseminate factor”… most of the changes to roaming regulations
in the EU have been, little by little, adopted by operators further afield. Although a
global regulation to remove roaming charges is unlikely, some of these measures
may also be adopted through bilateral agreements with players outside of the EU.
This factor may also become a strong marketing mechanism with benefits in terms
of roaming results. At this level, group deals or alliances should be a key factor for
success.
Although there are still some steps to confirm the proposed plans to eradicate
roaming charges in the EU, and space for changes in the rules, a reform in European
telecoms is upon us, and consumers are anxiously waiting for it! The challenge is
now for operators to use it as an opportunity to reinvent the roaming business, and
the first to act will surely have a considerable advantage to the competition.

22. 22
The
Strange
Case
of Dr.
Jekyll
and Mr.
Hyde in
the Big
Data
“I believe the Geist of
Big Data is not volume,
velocity or variety, but
the catalyst for a
Big Data Market.”

23. 23
Big Data is a bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: a combination of extreme feelings and
outcomes; ecstasy and doomsday; the Good and the Evil.
Holding a balanced view of Big Data seems elusive. The reality presents itself as a
cyclothymic roller coaster, often with a gloomy end or a taste of frustration.
But it doesn’t have to be that way.
The path will not be easy or hassle free, but Big Data can be leveraged to bring big
benefits to individuals and organizations alike.
This can only happen if your organization adopts a Big Data’s mind set…
Written by
João
ResendeVice-President
for Product
Development at
WeDo Technologies
24/04/2014
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll
and Mr. Hyde in the Big Data World

24. 24
Act One: Welcome Dr. Jekyll
Synopsis: Dr. Jekyll, a.k.a., Big Data, joins the stage as a heavenly gift for the good of
business and humankind.
Your business welcomes Big Data, which returns the favor by fully optimizing your
valuable and costly assets. It digs on data from all possible sources to accurately
predict demand, maximize network monetization, and ensure best-in-class services.
Big Data fancies your organization, so it raises customer loyalty up to the sky based
on intelligent Big Data analytical models that not only detect customer incidents
before they happen, but also generate meaningful offers that keep customers happy
while greatly increasing their lifetime value.
You invite Big Data for a dinner, hoping for the best, only to find how low your highest
expectations were! Big Data allows your family to shop at the speed of thought,
because providers will ship the goods you want, where and when you want them, at
the very lowest price.
Not finished, Big Data offers humankind all kinds of machine learning devices, able to
communicate among them and with us, rendering most of the boring or complicated
work done. This leaves humans with only the nice and exciting bits, under highly
paid, 10 hours per week “full-time” jobs.
Time and money are no longer at opposite sides of the equation: Big Data provided
society both the money and the time we dreamed of…
…and so, you wake up with someone knocking at your door.
Act Two: Dread Mr. Hyde
Synopsis: Dr. Jekyll disappears mysteriously and is replaced by Mr. Hyde, who quickly
spreads a Big Data wave of destruction throughout society.
You meet Big Data again, but this time in the worst possible way.

25. 25
You find out that your business is being outpaced by your competitor, a much
closer acquaintance of Big Data. Big Data provides your competitor with flawless
products that are precisely targeted to customers when and where they are wanted,
thus commanding higher prices. Both your market share and your profitability are
smashed.
Big Data has also convinced a start-up to be a game changer. This startup is
now smart enough to use all the data magically siphoned out of the “web” – that
cornucopia of valuable, endless data about everybody and everything – to create a
new mashed-up online business that basically puts half of your product portfolio out
of business.
You try to gain the friendship of Big Data through a proxy acquaintance, a regulated
marketing data company that knows Big Data well. You use this company to
provide precision marketing targeting services. However, Big Data crosses you up
by providing irregularly collected customer data, and soon you are experiencing
the wrath of consumer protection organizations. Your business is targeted for an
exemplary punishment, while your brand value collapses and customers defect to
the competition.
Meanwhile, rough nations offer Big Data asylum, and to return the favor Big Data
helps them gather intelligence to compromise communication networks, financial
exchanges, and critical facilities across the globe. First politicians and then the civil
population in general are targeted, and their personal lives and their ideas, mined
through intricate algorithms, are disclosed on the web.
People now live in constant fear of being spotted and having their thoughts, secrets,
and idiosyncrasies revealed.
As a result, people tend to conform, living extremely dull, white-board lives with not
much to lose and nothing else to gain.
The spice and creativity have disappeared altogether.
You are living a Big Data nightmare.

26. 26
Act Three: Harness Big Data
Synopsis: Neither Dr. Jekyll nor Mr. Hyde, you focus your efforts on discovering the true
spirit of Big Data.
Undeterred by this ultimate fight between Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, between Good and
Evil, you know this fight is artificial, though it needs not to be so.
Big Data has no moral qualms, but human beings do. Big Data is available to all who
are willing to exploit it, including businesses, individuals, states, and criminals alike.
So, depending to whom you ask, Big Data may equate to Big Business, Big Brother, or
Big Society!
For sure it will help your business perform faster, better, and cheaper, increasing your
competitive edge… until your competition either catches up or surpasses you.
For sure it will help you understand more quickly and accurately what’s going on
with systems, organizations, customers, and citizens with all the good and the bad
consequences of such insight.
Unilateral, self-serving moves are likely to trigger counterweighting reactions
from combative competitors and adversarial reactions from alienated individuals.
Improvements will be limited at best, with pyrrhic victories and swings of market
share, but no real great sustainable advancements.
This is the common cycle of most major technological advancements, followed by
a strong urge for action, to do it better and faster, before others do the same and cut
you out.
But it’s important to understand the true nature of Big Data and the mindset that
enables you and your organization to full explore its potential.
I believe the Geist of Big Data is not volume, velocity or variety, but the catalyst for a
Big Data Market.

