for telecom firms....criminal activities ... a machine learning model capture of detecting liveness...

KYC Compliance With EaseFor Telecom Firms.

Introduction

Target Audience

Current Challenges With SIM REG.

SIM Registration Values to Telco’s

What is BioSmart?

BioSmart’s Values

BioSmart Ecosystem

How BioSmart Solves SIM Registration Challenges

SIMROP

Other BioSmart Services

How Does It Work

BioSmart KYC Deliveries

Introducing Seamfix / Contact Us

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2 BioSmart Product Brief

BioSmart Product Brief

SIM card registration is the process of recording and verifying mobile phone number and personal information of a subscriber by a communications service provider. Information to be collected includes; the subscriber’s photograph, name, date of birth, gender, address, details of valid identification documents, etc. It also helps telecommunication companies and law enforcement agencies to identify mobile phone SIM card owners, track criminals who use phones for malevolent activities, and curb incidents such as loss of phone through theft, hate text messages, fraud, inciting violence and to ultimately help service providers know their customers better.

IntroductionWhat is SIM Registration?

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This document is targeted and suitable for the telecommunication industry and stakeholders in any of the below departments;

Target Audience

Procurement

Information Systems or Technology Business Risk Management

Legal or Regulatory Business Development

Customer Service

Sales & Distribution

Revenue Assurance

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Current Challenges With SIM REG. !

Over time, SIM Registration has been faced with a wide range of challenges such as ;

Poor and Inadequate Network Infrastructure

Due to poor and inadequate network infrastructure in remote areas, activation of subscriber number is not carried out. This has affected the growth and revenue generation for TELCOs as some of these customers are lost due to this challenge.

Criminal Activities

It’s no longer news that SIM Cards are being pre-registered by agents who intend to monetize and profit from selling (at a padded cost) these SIM cards to people who indulge in malevolent and criminal activities with the intention of being anonymous. This has made it difficult for TELCOs to effectively support the government and law enforcement agencies to curb these activities.

Authenticity of subscriber identity

A key challenge in the registration of mobile users (especially in African countries) is the lack of reliable identification document(s). In most cases, there is either an underdeveloped national database or unavailability of necessary technical capabilities to help sync and utilize the subscribers’ ‘data-double’ already existing in the national database. Also the inability of capture agents to effectively assess the validity of subscriber identity documents during SIM registration, most times leads to invalid subscriber data capture.


Non-uniqueness of subscriber identity

with the increased importance for citizens to have a secure digital identity to allow them privileges to various services, there is a need to uniquely identify persons. It has been observed that the telecommunication space is plagued with the issue of uniquely identifying their subscribers. This makes it difficult to actually get proper insights into how many unique (not number of SIMs registered) actually exist on the network.Another major effect of this challenge is in the perpetration of fraud, where the TELCOs, law enforcement agencies or regulatory bodies are unable to know the true identity of persons who carry out fraudulent activities using their phone numbers.

Integrity of captured data

Some TELCOs are still faced with subscriber quality issues or ‘Zero Data Integrity’. Some of these data integrity issues include;

Picture Data Quality issue

Extremely poor and unclear subscriber image, non-human pictures and still or non-live images.

Fingerprint Data quality issue

Poor quality of fingerprint data capture and multiple capture of the same fingerprint in place of other fingerprint types. E.g. an agent capturing a subscriber’s right thumb repeatedly in place of the left thumb, left index and right index).

Textual Information data quality issue

There have been reported cases of agents or subscribers supplying invalid textual information. Some of these scenarios include inputting special and numeric characters.

Gender mismatch

It has been discovered that due to human error in some cases, subscriber gender has been incorrectly captured. For instance, a subscriber’s captured gender could be captured as female whilst the captured image is that of a male. The effect of such errors is that it makes analysis inaccurate and gender marketing of products and services difficult.



Slow customer onboarding

Due to the sheer number of KYC information required sometimes and also poor network strength or technological limitations of the solution being used for the subscriber SIM registration, Telcos aren’t able to convert the customers early enough and this could lead to customer loss.

