Two successful implementations of WeDo Soft´s RAID - Revenue assurance solution - selected finalists of the world billing awards

Category: Best Revenue Assurance Project
Lisbon, May 16, 2006 - WeDo Soft, a leading provider of software solutions for the communications & media markets, has been selected as a finalist for The World Billing Awards (IIR), the most prestigious telecommunications award, for the category of Best Revenue Assurance Project for the implementation of its RAID - Revenue Assurance Solution.

The projects nominated were carried out during 2005 and involved the implementation of RAID - WeDo Soft's revenue assurance solution - in Vimpelcom (Russia) and Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa ERA (Poland).

"We feel honoured and proud about the two implementations of RAID (our RA solution) being nominated as a finalist for the 'World Billing Awards," said Rui Paiva, CEO of WeDo Soft. "These nominations, and the already vast community of customers, demonstrate that RAID is today the preferred technology of telecommunications operators to support and enhance their revenue assurance activities," he added.

RA Projects nominated:

The Switch-to-Bill Monitoring System (RAID) implementation project

VimpelCom (NYSE: VIP) is a leading provider of telecommunications services in Russia and Kazakhstan. The Company operates under the 'Beeline' brand in Russia and "Beeline", 'K-mobile' and 'EXCESS' brands in Kazakhstan (www.beeline.ru). Vimpelcom is one of the largest GSM operators in Europe and the rest of the world, counting today more than 48 million subscribers. In 2005, Vimpelcom took a major step forward in their revenue assurance strategy by going for the implementation of an automated switch-to-bill monitoring system. Vimpelcom selected two major players to deliver this system, WeDo Soft and Accenture. The companies' joint skills together with RAID - Revenue Assurance Solution - make this one of the most successful RA projects worldwide. The results obtained are very impressive and prove undoubtedly the importance of end-to-end revenue assurance to improve operators' bottom-line.

The Revenue Assurance System (RAID) implementation project

Polska Telefonia Cyfrowa (PTC) Sp. z o.o., branded as Era (www.era.pl) and Heyah, an affiliate of T-Mobile Deutschland GmbH, is Poland's largest wireless operator and provider of nationwide dual band GSM 900 and 1800 services, and a UMTS license holder. PTC, operating under the brands ERA and Heyah, is the largest wireless operator in Poland and one of the biggest in Central & Eastern Europe, counting today more than 10 million subscribers. In 2005, PTC initiated the implementation of an automated tool for revenue assurance to enhance data quality and business processes that improves profits, revenues and/or cash flows. The implementation of the system followed careful assessment on leakage causes and proves undoubtedly the importance of end-to-end revenue assurance for improving PTC's bottom-line. PTC selected WeDo Soft's practices and RAID (Revenue Assurance Solution) to make this one of the most complete RA systems worldwide. The system implemented addresses Customer Data Reconciliation, CDR Reconciliation, CDR Matching and CDR Detailed Analysis.

The chosen solution - RAID

RAID - Revenue Assurance Solution - is a proven, easy-to-use and flexible solution to effectively automate, manage and grow your end-to-end Revenue Assurance processes.

RAID collects customer and service data from a variety of OSS and BSS making it possible to process and validate large volumes of data in almost any format, including Fixed, Mobile, IP and 3G networks.

Through an easy-to-use RA Analyst interface the revenue assurance team can detect and analyse leakage using KPI's, alarms, reports and manage the preventive and corrective activities using a workflow engine.

RAID also allows to easily design, configure and change revenue assurance processes using a drag & drop interface and is able to address every change in the business and technological environment.

Largest Mobile Operator in Thailand selects Revenue Assurance Solution from WeDo Soft

London, March, 27th 2006 - WeDo Soft, a leading provider of software solutions for the communications & media markets, announces today their partnership with AIS, a Thai cellular service provider, who has chosen to integrate RAID, the company's Revenue Assurance Solution.

Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) is the largest cellular service provider in Thailand with almost a 55% subscriber market share, meaning more than 16 million customers.

AIS wanted to implement automated, integrated, end-to-end Revenue Assurance processes, which included switch-to-bill monitoring, customer data reconciliation and individual events control. After a careful selection process with major RA tools providers, AIS selected RAID from WeDo Soft as it's proven, easy-to-use, flexible solution which effectively automates, manages and improves end-to-end Revenue Assurance processes.

RAID - Revenue Assurance Solution - helps maintain the consistency and coherency between BSS, OSS and network systems, and therefore allows AIS to control revenue leakages and maximise the company's revenue.

"We believe that RA is a complex area requiring expertise and intimate understanding of the operators' environment and revenue leakage issues. After seeing the flexibility, scalability and impressive customer base of RAID, Revenue Assurance, from WeDo Soft, we are confident that it will be a powerful help in accomplishing our goals." said Mrs. Arpattra Sringkarrinkul, Executive Vice President - Solutions of AIS.

João Faísca, Sales & Marketing Director at WeDo Soft added, "We are delighted that RAID was selected by such a prominent telecommunications operator in Asia. Once again a major operator recognizes our commitment and capability towards delivering the most effective Revenue Assurance solution to the market. RAID is extremely flexible, capable of working in different business and technological environments, as well as dealing with very large processing volumes."

About RAID

RAID is a proven, easy-to-use, flexible solution which effectively automates, manages and develops your end-to-end Revenue Assurance processes.

RAID is an efficient tool for any wireline and wireless telecom operator worldwide that wishes to terminate revenue loss due to data inconsistencies between their different systems, such as network components, operational systems and business support systems. RAID allows the definition and implementation of Revenue Assurance processes most appropriate to each technological infrastructure and business requirement, saving operators' effort on time-consuming tasks and allowing them to dedicate all resources to performing root cause analysis.

About WeDo Soft

WeDo Soft, a division of WeDo Consulting, is a leading provider of software solutions for the communications & media markets. With an international presence in Portugal, Spain, Germany, UK, France and Brazil, WeDo Soft's clients include Orange, Vodafone, Telefónica, Amena, France Telecom, PTC Era GSM, Vimpelcom/Beeline, Optimus, Oi, Telemar, Amena, Brasil Telecom, Oni, etc. For more information, please visit the company's web site at www.wedosoft.com

About AIS

Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS) or "ADVANC" is the largest cellular service provider in Thailand with a subscriber market share of nearly 55%. The company is the only operator in Thailand that operates GSM dual band network in 900 MHZ under the built transfer operate (BTO) concession from the Telephone Organization of Thailand (TOT) and 1800 MHZ under built transfer operate (BTO) under from the Communication Authority of Thailand (CAT). As of December 2004, AIS had a registered capital of THB 5.0 billion with a paid-up capital of THB 2.945 billion. AIS is owned by Shin Corporation Plc (SHIN) and SingTel Strategic Investments, which currently have a 42.82% and 19.25 % stake in the Company, respectively.

Fewer companies say that Debt is rising

"Only 10% of communication companies say that debt is rising, compared to 36% last year. Just 60% say that they have paid more attention to credit management in the last year (the figure was 90% last time)", but 100% have put more effort into debt management (the same as last time)." These are some of the findings of SECOR Consulting's last comprehensive Global Communications Industry Credit and Debt Management survey. Much has changed since then with new services coming on stream and fast rising consumer debt.

If you would like to take part in the 2006 survey to find out how things have changed in this all important business area please respond to the questionnaire (download here) 2006CommsSurvey.pdf and you will get the final report for free!

 The SECOR website is at www.secorconsulting.com