27. 27
A global Data Market where you collaborate, match, and combine data producers,
owners, connectors, transformers, applicators, and consumers.
A global Data Market where you exchange and blend data from different sources and
from different owners into added-value data mash-ups, available for whomever is
willing and capable of taking the most value of them.
This requires a different mindset, a willingness to open up your organization, break
silos, and promote an effective ecosystem where data can be exchanged and used
by those with awesome ideas who are capable of generating and distributing the
most value out of it.
That’s the very genesis of Big Data emergent data handling technologies: free
exchanges of ideas through an open-source, vibrant development community.
This is a difficult path with many obstacles to overcome, from building trust and
transparency (to promote cooperation and creativity), to developing the means to
ensure data liquidity and agile value chains (to allow for effective data exchange and
for fair and efficient retribution schemes).
It is also clear that a more open organization requires a more horizontal approach
to the market, where several layers of entities work together to achieve a more agile
and fluid data supply chain. This raise complexities, vulnerabilities, and risks that
needs to be seriously considered and managed.
More than ever, you need to ensure the resiliency of your organization, for it’s neither
an easy nor hassle free journey, but one that will unlock the true Geist of Big Data!
Eager to harness the true value of Big Data?

28. 28
As-
suring
Assur-
“Today, with the customer
as the centre
of the universe,
anything that affects
any part of their
‘expected’
experience
will result in
negative feedback.”

29. 29
I read with interest a blog written by industry pundit (and MC at our next Worldwide
User Group meeting in May), Tony Poulos, where he felt that the telecoms industry
and service providers in general, were ill prepared for the inevitable onslaught of risk
that digital services would bring.
He was the keynote speaker at the same revenue assurance and fraud prevention
conference I attended in Singapore and what struck me was the audience,
comprising senior people from across the region, was almost exclusively from the
Telco sector.
This raised the question in my mind - why were other industries not present or even
presenting?
We know for a fact that industries like Finance, Utilities and Retailers, in particular,
are very concerned with Revenue Assurance and Fraud, as they have become our
customers.
Written by
Rui
Paiva
Chief Executive
Officer at
WeDo Technologies
05/05/2014
Assuring Assurance

30. 30
Instead of broader experience sharing between industries, we heard about the same
old issues that affect only Telco’s - SIM box fraud, test-call generators and software
tools with the odd case study in support.
When Tony raised the risk issues that new digital services would bring, he was
talking about any Enterprise that was embarking on doing any digital business - and
that means just about everyone/industry.
Even those well-established over-the-top (OTT) players like Amazon, Google and
Apple selling digital apps, music, games, books, etc. etc., don’t seem to be taking risk
seriously.
Or is it that they are making so much money they can afford to lose some here and
there?
That’s how communications services providers (CSPs) used to think but as margins
starting coming under pressure and they realized that all leakage came straight off
their bottom line they started taking it very seriously.
Retailers have moved past the ‘catch the shoplifter’ mentality and now take a more
holistic view of loss through Fraud and leakage from order to sale.
Financial services are now charging fees at transaction level and need almost
the same functionality as Telco’s to track that all of them are being charged and
collected properly.
Credit card issuers take risk very seriously but are still being subjected to massive
losses through card frauds.
Yet it would be fair to say that CSPs are probably the most mature at effecting some
form of Risk Management around what is largely digital business.
Tony felt that perhaps the Telco industry could offer its experience and service
models to the newer digital service providers as a potential revenue stream, but I’m
not sure the others will buy it.

31. 31
That’s because it is not just about buying new systems to monitor Fraud and
manage leakage, even though that is a very important component.
The term ‘Revenue Assurance’ limits the focus to the money chain.
WeDo Technologies coined the term ‘Enterprise Business Assurance’ to emphasize
that the view should move across all the processes that delivered value to the whole
business, including the broader partner ecosystem.
We are now hearing the term ‘Service Assurance’ sneaking in, probably promoted by
the network and old OSS silos that are concerned with assuring that all services are
delivered according to criteria laid down in their design.
Surely all these assurances are part of what should now be simply termed
‘Assurance’, wouldn’t you think?
Today, with the customer as the centre of the universe, anything that affects any part
of their ‘expected’ experience will result in negative feedback.
However, shouldn’t that ‘Customer Assurance’ go hand in hand with all the other
assurances mentioned before, and all working together seamlessly across the whole
ecosystem?
With so many partners, so many digital service providers and OTT players, and so
many points of network interconnection it sound like an impossible task, but it isn’t.
Soon enough, it will be not only expected, but demanded, and those service providers
that prove they can ‘Assure’ the total customer experience and minimize risk, will
definitely be sought out by others in the digital service chain.
The big question is, are we going along the Customer Experience Assurance path as
an extension of the Enterprise Business Assurance in order to minimize effectively
risk to ALL the Stakeholders?

32. 32
The
answer
“Big Data is not
a magic wand that
you wave and data
will organize itself
to give you
the answers
you need.”