Limited Insights into customer data

Telecommunication companies have over time realized the need to gather as much insights as possible about a subscriber right from the point of registration and by exploiting the captured demographic information of this subscriber to harness market-worthy decisions. Poor accuracy of data or lack of it makes it difficult for TELCOs to gain these key insights which can help improve decision making, process improvement, marketing etc.

Non-adoption of robust digital KYC solutions

Mobile operators need a robust IT KYC software that will facilitate Customer Lifecycle Management. It is important to note that automating the client onboarding process eliminates a lot of the challenges that these organizations face.


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Why Register Customers? -SIM Registration Values to TELCOs

There are numerous and outstanding benefits of SIM registration to TELCOS and they include:

Customer Profiling & Segmentation

SIM registration enables Telco’s to acquire the KYC information of their subscribers, which makes them have an elaborate understanding about their customers. With these subscriber data, it is easier to profile & segment them and use these insights to meet target objectives.

Meeting regulatory requirements

In order to improve statistical accuracy on the mobile market as well as to reduce access to grey market phones, regulatory bodies in several countries are major enforcers of SIM registration being a prerequisite before customers can obtain a SIM card. The reason for this enforcement is to achieve proper governance, surveillance and security.

Personalized customer engagements

With subscriber information captured during SIM registration, customer service/relations departments of TELCOs can better engage with their subscribers.

Financial inclusion

SIM Registration data, especially in Africa, has helped greatly in the erection of the access for mobile and financial inclusion. With the alignment of KYC & SIM Registration efforts, the identification of mobile users could increase the use of formal financial services such as lending and mobile banking. Also, using the customer information on the network, financial spending can be known which can guide financial inclusion services mentioned above.



Supporting the government to create unique identities

While mobile operators should not replace the role of the State as the provider of a legal identities, TELCOs are uniquely placed to help the underserved members of the society benefit from the services that would otherwise be unavailable to them as unregistered time.

Near real-time subscriber conversion

With the introduction of electronic SIM registration, TELCOs can now easily onboard and convert customers almost in real time.

Increased customer switching cost

Based on a research conducted by the European Network and Information Security Agency, the introduction of SIM registration rules my increase switching costs and thereby reduce customer migration to competitors.


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What is BioSmart?

Telecommunication companies in the world today are always on the lookout for solutions that help them meet the ever-increasing need for KYC and its compliance without having to break the bank.

The BioSmart KYC platform is a robust SIM registration platform that solves, all SIM registration challenges for both new and existing subscribers. The platform also includes value innovations that could potentially increase the Telco’s revenue streams. The BioSmart KYC platform is trusted and used by large international telecommunication firms within Africa to handle their KYC responsibilities and operations.

The BioSmart KYC platform has been in active use for over 8 years and has captured over 100 million subscribers and counting. With an average of 45 subscribers acquired every minute, BioSmart has been tested and proven in the industry.



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BioSmart’s Values

BioSmart’s value has been proven through continuous, in-depth use by leading Telco’s across Africa. The following are some of the ways that BioSmart adds value to Telco KYC processes:

Faster customer onboarding through businessprocess automation.

Minimized fraud through real-time verification of Customer data, ID’s, documents etc.

Data integrity and compliance through built-in validation rules to meet Telco& regulatory requirements.

Administrative GUI to manage all SIM registration operations from a single point.

Interactive & Intuitive GUI. Offline Registration.

Customer Document Management.

Support of VAS Services for revenue generation.

Digital Customer Onboarding by connection to National databases to authenticate Subscriber’s information.

Better Cross Selling &Up-Selling based on customer preferences by leveraging on the BioSmart Reports & Analytics

Dynamic configurations and flexibilities built in to suit Telco’s. custom requirement.

Multiple registration channels & mobility registration on the fly with Mobile devices.


