Ooredoo is a major international telecommunications company with around 158 million customers in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. It is the leading operator in Qatar, delivering world-class services for consumers, businesses, residences and organisations. In 2022, Ooredoo was the first in the region to significantly scale its KYC process.
Being the leading telecommunications provider in Qatar, Ooredoo had a unique opportunity. As any major sporting event, the one held in Qatar in 2022 meant that tourism would increase in the region. As an official sponsor of the event, Ooredoo could expect a flow of new customers. To handle the traffic and stay efficient, the company would need to optimise their KYC process before the event started. In this case study, we will examine how this was achieved.
The Challenges of a Major Sporting Event
Ooredoo knew that 2022’s sporting mega-event would mean an influx of traffic. That’s when it became clear that automating their KYC process was a must. However, it also provided a few challenges:
Fast integration
Negotiations and integration of a major system like Ondato can often take a few months. The challenge was to get everything sorted before the start of the event.
Substantially increased load
With a major event, traffic increase can be hard to calculate. We had to ensure that the KYC process was scaled enough to accommodate new users.
Multi-organisational process
As KYC regulations differ from country to country, it was important to have Qatar’s government cooperate and confirm our decisions. As Ooredoo was the first to implement a digital solution like this, this task could prove difficult.
Different flows
Ooredoo needed to implement two different verification flows to keep the process efficient.
Why Ondato?
Ooredoo had already been using Ondato’s services on a much smaller scale. This meant they were aware of Ondato’s quality and flexibility, which helped them make an informed decision.
“Ondato has aligned perfectly with our priorities, responding rapidly and iterating on their offering to help us achieve our desired delivery. Through direct collaboration and problem-solving, we have formed a mutually beneficial partnership that has improved integration and allowed us to become a digital-first telco provider in the MENA region. With Ondato’s support, we now offer fully online experiences and have established world-leading registration. Their expertise and commitment make them highly recommended for seamless integration and digital transformation.”
Ooredoo
What We Offered
After an extensive negotiation process, we were able to provide a solution that would match Ooredoo’s needs.
First, we implemented several flows. The first verification flow was managed by us from start to finish, allowing Ooredoo to minimise the load of their KYC team. The second verification flow was a hybrid solution which included matching the selfies of customers to the national state registry. This allowed the second flow to be completely automated with our OCR and biometric face match technology.
Secondly, we were able to work together with the Supreme Committee of Qatar so that all regulations were followed and compliance was indisputable, as all decisions were confirmed by the government.
The Results
Since November 2022, Ooredoo has sped up its KYC process and made new customer onboarding more efficient. Over 2 million people attended the 2022 mega sporting event, and Ooredoo was able to easily handle the traffic. In total, 99.74% of customers completed verification in one attempt.
Between the two processes, the first flow’s automation rate was 98%, the other automatically verified 84.5% of the users. The first process took around 30 seconds to complete, while the second took around 53 seconds. Additionally, they improved the onboarding process for both customers and KYC specialists. Ooredoo can now be confident in their user base and knowledge that all customers are trusted as they continue to use our solutions.