33. 33
For all of those who are not fans of Douglas Adams and his fabulous Hitchhiker’s
Guide to the Galaxy, “42” is “The Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the
Universe, and Everything.” It is calculated by an enormous supercomputer over a
period of 7.5 million years. Unfortunately no one knows what the question is.
Big Data is everywhere lately.
The term (and concept) of “Big Data” as we use it today has been around since the
‘90s. It was introduced by John R. Mashey while he was working for SGI. Since then
data has been growing at a tremendous rate, with estimates of 2.5 quintillion bytes
of data being produced daily. This data comes from multiple sources, including not
only the web (social networks, user click stream), but also from industrial sensors,
from the internet of things. The data stream is growing at the same time as cloud
computing is reshaping the IT industry.
Written by
Pedro
Duque
Country Manager
Angola at
WeDo Technologies
16/05/2014
the answer is… 42!

34. 34
Every medium and large company is looking at its humongous data stores, filled with
unstructured information from several sources, and trying to figure out how to get
intelligence from them. And they turn to Big Data tools to find the solution.
Big Data tools are mainly based on “noSQL” solutions originated in the open
source world. Companies understand that information is crucial no matter what
the business is and to take control of their data, they need to engage in data
management. In data management there is some data best suited for noSQL
solutions and other data best suited for traditional data stores. Data with high
volume, variety, and complexity makes noSQL solutions attractive, although a hybrid
solution is usually the best approach.
The cost of using structured data rises with volume and complexity. Big Data is more
cost effective for storage and data access, although knowledge on how to best deal
with Big Data is still scarce and expensive. There is a threshold beyond which users
are willing to give up the mature capabilities of a relational database for the ability to
cost-effectively store and access the data.
Structured data mapped in relational databases based on SQL are the industry
standard with extended roots in IT. Big Data is relatively new, and as a new
technology it presents several pitfalls in how to best approach data and technical
knowledge availability. Learning from data before it is fully organized is completely
different from organizing data after knowing what you want to do with it.
Big Data offers several business advantages. Businesses can rely on Big Data for
speedier processes, to get more data into the analysis, and to handle and relate
complex data.
• A credit card company changes the fraud detection process from hourly micro-
batch analysis into streaming analysis of all data with near real time pattern
detection .
• A web store gets all of its users interaction along with real-time recommendations.
• An industrial company monitors its facilities with sensors checking temperature,
pressure, and power data in order to optimize energy usage.

35. 35
There are also some operational advantages:
• Optimize incumbent database licensing cost as some existing data stores were
adapted to fit Big Data models using a traditional approach (e.g., data stored in
traditional databases with high hardware and software costs when Haddop could
be used over commodity hardware).
• Improve search/reporting performance via partitioning either horizontal or vertical.
• Take advantage of Cloud services due to Big Data’s parallel nature.
• Add new fields to Big Data solutions effortlessly, making it easy to change the
data schema on the fly (e.g., it’s really easy to add a new field into a Haddop store,
whereas adding a new column in a relational database with billions of entries might
take a non-negligible time).
• High availability and better disaster recovery as Big Data solutions have embedded
data replication mechanisms.
But Big Data is no silver bullet.
Going for the Big Data approach is not a decision to make lightly. The open source
nature of most tools, namely Hadoop from Apache Open Source, means that
IT managers won’t get the typical support from software providers for solution
maintenance and operation.
Also for data exploration, data analysts must rely (typically) on some form of
MapReduce techniques as the data access paradigm, which requires a different
mindset for data access that is alien to most developers.
Big Data is not a magic wand that you wave and data will organize itself to give you
the answers you need. Before searching for results, you need to know what you are
looking for. Big Data can help you formulate the questions based on the findings. It is
an iterative process, but “unfortunately” to formulate the right question you still need
to rely on people. Business knowledge is key and you’ll need experts with analytical
skills in order to make sense of all the answers you can get from your Big Data
initiatives.
Otherwise you risk ending up only with “42”.

36. 36
Fraud-
sters:
Who
Are
They?
“Today’s fraudster
is no longer
a Robin Hood”

37. 37
I have seen many things during my almost two decades working in the Fraud
Management industry. I remember Robin Hood-type fraudsters phreaking signaling
payphones for their community to complete calls without depositing coins. Today
I am surprised at the sophistication of fraudsters who use man-in-the-middle
attack between the phone and the SIM card to avoid international roaming rates.
Our industry has evolved tremendously. How can we forget the simple techniques
we used to stop fraudulent calls by programming the switch with a call teardown
for every call that exceeds 55 minutes? Today there are various solutions, and
impressive new technologies and algorithms allow earlier and more effective
detection of fraudulent behavior. There are also at least five specialized global
forums that meet every year to discuss these issues.
Written by
Herbert
GAliano
Business
Development
Director at
WeDo Technologies
29/07/2014
Fraudsters: Who Are They?

38. 38
After all this time I think there are some questions that need answers. Who are these
fraudsters? Are we winning? What has changed? What can happen in the future?
Call Selling Fraud Evolution
The cost of international calls was always a motivation for fraud. In the past making
an international call was very expensive and there was an opportunity for fraudsters
to make money. Fraudsters organized a clandestine operator implementing small
call centers to resell calls to lower cost carriers using third-party phone lines. The
most common methods for reselling calls were cloning fraud, shoulder surfing,
remote programming of call forwarding, and clip on. After years of increasing
popularity for VoIP and a more competitive market for international carriers, the cost
of international calls fell to very low levels, and call selling fraud lost its appeal.
So what happened to the fraudsters? They did not give up on the business of
international calls, instead they started buying a range of numbers within small
countries in the Pacific Islands and began earning money from traffic associated
with those numbers. The more calls received, the more money earned.
This has led to the appearance of new innovative techniques to committed fraud
based on enablers such as the usage of fake IDs. International roaming fraud, PBX
Hacking Fraud, Wangiri Fraud, Hijacking Number Fraud, Arbitrage Fraud and others
evolving from the old Call Selling Fraud to the new IRSF (International Revenue Share
Fraud). These are good examples on how the fraudsters have changed their modus
operandi to gain money. Moreover today’s fraudsters openly advertise the reward
payment and a percentage of revenues for their frauds schemes. Being in the field as
I am, you have to agree with CFCA conclusions… IRSF is the elephant in the room.
Bypass Fraud Evolution
The cost of interconnection between operators became another big draw for the
fraudster, leading to the emergence of Bypass Fraud. Before the world of VoIP, traffic
calls between countries mainly utilized maritime wire, optical fiber and satellite,

