Does Telecom Management Really Matter?
Timothy C. Colwell
EVP | Tech Ops Pro | Efficiency Creator | Public Speaker | 🥃 Bourbon Enthusiast 🥃
If the value perception of Telecom Management isn’t significant, then apathy sets in and business leaders question whether or not the activity matters.
Telecom management means different things to different people. Some believe telecom management is a cost or expense management practice. Others view telecom management as having a technical or break-fix concern. Some even view telecom management as the narrow practice of only managing wireline voice services. In any case, these perceptions are limited, causing many to relegate telecom management to a task driven back office function with little influence on business results. As is with any business activity, if the value perception isn’t significant, then apathy sets in and business leaders begin to question whether or not the activity matters.
Telecom management is not just about cost takeout or support or voice management. It’s the comprehensive business practice of managing a telecom environment in a manner that delivers service to users and empowers business transactions that fulfill business objectives. Elevating the real and perceived value of telecom management requires understanding of the full scope of the practice.
Telecom management includes: (1) designing and maintaining systems in the telecom environment; (2) service delivery to users; and, (3) business value creation. The traditional business leader view of these components positions service delivery as the primary value proposition for telecom management, while traditional telecom management leaders view design and maintenance as a means to an end for service delivery to users. The glue that binds these perceptions and elevates the value proposition of telecom management is business value creation. Aligning services to drive business results and having business leaders recognize the contribution of services to those objectives is a telecom management game changer that eliminates the question of whether telecom management really matters.
Timothy C. Colwell is a telecom management industry thought leader exploring the impact of technology as a business accelerator and social capital enabler.
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For more telecom management industry thought leadership, visit http://www.aotmp.com/blog.
Senior TEM Analyst at Upland Software
8yInitially I think most will perceive TEM as a cost savings measure but when it eventually migrates to a cost avoidance solution it starts to look like more of an expense than a value. As time goes on one needs to keep in mind what it would cost them if they were not managing their communication expenses and tracking all of the nuances that a good TEM solution can provide. The old saying of you can't manage what you don't know holds true in TEM. A TEM solution will keep you in the "know".
President and Managing Partner at 20,000 Leagues Scuba and Aquatics, LLC
8yHi Tim. I fully agree with the basic premise that management of the telecoms space is best focused on value creation. Many businesses with ‘telecom management’ functions in fact take a tactical approach which results in poor return on investment – and the eventual result – as you have captured and explained “business leaders begin to question whether or not the activity matters”. In order to truly derive the greatest business value, I have found that a comprehensive assessment and transformation from tactical to Strategic TEM (or S-TEM as I refer to this methodology) sets the stage for inter-operability with ITSM functionality to utilize business intelligence from telecom management across IT workstreams. In addition, S-TEM enables enterprises to drive sustainable ROI through interdependence with carrier contract sourcing management practices that uses TEM data to its greatest advantage. This overall focus on IT-Telecom management dependencies which utilize a modern TEM platform as the basis for intelligence on expense, asset, delivery and BI drives greater and sustained ROI over a longer timeframe and helps business leaders to understand the value created from their investment.