June 2021 Summaries

In October 2020, Bandwidth hosted a roundtable featuring contact center analyst Andras Cser of Forrester. The discussion covered industry trends and topics relevant to large call centers, including fraud detection and prevention, network quality's impact on analytics and voice bio authentication, and the increased importance of strong automated authentication strategies due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following this roundtable, Mr. Cser addressed five key questions about contact center cloud migration: 1. COVID-19 has accelerated the transition of on-prem infrastructure and software to the cloud for large enterprise contact centers. Reasons include increased difficulties in staffing on-prem data centers, customers' shift to digital enrollment processes, and higher fraud rates necessitating improved detection mechanisms available at a lower cost and with greater efficiency via cloud-based solutions. 2. The biggest risks and benefits of transitioning contact centers to the cloud involve maintaining or reducing firms' exposure level to risk while ensuring performance levels such as call hold times, intake volumes, enrollment, and authentication error rates. Benefits include improved security through call monitoring and shared data usage. 3. Contact center platforms that offer easy integration of security, business functionality, and adaptive customer flows have benefited most from the shift to the cloud. Call routing and call security reconfiguration are also key factors in successful transitions. 4. The move away from on-prem has led to a slight reduction or stabilization of contact center staffing due to improved automation processes. This allows firms to rightsize and scale their contact center agents, provide operations at lower costs, and outsource redefined contact center flows more easily. Automated fraud management in call centers also reduces manual labor and shifts resources to value-added tasks. 5. Enterprises rely on their carriers for call routing, analytics, and call flow security during contact center migrations. Carriers' implementation services can help firms implement best practices around these aspects, reducing the time-to-value of cloud contact centers. Additionally, carriers provide valuable consortium data that make protection of call centers more accurate, reliable, and cost-effective.

Fraud, robocalling, and spam in telecommunications can be overwhelming for businesses. There are five main types of telecom fraud: International Revenue Sharing Fraud (IRSF), Traffic Pumping, Domestic Premium Rate Service, Interconnect Bypass, and Arbitrage. The new STIR/SHAKEN regulations aim to reduce fraudulent robocalls and illegal number spoofing by verifying caller IDs. Bandwidth has deployed STIR/SHAKEN in its network and works hard to detect and prevent spam through a 24/7 Fraud Team. Businesses can help restore trust in calling by getting ready for STIR/SHAKEN, participating in industry traceback, and reporting unwanted texts and phone calls. Bandwidth is committed to fighting telecom fraud, spam, and illegal robocalling through prevention, detection, and mitigation efforts.

Telecom fraud is a significant issue for both providers and customers, costing $28.3 billion in 2019 alone. Debunking common myths about telecom fraud can help improve prevention efforts. Myth #1 suggests that smaller providers are not targeted by fraudsters, but any provider can be at risk. Myth #2 claims that only communication platforms with embedded voice calling solutions are vulnerable to fraud, but all systems that can be hacked are susceptible. Myth #3 asserts that telecom fraud is limited to international calling, but domestic premium rate service and toll-free fraud also occur. Myth #4 suggests that STIR/SHAKEN will prevent all forms of telecom fraud, but it only verifies the owner of a telephone number. Finally, Myth #5 claims there's nothing providers can do to prevent telecom fraud, but implementing security features and working with a proactive provider can help mitigate risks.

Telecom fraud is a significant problem, costing the industry $28.3 billion in 2019 alone. Fraudsters exploit vulnerable networks and target people worldwide to make money. The top five types of telecom fraud are International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF), Arbitrage, Interconnect Bypass, Domestic Premium Rate Service, and Traffic Pumping. Telecom fraud impacts businesses financially, harms their reputation, and can lead to customer loss. To protect against telecom fraud, businesses should set strong passwords, improve security measures, utilize enterprise-grade SBCs, implement two-factor authentication, and educate customers on best practices. Bandwidth takes a three-pronged approach to combating telecom fraud: prevention through education, detection using automated tools, and mitigation by blocking unlawful calls, filtering spam, disconnecting fraudulent numbers, and working with customers to identify and address fraudulent activity.