39. 39
resulting in high interconnection costs. Fraudsters saw an opportunity in buying
voice traffic carriers and delivering by cheaper means such as special channels
VSAT (Very-small-aperture terminal) and leased lines. This made it illegal to divert
international traffic generally to local fixed lines operator. I remember operators using
detection techniques such as aerial surveys to search for VSAT antennas on the
roofs of homes.
Today, many years later, we still have the cost of interconnection, but with more than
5 billion mobile phones, there is more traffic than ever. What we see now is the same
type of fraud, but is has drastically evolved. There are hundreds of micro-operators
worldwide illegally buying and selling call traffic, both voice and data, every day using
sophisticated remotely controlled SIM BOXs. Fraudsters can place up to 20,000
SIM cards in these devices to simulate human behavior, making it difficult to detect
this fraud. The volume of new replacement SIM cards is so immediate that fraud
is difficult to stop. The result? Fraudsters are among some of the most creative
creatures on earth and bypass evolved to new variations such as FAS (False Answer
Supervision) Fraud, or Skin-SIM Card Fraud for international roaming.
Subscription Fraud Evolution
One type of fraud that has continued to exist without much change is Subscription
Fraud, as the techniques of document forgery, impersonation and identity theft
ultimately remain the same. There will always be fraudsters who use third parties
to commit their crimes (people selling their identities or not imported by a debt).
Subscription Fraud will continue to exist for the foreseeable future because of the
ease of execution, and because it serves as a gateway to other types of fraud.
Previously, fraudsters committing Subscription Fraud had to have a line that could
facilitate the resale of calling and other services (roaming, data, broadband, etc.) or
to deliver calls for bypass. Today Subscription Fraud is facilitated by dealers and
points to the resale of equipment, especially as operators offering a high subsidy
become a lucrative business for fraudsters.

40. 40
The Future
Today’s fraudster is no longer a Robin Hood. It is not the housewife who fails to use
the calls charged under the tariff. It is not the student stealing Wi-Fi from his dorm
neighbor, nor the employee that sometimes makes more calls than are allowed
from a company phone. Operators must recognize that true fraud scammers are
professionals who continue driving highly lucrative business and want to maintain
their business for long time.
Our initial question was, “Who are these fraudsters?” We can conclude that we still
face the same enemy as we did two decades ago; the fraudster and the type of
fraud remains the same. What has changed are the methods used to perpetrate
fraud. These have become more complex. I can only imagine the evolution that
these fraudsters will make in the future when we jump to 50 billion connected
devices M2M using malwares infecting thousands of devices or introducing artificial
intelligence algorithms in their SIM Box to void our controls.
The battle must continue, because fraud has become an entire industry that is
bleeding the operators. It is up to us, suppliers, to continue to create and deliver
innovative solutions that help operators to fence these fraudsters, detecting fraud
early and minimizing losses. Operators and management professionals should be
aware that fraud has not been eradicated and that there is still much work to do.

41. 41
CreatedbyLuisPrado•NounProject
“...There will
always be
fraudsters
who use third parties
to commit their crimes...”

42. 42
Have
Fun,
Satisfy
Cus-
tomers,
Make
“We shouldn’t be
afraid to state our
mission like it is,
and especially to our
customers, because we
are a company that wants
and was created to be
long-standing.“

43. 43
I remember like it was yesterday. The year was 2000 and it was a sunny fall
afternoon. Rui Paiva and I were in a hotel room near our office, close to my favorite
football team, Sporting Clube de Portugal stadium and also very close to Lisbon
airport. We were very far from guessing that this location would be so critical to
our business, that we would spend so much time in similar places across multiple
countries and that a great portion of our expenses would be directed to travel
agencies and airline companies.
That day’s to do list consisted of writing one new chapter of our White Book(1)
and come to a conclusion on what would be WeDo Technologies’ mission
statement. After tearing down several sheets of paper, we decided to go simple and
cut to the essence. The title of this article was the outcome of that afternoon’s work.
It remains one of the things that has not changed, even throughout our 14 fantastic
Written by
Fernando
VideiraChief Financial
Officer at
WeDo Technologies
24/11/2014
Have Fun, Satisfy Customers, Make Money