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BioSmart Ecosystem

External Systems

Internal Systems

Applications

SDP

BioKozuna

BioExporter

SMSC

Microservices

SIMROP

GeoTracker

Face Matcher Engine

AFIS

To register subscribers. Supported on Windows,

Android and Web.

To process and save captured subscribers’ data

To re-validate captured subscriber’s data to ensure It is complaint with regulatory rules and standard.

To generate and export data in XML format.

To manage SMS to be sent to subscribers/users

To provision and activate subscribers SIM.

To provides all required services to BioSmart

To access various types of reports and analytics.

For customer lifecycle

management.

Administrative Portal for managing all SIM Registration

operational activities.

To track location of all devices running

BioSmart.

To manage emails to be sent to subscribers

To verify the identity of subscribers by using

performing facial match.

To verify the identify of subscribers using fingerprint

and also identifying duplicates in the database.

To manage Value Added Services integration e.g. airtime and data vending

CRM

SMTP

VAS

Provisioning SystemReporting

and Analytics Engine



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How BioSmart SolvesSIM Registration Challenges

The following are a few of BioSmart unique features;

Liveness DetectionIn order to prevent cases of fraudulent cases of ‘Picture of Picture’ capture by agents with malicious intentions, the BioSmart application has in place a Machine Learning Model capture of detecting liveness of an image.

OCR (Optical Character Recognition)The BioSmart OCR feature makes it possible to extract customer details on a physical form or ID document and auto populates the fields on the BioSmart textual capture view. This feature makes customer onboarding faster.

Face to ID MatchUsing the identity cards usually required during SIM Registration, the BioSmart application is able to carry out a facial match/comparison of the image in the ID card against the subscriber’s face in real-time to ensure the subscriber is the true owner of the ID provided at the point of capture.

Biometric Capture(Picture and Fingerprint)BioSmart has the capability to capture a subscriber’s picture and fingerprints. It is compatible with embedded or external cameras. For fingerprint, BioSmart comes out of the box with a wide variety of already integrated fingerprint scanners.


Data Capture Quality CheckThe Biosmart has inbuilt verification and validation rules that validates the compliance of fingerprints, facial image and textual information. The validation is done based on configured business rules.

Background Clean-UpThe background clean-up feature makes it possible for the BioSmart application to analyze the background of an image, carefully crop out the non-uniform background and impose a plain white background without impacting the picture of the subscriber.

Deduplication of fingerprints to check for uniquenessBioSmart has a deduplication (N:N) engine that is able to scan through fingerprint images in its database and flag duplicates. With this feature, it’s possible to know unique subscribers on the network via their digital and biometric identity. This can also be leveraged on the prevent cases of pre-registered SIMs.

Before Clean Up After Clean Up



Offline RegistrationThe BioSmart KYC provides an offline capability that makes it possible to capture subscribers in remote areas with poor network coverages.

SMS-Based ActivationConsidering the inevitable challenges of a lack of proper network infrastructure, especially in cases of no existing data, the SMS-based activation feature can be used to activate a subscriber temporarily by using basic information sent via text. The complete details (biometric inclusive) are sent later to complete the registration when there is available network or data.

Over-The-Air UpdateThere are no worries whenever a new application upgrade is required, the BioSmart OTA feature, enables automatic downloaded and installation of newer available versions and install. This feature is supported on both the Android and Windows Component.

Digital SignaturesThis enables the agent to collect the signature of a customer by signing directly on the touch screen of the device (if it has one) or on a signatory pad.

Push NotificationsWith the BioSmart Push Notification feature, an agent is able to receive targeted instructions from the administrative staff managing the SIM registration exercise via push notifications on his/her device.

Airtime & Data VendingFrom findings, SIM Registration and airtime/data sales most times go hand in hand, hence, the BioSmart KYC supports the vending of airtime and data directly from the application. All that is required is an integration to Telco’s airtime vending platform.


Role Based Access ControlThe BioSmart platform has a robust Role Based Access Control feature that ensures that all accessible features or functionality on the system are role based. This is required for security reasons.

