Maybe you’ve heard about “TEM” systems but you’re not sure if your business is really ready to make the jump. There are many business scenarios that highlight why TEM matters and is important for business. If one or more of these situations apply to you, the right TEM could make your job a whole lot easier.
1. You have no single source for network inventory information.
Does your company have telecom and network infrastructure information (projects, contracts, inventory, billing etc.) in more than one location? If the answer to that question is “yes”, then that’s one glaring reason why a TEM is required.
A TEM system brings together all of your telecom category data from sourcing, network operations, and finance so you can access, track, sort, analyze, and take action on it instantly, from anywhere. If you have network inventory details in spreadsheets, then your IT team — and everyone else who interacts with your network — is at a disadvantage. When information changes in one system, it isn’t automatically updated in the others. There’s no complete, single view of your network inventory and as a result your team will struggle to manage the category effectively.
2. You have little or no visibility into network projects.
Do you lack a complete, single view of your project MACD request? Then you also lack insight into what your network change activities and what your support teams are doing. If you’re not sure what the MACD request are in progress, delayed or completed, it’s harder to 1 – manage business expectations, 2 – drive supplier relationship management, 3- maintain an accurate inventory and 4 – validate your supplier billing is correct.
3. Reports are tedious and painful.
Do you and your team go through the cumbersome process of creating reports manually? If so, your category management capabilities can probably be described as “slim to none.” Ideally, you should be automatically generating reports and analytics of your network monthly category spend metrics, project status, contract and inventory pipeline renewals, network performance data and financial billing reports.
4. You’re not sure if your invoices are correct.
Is it hard for you to validate your supplier invoice because you’re not sure if the detail within the invoice is correct? If your telecom inventory isn’t 1- created and 2 – being maintained, you’ll struggle to validate whether your supplier billing is accurate — especially if this is being managed in spreadsheets.
5. It’s hard to manage network outages.
When your network operation teams are troubleshooting your network can they quickly find the information they need to 1 – raise a trouble ticket and 2 – identify how the solution is designed with all corresponding network information? And when they close network outages 1 – does the rest of your network team company ever get to see it and 2 – are your SLA credits recovered? Data stored in emails or notes on personal computers is an untapped gold mine.
6. You lack the ability to go to market fast or scale.
What if your company grew through acquisition from 200 offices or 3000 mobile phones to 2000 offices and 8000 mobile phones this year? Are you confident your business processes could scale as quickly as the demand? Don’t let your own processes be the obstacle to your teams ability to perform effective telecom category management.