44. 44
years of adventure, and we still think portrays WeDo Technologies’ heart and soul.
We are a technological company, a software company, but we are mostly a people
company, with a large number of dedicated employees that were and will be the
basis of all the success we’ve been showing in the past few years.
It doesn’t make sense to be at a company where you are not Having Fun in working.
If you are not comfortable, happy and motivated, you will not have success in what
you put your mind to. You will not be innovative, professional and dedicated. This is
the basis for all, and if this is accomplished, the following steps will come naturally.
We, of course, live to Satisfy Customers and we try to bring our culture, our way of
working, our processes and our methodologies, our knowledge to everything we
do. By doing so, we will be able to perform adequately and, if possible, exceed our
customer’s expectations. Consequently we will have a long-standing relationship
that will be mutually beneficial.
We of course need to deliver value to our customers, but we also need to Make
Money. Money to fulfill all our obligations to employees, suppliers and all interested
stakeholders and shareholders.
We shouldn’t be afraid to state our mission like it is, and especially to our customers,
because we are a company that wants and was created to be long-standing. A
company that needs to be profitable to continue to grow, to invest in product
innovation, training, knowledge and is financially stable to support our customers for
the longest period possible and meet their present and future needs.
I believe the infographic below clearly shows that a large part of our mission
principles are being accomplished.
We have been satisfying our customers and the best indicator is the number of
customers we’ve obtained in these 14 years. I should also mention that a large
proportion of them have been our customers for extended periods of time, varying
from 5 to 10 years, or from inception in some special cases.
We’ve been making money and the best indicator is our revenue numbers, specially
the profitability indicators. We are proud to state that we’ve never had negative

45. 45

46. 46
“We are a
technological company,
a software company,
but we are mostly
a people company,...”
CreatedbyLuisPrado•NounProject

47. 47
EBITDA numbers in our 14 years of existence. It’s a corner stone of our principles
and based on clear procedures and methodologies that are in the White Book1
,
written a few months before we had even started the company.
Of course, they evolve and are fine-tuned based on experience and also inputs from
our customers and remaining stakeholders. We’ve also learned from our mistakes.
We had the courage to face them and create processes that allow us not to repeat
errors and improve our software and delivery capabilities.
We’ve therefore built a company that is solid and consistent in all of its financial
indicators. We are a company, that:
• Looks at risk seriously. We have the conscience that by avoiding and treating them
will ensure its survival and the relationships with its customers.
• Honors all its commitments, and whose financial strength is key to fulfilling them.
• Is here to stay and continue to grow, to be profitable and continue to serve its
customers.
• Finally, I believe that we are also having fun. I believe that if not, the above wouldn’t
be possible to achieve.
A special thank you to all WeDo Technologies’ customers and employees for making
this possible.
1
The White Book is an internal document that includes WeDo Technologies goals, business processes and the most relevant
facts about the company. It’s used as a business guideline for the company and all employees.

48. 48
“”... if operators
encourage customers
to utilise this type
of service, trust
must be at the
forefront of
the customer’s
thoughts.”
Mobile
Money:
No Pain,

49. 49
With the recently released Apple Pay, the media hype surrounding mobile payments
and mobile wallets has reached “banked” countries. It may sound like a great new
idea for some, but for the 200 million people already using similar services for some
years (most of them in “unbanked” countries), it looks obvious.
About 10 years ago some mobile operators discovered a new business opportunity
providing basic financial services to unbanked people that were unable to access
traditional financial institutions, namely banks. With mobile penetration growing in
every market, unbanked people were attracted by the possibility of using their mobile
phone to easily access savings accounts, bill payments and money remittances.
Over the years the diversity of available services increased, as did the actors involved
in them.
Written by
Luís
BrásProfessional Services
Manager - Fraud
at WeDo Technologies
04/12/2014
Mobile Money: No Pain, No Gain ?

50. 50
Nowadays there are more than 250 operators in almost 100 countries around the
world providing these type of services, and more than 100 operators are planning its
deployment in a near future.
Financial services, due to their lucrative nature, are susceptible to several types of
risks. Most traditional financial institutions manage these risks well, monitoring
operations involving their customers in accordance with national and international
banking agency regulations. Nevertheless, some cases of failure to monitor and
report transactions to authorities cause banks huge costs.
It is common to occasionally read news about banks that are fined for violating
money laundering laws. Usually those fines vary between a couple of millions and
sometimes billions of dollars. However, small fines do not make the news, and banks
are very aware of that.
However, mobile operators neither think nor operate like banks.
When deploying their commercial offering, many operators around the world were
not completely thorough in assessing fraud and security risks; assessing solution
architectural designs for technical controls; evaluating the effectiveness of planned
controls and initiatives from technical, people and process perspectives; determining
the required controls for securing and assuring the service; and considering
regulatory and anti-money laundering requirements.
The reality is that it’s the customer’s money that matters, and if operators encourage
customers to utilise this type of service, trust must be at the forefront of the
customer’s thoughts.
Some stakeholders have a different and more relevant role in the business than
previously existed in traditional communication services. The agents act like
bank branches for the money cash-ins and cash-outs, benefiting from transaction
commissions. Some operators’ internal staff have access to customer account data,
and the temptation and opportunity to commit illicit actions for personal benefit is
higher than ever.

51. 51
Mobile financial services generate additional gains on the operator’s balance sheet,
but they also bring new challenges that can harshly damage profitability, as well as
the public image and reputability of the operator.
Currently, most operators are not in a position to assure the following examples of
business controls:
• Transaction accuracy/integrity between the switches and mobile money platform
• Transaction legality
• Customer profiling and behaviour
• Agent profiling
• Anti-money laundering
• Counter terrorist financing
Fraudsters began using these services to launder money, some of them managing
very creative schemes using money remittances and expense mobile equipment’s
acquisitions that are later traded in different markets. Phone credits or airtime are
used by the criminals as tender for payment.
Also, terrorists and sanctioned entities/individuals find these services useful
for financing. This occurs because many countries still lack effectual rules and
regulations for these services and because these transfers of value occur outside of
the traditional financial system and off the radar of the operators.
The agents that are involved in many of the transactions made across the chain
quickly found that they could accelerate their revenues (sometimes with the
collusion of the customers) splitting a cash-in operation into several transactions,
generating false round-trip transactions and false activations through the identities
usurpation, among others.
An operators’ internal staff with access to customer account data may be able to
perform very low-value transactions to other accounts, sometimes inactive and
suspended accounts that are forgotten or ignored to be monitored in a frequent way.
Those accounts can be later drained and the persons involved can take benefit of
that money.