Secure Login OptionsFor better security of the capture devices used by the agents, and to maintain data integrity as much as possible, BioSmart incorporates biometric login features which allows agents login via fingerprint only. This is to ensure that there is no compromise if at any point the agent’s credentials (username & password) are exploited.BioSmart also has the option of Second Factor Authentication (2FA) login, where an OTP is sent to the agent’s registered phone number and is required as an addition to the provided username and password.This is a configurable feature that can be utilized depending on the security and business need.

Capture Location TrackingThe location tracking feature shows the location (using Latitude and Longitude) of where exactly a subscriber was captured. This information can be used to gain insights into the regions the traffic of registrations is coming from and those performing poorly so more attention (perhaps, via marketing campaigns) are targeting towards that Area.

Device Location Tracking & Geofencing With BioSmart, it is easy to track and know the location of an agent’s capture device at every point in time. It takes it a step further with a Geofencing feature that is able to send alerts and notifications whenever a device has left its assigned location, perhaps in cases of theft or cross unassigned boundaries for registrations.

Biometric SIM SwapThis feature enables customers to successfully swap the details of their old/existing SIM with a new SIM. The subscriber is expected to confirm ownership of the existing number using fingerprint validation. This ensures that the swap operation is carried out exclusively for the rightful subscriber.



Bulk RegistrationThe bulk registration feature enables an agent to register SIM cards in bulk. This feature is most times required for corporate bodies that need to register SIM cards to disburse to their staff.

Re-Registrationre-register a previously registered customer’s number. This is basically an update of already captured information in the event that the customer’s details have changed.Before re-registration, the identity of the customer needs to be verified using OTP or Fingerprint.

Additional RegistrationThe additional registration feature enables a customer to link a new SIM card to the primary MSISDN automatically without having to register his/her details all over. Similar to Re-Registration, the identity of the customer needs to be verified using OTP or Fingerprint.

Customer Self-Service for Re-registrationWith this feature, customers are able to update their details (Textual Only) personally on a web portal without necessarily visiting the Telco’s office or registration center. The subscriber will only be required to visit a service center if biometrics information needs to be captured.

Registration using MSISDN & SIM SerialBioSmart has a variety of Registration Use Cases. The one being discussed here is the basic registration use cases, using either the MSISDN or SIM Serial which can be verified against a number management to ensure validity before allowing the agent to proceed to register the subscriber.


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SIMROP

SIMROP is an acronym for SIM Registration Operations Portal.

It is an effective web portal that is used to orchestrate and manage all SIM Registration related activities from a single source. The SIMROP portal is targeted towards two major types of users, the Admins and Dealers. The Portal has various modules incorporated, which provides the capacity to manage devices, notifications, license request management, kit management, dealer management, threshold management, password policies and resolution of support issues and many more.

Available modules on SIMROP can been seen below;

SIMROP Dashboard

This module provides insights and an overview into core activities happening with the SIM Registration ecosystem via analytics/charts. The statistics represented on the dashboard are in real-time.



User Management

This module is used to manage user account creation on the BioSmart KYC Suite. Activities in the module include User account creation and update, user account activation and deactivation, password reset, and account unlocking. All users on BioSmart KYC Suite are required to have an account created on SIMROP before they can interact with any component of the BioSmart suite.

Role Manager

SIMROP provides a Role-Based Access Control. The role manager module is used to create and manage roles/privileges assigned to users. The privileges are basically used to determine the actions or functionality a user can perform on the platform. Role creation and management is very dynamic such that the roles can be manipulated to suit the business needs.

Agent Assignment

This is used to manage mapping of devices to capture agents on the system. The mapping makes it easy to identify the agents that are assigned to a device at any point in time. During this assignment process, the dealer is expected to provide all necessary details of the agents and the device before they can be mapped.

Blacklist/Whitelist

This module is used to blacklist/whitelist a SIM Registration device. Blacklisting of devices could be prompted or required in cases where a device is involved in a fraudulent activity. Once a device is blacklisted, the BioSmart SIM Registration solution can no longer run on that device until an admin whitelists the device from the portal.

