Competency Profiling of One Person

Kiran.N.S D10008

Company Overview: DU

Emirates Integrated Telecommunications Company PJSC (trading under its brand name Du,) is an integrated service provider offering voice, data, video and content services over fixed and mobile networks to residential and business customers across the UAE. Activities are focused across three customer segments: Consumer: Focusing on the individuals and households with offerings of voice (mobile and fixed), data (Content and Internet), and Video (Pay TV) services Enterprise: Concentrating on small to very large corporations and government agencies with fixed and mobile offerings (voice, data) Carrier: Providing carrier and wholesale services to international operators, multinational corporations and carriers.

INTERVIEW OF Venki Ramakrishnan

Briefly introduce yourself? I am Venki Ramakrishnan working in DU as revenue assurance specialist.I am a post graduate in statistics and have got 12 years of experience in Telecommunication industry.In my tenure of 12 years I have worked in India,Oman,Saudi Arabia and Dubai.Currently working in DU in Dubai.Its the second telecom operator in Dubai. How many years with DU? I have been working with DU for past 4 years. Tell us how do u spent a typical work day? I begin my work checking my emails and making a list of activities that have to be completed on that day.I prioratise my pending work and the activities that are supposed to be done on the particular day. Easy works are completed fast before office get busy with co-workers.Once the office hour starts,ie 9.00 AM,first activity is to check all audits are completed and there are no exceptions/variances.Later the remainig work is completed as per the plan.There may be urgent work which would come in between from my manager or from other departments,which will need to be completed.If the planned activities cannot be completed then its kept pending for next day.However any major work will be taken home and completed.

Whats the nature of your work,please describe what is revenue assurance? I am working in revenue assurance department.This is a function within finance department.This department is a contol department.It exercise checks and balances across all other units in the company. It ensures customers of DU gets accurate invoices and company dosent suffer any revenue losses either due to system,process or manual errors.Telecommunication involves highly complicated systems,there are every chances of revenue losses happening due to manual errors while configuring tariffs in systems.Also Billing Systems charging customer can go wrong due to system errors.The usage made by customers may not get recorded properly due to process or system errors.Its revenue assurance department who independently checks that no such lekages happen.We also ensure tariffs proposed by marketing are earning projected revenue and the the same tariffs are being configured in billing systems and are chanrged to customers. When you have felt highly satisfied when doing or accomplishing some particular work? 1. Became the first person to find out revenue loss worth 10 million in DU. 2. Was appreciated by another department colleagues for solving a invoice dispute with RTA Certain situation where you felt you failed? 1. I hoped to get a very good rating for my appraisal after making the RA system implementation a success.Howeevr I was only given good.My manager was given excellent rating and she received a promotion the next year. What role did you play while accomplishing the work. I single handedly worked for finding leakages.I used to sit for hour together at night for this.A lot of logics had to be built into the new system.Lot of analysis had to be done.I also got support from my manager for this. What led to it?Tell in detail about your achievement. We brought a system from Subex called Moneta for performing RA activities.This systemwas for automating our activities.The system was implemented in phases.We invested millions in acquiring this system.First phase was implemented for prepaid revenue assurance.This will cover all prepaid customers including their recharges,usage,credit/debits,topups,data usage,SMS/MMS etc:-.Prepaid area was handled by my colleague.She was not so much system savy and couldnt detect any revenue loss from prepaid areas.The director once called me and told about the significance of finding leakages quickly and showing the ROI to the management.I told him I will find out revenue leakage from my area.I was handiling roaming and interconnect. The second phase was implemetin the ra system for roaming and interconnect services. Roaming services included outroamer,ie customer who go abroad and roam in various countires and make usages and inroamers,ie customers who come from differnt countires and roam in

UAE and make calls.Outroamer call details are sent to DU by the respective roaming countries in TAP files.Prepaid roaming customers are charged online,whereas postpaid roaming customers are rated from these TAP files received from roaming partners.Since I was system savy and had technical knowledge combined with analytical ability I became familiar with the system soon.I was able to find out leakages in roaming areas for prepaid customers which was worth 10 million dhirams per annum.It gave back the complete ROI and out director was very happy.Immediately I was awarded with a Shukran award.Although the award was very little compared to the leakages and revenue saving that happened there after I felt proud.My director utilized this oppurtunity to acquire budjet for buying more hard ware for the system.Every one was relieved as the entire project was successful after this finding. What was your intent? I knew my strengths.I had the ability to do work hard and i had great analytical and technical skills.My real qualities were never noticed by any one.I had to prove to every one and wanted to show that I am the best amoung my colleagues. Why you wanted to become best? My colleagues were treated superior to me as I was relatively week in communication skill.My department required good communication skills along with analytical skills.One of my colleague was given very good rating in previous appraisal.This year i wanted to get very good rating and hence wanted to be the best through hard work. What were your feeling then? I was very confident and was feeling great when ever i found new revenue leakages. Why you feel great while doing this job? I enjoyed working in revenue assurance.My skills fully complemented the work I was doing.I was more inclined to investigations and my job also the same.I was keen to find answers to problems and enjoyed solving problems.So the passion for the job I was doing combined with secret desire to become the best made me great.Also roaming was my area and i was accountable for that.Hence i didnt want any one else to pick problems in that area and wanted to avoid all possible revenue leakages. What was your role in this activity? Roaming was my area and hence no one knew as much as i did in this area.I was the sole person involved in investigations and reconciliations. Who all was there to support you in this? My manager also equally supported me and guided me in dealing with other departments.Our director also pitched in when ever required.