52. 52
Revenue assurance and fraud management departments, with the collaboration
of a dedicated system, can play a significant role in avoiding undesired losses and
protecting the trust users must have in the services. Namely they can:
• Guarantee customer transactions are correctly accounted
• Prevent transactions made to/from watch-listed individuals
• Detect collusion between customers and agents for commissions augmentation
• Analyse customer behaviour deviations due to account takeovers
• Resolve fraud and non-compliance cases
• Learn from the investigations and results achieved for the continuous control
improvements
Mobile financial services have changed many lives, allowing millions of people to
use banking services for the very first time, and to better manage and secure their
money. Hundreds of operators have been able to add value to their offering, acting as
communications-as-a-service providers, and improving customer brand recognition,
contributing for customer loyalty.
Are you willing to put this important part of your business at risk?

53. 53
“Phone credits
or airtime are used by
the criminals as tender
for payment.”
CreatedbyBennyForsberg•NounProject

54. 54
Busi-
ness
Sen-
sors
to
monitor
Enterprise
Retail
Business control
functions have a role
in mobilizing the
organization towards
prevention and
corrective action.

55. 55
How many sensors does your car have? Fuel sensors, temperature, speed, tire-
pressure, crash, and driver assistance sensors - all in place? Do you need all of
those? You didn’t need them in the old days. The pace of life has changed, and the
obligation to safeguard passengers and all around you drives the need.
What level of risk are you prepared to take with your business? How many Business
Sensors does an enterprise Retail organization need? It obviously depends on the
scale of the operation, the pace of change, innovation, and the level of sophistication.
Large scale retail operations rely on thousands of people, hundreds of processes,
operating procedures and systems to operate efficiently. Systems and organizational
structures operate in silos – Store Operations, Online Retail, Buying, Supply Chain
Written by
ANA
CunhaBusiness Development
Manager for Retail
at WeDo Technologies
02/01/2014
Business Sensors to monitor Enterprise
Retail operations

56. 56
and Logistics. Billions of transactions take place every day. Can the Finance and
Administration functions really control all factors potentially causing profit erosion?
Retail systems architectures are complex. Systems handle most transactions
correctly, when they follow the expected pattern. Not all transactions are good
though. Profits erode through inefficiencies and loss. So what could go wrong?
Errors occur due to lack of training. Store people have limited visibility into the end-
to-end process and the implications of their actions to handle all situations as best
as they can - and they make mistakes. A mistake repeated many times can lead to
significant loss.
Fraud is an issue. As associates discover vulnerabilities in the system, they use
them to their advantage. Internal fraud is known to account for a greater proportion
of loss in Retail. External threats are on the rise as organized crime groups act with
incredibly sophisticated schemes.
Changes in systems require comprehensive regression testing across multiple
systems considering the end-to-end process. Full regression testing is expensive,
so there is compromise and resulting data integrity issues impact the operation.
But change in systems and processes are a constant when you take into account
Regulatory compliance, legal and fiscal demands, and business innovation,
especially with the customer proposition - promotions, loyalty schemes, multi-
channel retail, payment methods, etc.
So back to the question: How many Business Sensors does a Retail organization
need? Large scale retail operations can have over a hundred Business Sensors.
These control loss with metrics around shrinkage, debits and credits, data integrity
across systems, productivity, and costs, just to name a few. Business sensors are
independent of core systems. They support Business Control, Audit, and Fraud
Prevention functions in the business. The goal is to monitor and manage exceptions.
Business Control systems establish a risk profile for known threats based on the
measurable impact and frequency or likelihood of occurrences.

57. 57
Operational structures have a PL and a vested interest in limiting their exposure
to fraud and error. But realistically, how much attention can they dedicate to this
matter? Attention dedicated to core processes of selling and buying is never enough.
Operational structures rely on control functions to detect exceptions and drive
corrective action.
To resolve exceptions, a cross-functional approach is required. Business control
functions have a role in mobilizing the organization towards prevention and
corrective action.
How robust is your Enterprise Business Assurance strategy? How sophisticated is
your system to combat inefficiency and profit erosion across the business? Schedule
a meeting with a WeDo Technologies retail expert. We can offer you an informed
perspective on this matter.

58. 58
How
can
we lose
a plane
if we
have
“ ...world’s capability
to correlate and process the
enormous amount of data
required, including satellite
data, is well bellow
world’s expectations...”

59. 59
The mysterious disappearance of flight MH370 puzzled the world, bringing deep
sadness and grief to the hearts of many people across the world and especially to
the relatives and friends of the passengers and crew.
In WeDo Technologies we all fly very frequently, and in the past few years I’ve been
flying mostly with Malaysia Airlines. Because of this I have found myself following
news of the search obsessively as it progresses. While I’m writing this article, efforts
are being made to find debris sighted by satellite in the South Indian Ocean that
might, just might, be from the missing plane.
As passenger I enjoy flying Malaysia Airlines. Although it isn’t a fancy airline, I must
say that I’ve found myself welcomed and well cared for while on its flights, and I have
never felt that security of any kind had been compromised. But, as often happens in
Written by
Miguel
LopesBusiness Development
Manager
at WeDo Technologies
27/03/2014
How can we lose a plane if we have Big Data?