Tagging Request & Approval

A new device should be tagged before its deployment for SIM Registration to aid security and device identification purposes This process requires an admin to map the device to a dealer. Once the process is approved, the device becomes tagged successfully and a unique device tag (e.g. WIN-DEALER001-LAG-ETI-012345) is assigned to the device. Tagging basically means the device is now licensed to do SIM registration

Issue Log Management

The issue log management is used to make complaints and also give feedback on resolved issues.With the issue log module, issues can be tracked seamlessly and KPIs for issue resolution can be easily obtained.


Airtime & Data Vending Management

This module is used to manage airtime/data vending activities done on the SIM registration clients.

Device Management

From this module, users are able to view all device-related information; client activity summary, device location history, device blacklist/whitelist history, device health, resource utilization Registration summary/overview etc.

Subscriber Information

This module is used to view details (demographics and portrait) of registered subscribers. Subscriber details can be viewed by doing a simple search using either unique or key search parameters such as first name, surname, phone number, SIM Serial etc. This module comes handy as customer care representatives can use it to verify that a subscriber is registered and also confirm subscriber details.

Settings Management Module

This is a centralized module used to manage all configurations/settings in the BioSmart ecosystem.

Reporting Module

This module contains various SIM registration reports which can be exported in various formats (excel, csv, PDF etc.).



Notification Management Module

The Notification Manager is used to push short messages to users and devices. Messages can be targeted to a specific user (using user’s username) or devices (using the device tag) or sent globally (every device gets the same message). This is a more efficient way of communication as messages are delivered in real time.

Outlet Management Module

An outlet is a place, kiosk, store, service center etc. where SIM registration is carried out. The outlet management module enables admins to create outlets, assign the outlet to dealers and map the outlet to its exact location using its address and coordinates. The core reason for an outlet creation is to enable dealers to assign and geofence devices to a created outlet.

License Request Management Module

Devices require licenses for fingerprint matching. All license requests; approvals and rejections are done from this module. Also, the statistics of all the available licenses can be gotten from the License Request Management module.


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Other BioSmart Services

GeoTrackerGeoTracker is an administrative portal that is used to manage device tracking on a map. From the portal, an admin is able to know the real-time location of a device from a map. It also gives the user an insight into all SIM registration activities happening on that device. Quite a number of things can be done from this portal ranging from;

View Device Location History

Device Activity Log

Device Registration Summary View Mobile Device Information – Storage Info, Network Info, OS Info etc.

Device Location Information

Device Blacklist/Whitelist History



BioKozuna

This component performs a second level validation of captured records on the backend to ensure that there is no loss in quality of data, and also to ensure the captured record meets the required standard. BioKozuna validates all three categories of captured data; Portrait, Demographics and Fingerprint.

BioExporter

This component of the BioSmart KYC Suite has the functionality to generate and export captured records in any format (XML etc.), using a defined schema which can be sent to any repository of choice. The BioExporter is scalable, dynamic, configurable, and has a high generation capacity.


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BioSmart KYC Deliveries

The BioSmart KYC SIM Registration solution has been deployed into over 3 telecommunication companies Africa. These companies are;

MTN Nigeria Airtel Starcomms

BioSmart Achievements Using Case StudiesCase Study 1 - MTN Nigeria

CustomerMTN Nigeria, the dominant player in the Nigerian telecommunication space was in December 2015 hit with a hefty compliance fine of over 5 billion USD due to poor quality of records previously captured.

MTN conducted a detailed world-wide procurement program for a replacement solution and in the end, selected Seamfix’s BioSmart SIM Registration solution for its FBI grade quality compliance checks on captured biometric data and all round expertise and track record of delivery as well as readiness of our solution which guaranteed them fastest compliance to Regulatory requirements.

In Seamfix, MTN found a partner who partnered with them to meet all regulatory requirements in record time of 10 days.