Why manager supported you? She also wanted this project to be succesful.It was her KRA to make this project a success.She knew my capabilities and used my full potential. Have you faced any problem with manager? Yes many times.Her managment skill and decesion making skills were not very good.She was a fresh manager and always depended on director for decesions.Director was an autocrat and only his decesion were implemented.Many time my priorities clashed with my managers.My manager failed in updating the difficulty and hard work that went behind making this project a success.She portrayed as if she had done this project.Since director was not so techinical and didnt communicate frequently with me,he couldnt understand my hardwork. What was the biggest challenge you faced? Time was a real challenge.Many reconciliations and activities were being done at the same time.Long hours of work was a routine.I kept working even on new year nights and weekends.No one knew the pain I was taking.Manager and Director was only interested in seeing the results. Whats in your mind when you were doing this? I had a strong determination to achieve the best. Tell me about the second achievement? DU provides bulk SMS service to enterprise customers.This service is used to broadcast SMS to thousands of customers,mainly for advertisements and promotions.These SMSs are broadcasted from SMS system.The SMS logs are sent to billing system for rating via mediation system.Mediation system makes the logs readable for billing systems.It also applies business logics and filters out record which is not required for rating.Some SMS records gets rejected in the billing system due to some errors and hence dont get charged in customers invoice.While reviewing such rejections observed the count of rejections was huge.I started investigating why so many records were getting rejected since this was a direct revenue loss for the company.On further investigation found that the entire Bulk SMS service that was provided was faulty.It had problems starting from activating the service,assigning credit limit,barring of customer when customer at networks when he breachs credit limit,the communication that went from account managers to enterprise customers about the tariff fo this service etc:-. I fixed all these issues one by one.I prepared manual invoices and sent ot customers.RTA of Dubai was also our customer.Once day collections department raised a concern to us that RTA was not wiing to pay their invoice which was around 800k Dhirams.They seeked my help to solve the issue.I recalculated the entire invoice for 1 year and sent it to RTA.They accepted the revised invoice and collections department sent out an appreciation email. Whats in your mind when you were doing this?

I have a got strong sence of customer service.I put myself in customers shoes and hence try to solve any customer related complaints.Since RTA was a major customer I had to prove that our invoices were accurate and wanted to hold DUs name.I knew inside out Bulk SMS service and knew exactly where the problem was.

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Behavioral Codes Competency I begin my work checking my emails and making a list of activities that have to be 1 completed on that day Planning I prioratise my pending work and the activities that are supposed to be done on the 2 particular day. Strategic There may be urgent work which would come in between from my manager or from other departments,which will need to be completed.If the planned activities cannot be completed then its kept pending for next day I told him I will find out revenue leakage from my area We invested millions in acquiring this system I knew my strengths I had the ability to do work hard and i had great analytical and technical skills I had to prove to every one and wanted to show that I am the best amoung my colleagues. This year i wanted to get very good rating and hence wanted to be the best through hard work.

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Customer Oriented confident Accountable confident confident Initiative Hardworking Accountable Technical Hardworking Customer Oriented Customer Oriented Accountable Analytical

Also roaming was my area and i was accountable for that.Hence i didnt want any one 10 else to pick problems in that area and wanted to avoid all possible revenue leakages. Roaming was my area and hence no one knew as much as i did in this area.I was the 11 sole person involved in investigations and reconciliations. 12 I kept working even on new year nights and weekends. They seeked my help to solve the issue.I recalculated the entire invoice for 1 year and 13 sent it to RTA I have a got strong sence of customer service.I put myself in customers shoes and 14 hence try to solve any customer related complaints Since RTA was a major customer I had to prove that our invoices were accurate and 15 wanted to hold DUs name 16 I knew inside out Bulk SMS service and knew exactly where the problem was. I single handedly worked for finding leakages.I used to sit for hour together at night for this.A lot of logics had to be built into the new system.Lot of analysis had to be 17 done 1. I hoped to get a very good rating for my appraisal after making the RA system 18 implementation a success Since I was system savy and had technical knowledge combined with analytical ability I became familiar with the system soon.I was able to find out leakages in roaming 19 areas for prepaid customers which was worth 10 million dhirams per annum

Analytical Achievement oriented

Technical/Analytical

20 I was keen to find answers to problems and enjoyed solving problems So the passion for the job I was doing combined with secret desire to become the 21 best made me great My skills fully complemented the work I was doing.I was more inclined to 22 investigations and my job also the same Time was a real challenge.Many reconciliations and activities were being done at the same time.Long hours of work was a routine.I kept working even on new year nights 23 and weekends

Problem Solving Achievement oriented Analytical

Hardworking

Major Competencies identified for Venki Ramakrishna 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Accountability Analytical Confident Customer Oriented Hardworking