60. 60
business and life, circumstances bring the unexpected upon us, and unfortunately in
the aviation business it usually has a toll on human lives. We still hope to find all well,
but the prospects looks grim at this moment.
Few would expect that one of the most sophisticated commercial planes could
vanish from the sky with almost no trace. In our industry and in our own lives we are
heading towards being connected at all times through technology that has changed
the way we learn, work, socialize and play.
Amazing works of engineering, modern planes use some of the most sophisticated
technologies to communicate. However, this time that communication was stopped,
and the world fell powerless to explain where it is and how it failed.
Many nations have combined all of their available resources in a large scale search
and recover operation, including some resources we were not even aware existed.
But even so, it represented a monumental task that, despite best efforts, has proven
to be slow for a constantly connected society like ours.
Unfortunately it has also become clear that world’s capability to correlate and
process the enormous amount of data required, including satellite data, is well below
world’s expectations especially when something as unexpected as this happens.
Modern aviation equipment has grown remarkably in sophistication, bristling with
sensors that can monitor almost every aspect of machine performance.
Gus Hunt, the chief technology officer of the CIA, once said at a Big Data conference,
“The value of any piece of information is only known when you can connect it with
something else that arrives at a future point in time.” Big Data is very much like
the sensors mentioned above. Yes, they help us avoid occasional surprises and
disturbances and, perhaps, even avoid some accidents. But it can also blind us to
the fact that the problem at hand requires a more radical approach. As an adhesive
bandages, Big Data is excellent. But adhesive bandages are useless when the patient
needs chemotherapy.

61. 61
As in the search for the MH370, blending Big Data information from disparate data
sources is a key part of the analytical process. Having the tools to connect the
dots allows you to verify that the way you’re blending is data accurate and gives a
meaning to all the data sources available. This is the key to finding the needle in the
haystack.
The question now is, “Is Big Data really so big? Or are we not prepared to take
advantage of it?”
Sadly, we are all still unprepared to do better for flight MH370. Let’s hope one day we
all learn what happened and that this knowledge can be used to build a better world.

62. 62
Apple,
will you
do it
again?
“... Service Providers
are once again
facing the same
challenges they’ve
faced by the time of
the arrival of Apple’s
Marketplace.”

63. 63
Visa, MasterCard and American Express have been ruling the payment industry for
decades with their plastic credit cards, but things are beginning to change in our digital
age and they have all begun to find new ways of growing their business. Similar to
what happened when traditional wireless voice calls were challenged by Skype, new
payment services have been created by a new generation of entrepreneurs. While
many mobile payment systems haven’t been able to make many inroads so far, such
as Google Wallet, a few have been somewhat revolutionary. For example, Jack Dorsey
created Square, which has made it easy for small business to offer credit card services,
and Elon Musk built PayPal into what it is today.
Because Square could potentially help Visa and other card companies by bringing
plastic transactions to markets that have historically been underserved, Visa
Written by
José
XavierVice President
for North America
Caribbean region
at WeDo Technologies
16/10/2014
Apple, will you do it again?

64. 64
invested heavily in them. In 2011, over 27 million businesses didn’t accept Visa and
MasterCard. Square helped them capture this untapped market. Additionally, Visa
had years of experience it could share with Square, including helping to allay some of
the security flaw allegations that have been thrown at Square in the past.
Security, in fact, is really the space where Service Providers can add value. Since
mobile payments were introduced, Service Providers have been promoting their
capability to extend security to the mobile payment industry. ATT, T-Mobile and
Verizon paired up to create their own mobile wallet called Softcard, and others
started to develop partnerships in the banking and payment space that would allow
them to monetize the mobile payment business, primarily in emerging markets.
Some of them, like Safaricom with their M-Pesa service, delved further into the value
chain and provided some of the capacities that you would usually associate with
banks.
The future was becoming brighter for Service Providers and their role in expanding
their markets in the financial space. Moreover, OTT players become partners
somehow, and not enemies; exploring each other’s synergies to gain market share.
Then, just when things were looking brighter for the CSPs and their ability to add
additional value to the mobile ecosystem, Apple comes and will push to do it again.
They’ve redefined how music is consumed, they’ve redefined the app marketplace
and of course the smartphone itself. Now they have set their sights on the mobile
payment space with Apple Pay, which launches at the end of October. While it’s still
too early to check whether it´s going to be the success that market analysts are
anticipating to be, Service Providers are once again facing the same challenges
they´ve faced by the time of the arrival of Apple´s Marketplace.
Once again, the same challenges for CSP´s are around the corner. Business as usual
for them, the same quest to find new ways to become more than just a dumb pipe is
key to keep their vital role in the future digital world.

65. 65
CreatedbyAntonioViciénFaure•NounProject
“Security, in fact, is
really the space where
Service Providers
can add value.”

66. 66
Intelli-
gence
is the
New “Ideas
+Action
=Change”

67. 67
Have you ever tried searching on Google for Business Intelligence, Market
Intelligence, Data Intelligence, Customer Intelligence, etc.? You will get millions of
pages of results, a sea of different solutions, products, and providers. Are we really in
the Age of Intelligence?
The high penetration levels (above 100% in some markets), insufficient impact of
low-price strategies, and increase in customer sophistication is forcing business to
change the way of thinking and become “Intelligence” driven.
Business teams made a 180 degree turn, and instead of targeting only market
share (new customers), they began to increase their focus on revenue share (same
customers, more revenues). They didn’t stop looking at the prospect market and
having a growth strategy, but Fidelization/Retention finally got some attention.
Written by
Carla
Cardoso
Project Manager for
Advanced Analytic at
WeDo Technologies
30/06/2014
Intelligence is the New Black