SolutionWe ran a very tedious and near-impossible implementation schedule. We implemented our solution in a way that at the point of capture or registration, validation of the quality of record was done (including biometric records). This ensures the customer does not need to be re-invited later due to quality concerns.

Key Achievements

Within a period of 6 days, Seamfix upgraded its SIM registration solution to improve the processing speed from 80,000 transactions per day to a processing capacity of over 3 million transactions per day and went live on it.

Within this short period, Seamfix had rebuilt the entire system with a far more superior transaction processing capacity and had implemented it in a Prove of Concept (POC) environment with another implementation on production waiting to be commissioned same time!The system was integrated to five different systems within MTN in this time and tested fully after POC for 4 days, before going live on the tenth day for a commercial roll-out.

Seamfix demonstrated flexibility and adaptability to MTN by deploying fully to ensure the mission critical requirements of MTN was met and in time too.We set up monitoring options to assess the daily transactions and during the first week of go live, we noticed a flurry of registrations at midnight, which was quite unusual. After a thorough investigation, we uncovered a situation of one person pre-registering multiple SIMS with the intent to defraud the system and sell such SIMS to people with dubious intent. This led to such systems and registrations being automatically quarantined and disabled.

The monitoring system put in place led to a huge level of confidence in the data captured as a good percentage of pre-registrations were detected. This was helpful in the significant reduction of our clients’ previous non-compliance sanctions by the regulatory body.

Implementation was done within a very short timeline.

4000+ devices rolled out within the first 45 days across the nation.

43,000+ mobile registration kits (Android and Windows).

At peak, we processed 700,000+ subscriber records captured in a day, with their data synchronized and their mobile lines activated for calls.

60million+ biometric SIM registrations and growing daily.

Nationwide support structure in place.


Case Study 2 - Airtel Nigeria

CustomerBharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 20 countries across Asia and Africa. Head quartered in New Delhi, India, the company ranks amongst the top 4 mobile service providers globally in terms of subscribers. Airtel is the first telecoms operator to implement KYC system in Nigeria (May 2010 launch).

SolutionThe Airtel SIM Registration system in use nationwide runs on Seamfix technology with continuous support since inception in 2010 till date. It is a suite of 5 products – KYC SmartClient, KYC Server, KYC Manager, KYC Droid and KYC Live, that when deployed together in an integrated environment, works to deliver best value SIM Registration and Customer Profiling services for the telecoms operator.

Just 3 weeks after awarding the SIM registration contracts to Seamfix by Airtel,the systems were successfully deployed in advance of the NCC go-live dates. In addition, after the go-live date of previous implementations and without interruption to the system, Seamfix accommodated changes to process flows after the system was implemented. While such changes typically occur prior to the go-live date, Seamfix engineers were able to support these changes with no unnecessary system down time and most importantly, with no financial impact to the business.

Key Achievements

13,000+ mobile registration kits (Android and Windows).

80,000+ new subscriber records captured per day, with their data synchronized and their mobile lines activated for calls.

40million+ biometric SIM registrations.

Nationwide support structure in place.



Seamfix is a one-stop KYC platform that provides solutions that enable organizations to seamlessly capture, onboard, verify and digitize identities of customers and their

documents in real time.

Address:1st Floor, Leasing House, C & I Leasing Drive, Off Bisola Durosimmi Etti Drive, Off Admiralty Way, Lekki Phase 1, Lagos, Nigeria.

www.seamfix.com/biosmart

Contact DetailsIf you have any questions about the BioSmart Product, please contact:

MD/CEO

Emewulu ChimezieSeamfix Nigeria Limited.Phone: +2348037291170e-Mail: [email protected]

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Executive Director

Onwurah ChibuzorSeamfix Nigeria Limited.Phone: +2348030807215 +2348128008107e-Mail: [email protected]

Introducing Seamfix

A product of

for telecom firms....criminal activities ... a machine learning model capture of detecting liveness...

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