68. 68
Companies have begun to invest in managing (creating, exploring, retaining, etc.)
customer value, and for that they have the help of business and technological
consulting providers of Intelligence solutions/products. The variety of products/
solutions to manage customer value is highly extensive and can include some of the
following areas:
• Behavior Segmentation
• Present and Future Value
• Credit Scoring
• Churn Prediction
• Default Prediction
• Fidelization Programs
• Next Best Offer (NBO)
• Social Network Analysis
• Campaign Management
The benefit of any of the above solutions is unquestionable. They generate great
insight into customer needs, preferences, potential, risk, influence, etc., and this
is essential to customer value strategy. The problem lies not with the conceptual
value of the products/solution, but with the company’s ability to transform all of this
insight in actual value. That is a totally different question.
The creativity of Business Analysts, Data Analysts, and now Data Scientists is
unlimited, sometimes reminiscent of the Twilight Zone. This makes it very difficult
for companies to keep up with the implementation of their new ideas, since creation
(ideas) and implementation (action) are tasks that run in completely different gears.
The journey of changing from “the way things always were” and embracing this new
“Intelligence” is long and hard, and therefore companies should strive to start out on
the right foot. The first step is to answer some key questions:
• What is your main objective?
• How will success be measure?
• What are the milestones?

69. 69
• What impacts are expected and what importance do they have?
• Are the initial requirements guaranteed (hardware, software, customer information,
human resources, etc.), or is shopping necessary?
• Which processes will be impacted?
• Which teams will be impacted?
• How will Change Management be addressed?
• How much will be invest?
These are difficult, but essential, questions to answer. Without a destination, every
journey leads to disaster!
With this in mind, Analytical Business Solutions should offer both an end-to-end
solution and a staged implementation.
An end-to-end solution (from Data Quality Audit to Campaign Impact Evaluation)
ensures that no detail is forgotten or underestimated, that consistency is
guaranteed, and that the Data to Information to Knowledge flow is optimized.
A staged implementation integrates the company’s roadmap with the
implementation plan definition, linking milestones and the company’s prior
objectives, focusing on each stage, and moving from more standard, out-of-the-box
solutions to state-of-the-art intelligence.
“Intelligence” might be the new Black, but pay attention. Don’t just follow a trend,
make an intelligent choice.

70. 70
Fraud
Has
Strength
in
“As soon as one number
is identified and blocked
another thousand could
appear. It’s a never-
ending Task.”

71. 71
Fraud is one of those things that you don’t hear much about these days. Other less
ominous online crimes like hacking and identity theft seem to get a lot more press.
Yet fraud continues to plague all communications service providers around the
world.
Those perpetrating fraud are constantly looking for weaknesses in systems and
expose them, focused in finding different ways of committing their crimes and
testing different targets in their quest for success.
When they find these they don’t tell the world to prove how clever they are, they
simply expose the weakness to others willing to pay for the service, even though
those buying may not be aware that the activity is fraudulent.
h
Written by
Raul
AzevedoProduct
Development
Director at
WeDo Technologies
Head of TM Forum’s
Fraud Group
23/06/2014
Fraud Has Strength in Numbers

72. 72
SIM box fraud is the one we hear most about amongst telcos and even though easy
to spot the sheer volume of activity makes it difficult to close down.
Reports show that mobile operators and governments are losing up to US$150
million every year to SIM box fraudsters alone who illegally terminate international
calls as local calls.
As soon as one number is identified and blocked another thousand could appear. It’s
a never-ending task.
Long distance and overseas calls have long been the preferred target, despite the
uptake of low or no cost voice services like Skype.
But with content and digital service providers now offering so many valuable
converged and digital services online they are become increasingly popular targets.
While it is impossible to quantify the telecoms fraud that is happening, the last
industry report from Juniper Research in 2011 estimated it to be in excess of €43.5
billion, operators remain constantly vigilant hoping to track it down before it costs
them too much in lost revenue.
The key focus these days is to look at not simply discovering and exposing fraud
after it happens but to try and prevent it happening in the first place.
Proactively looking for patterns exposed in previous frauds, utilizing big data and
even referring to external sources for data are part of the new arsenal.
Some operators, like Telecom Italia, have discovered patterns of fraudulent activity in
certain demographic areas where customers live and they heighten their awareness
and system alarms to match.
Despite countless checks made before new services are released, fraudsters will
inevitably find a way to take advantage if the target can earn them enough revenue
and go for as long as possible without being exposed.

73. 73
A father and son team in Australia was recently caught selling 10,000 unauthorised
set-top boxes programmed to provide access to stolen pay TV channels through an
illegal system that used the internet to ‘hack’ into encoded broadcasts.
Despite the maturity of fraud detection and resolution systems the lack of maturity
in the new digital services market is proving to be a happy hunting ground for
fraudsters, ever quick to capitalize.
Although there are some countries where cooperation between service providers in
sharing fraud activities is condoned, in others it is deemed illegal.
TUFF in the UK strives to identify and define fraud methods and form strategic
alliances with consumer bodies and intermediate service providers. TMForum Fraud
Group, GSMA FF and FIINA, foster this type of collaboration at a global scale.
My own company, WeDo Technologies, has suggested feeding fraud incidents
anonymously from its many installed systems to a central repository that could
instantly update other systems or be accessed by service providers.
This would be an ideal way to combat fraudsters that simply move their activities
from one place to another, seemingly one step ahead of detection and the law.
Until we can get a grip on how serious fraud has become and enterprises stop being
in denial, we will not be able to put up a viable joint defence.
After all, there is strength in numbers, ask the fraudsters themselves.

74. 74
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