Today’s businesses are fast-moving and senior IT leaders are driving network transformation. And with more transformation — and more moving parts — not having teams with vital network information at their fingertips, is going to be even tougher to manage change tomorrow. You may be asking yourself “What TEM should I use?” You’ll need a TEM system built to perform telecom category management. To be successful, choose a solution with these features:
- Request Management as businesses grow, reduce or change your network engineers, project managers, service delivery and procurement teams need a way to keep track and manage Moves, Adds, Changes and Disconnect or “MACD” as it’s commonly known. The Request Management should capture relevant details associated with ordering data, mobile, voice audio conferencing telecom and IT service hardware assets.
- Automation: Repetitive tasks are the enemy of any growing businesses. Automation saves your teams from manual processes, improves productivity and systematically maintains information across your telecom category. Use the time saved to focus on optimizing your telecom category.
- Collaboration: To create a thriving team, everyone who interacts with internal and external teams should work together from the same up-to-date information. Sharing data helps your team work more efficiently and provide the kind of experiences today’s teams expect.
- Intelligence: To be competitive in today’s data-intensive world you need to learn from your network metrics and KPI data points. A Telecom Category Management solution built to manage the category will uncover financial insights, identify pricing metrics, and lead category managers to the next steps to manage the category holistically.
- Integration: Taking advantage of APIs in today’s connected environment is a must— such as electronic signature, accounting software integration, chat services,— and integrating them with your TEM system lets you work more efficiently and automate tasks. It also lets you capture real-time data.
- Mobility: The modern telecom category manager or network operation teams are no longer confined to their desks for 8 hours a day, so they need to be able to access everything they need to work from anywhere in the world and from their mobile devices.
- Customization: Every business runs differently, so a good Telecom Category solution should be easily customizable and have an information hierarchy that puts what’s important up front and center. The best TEM platforms feature admin controls which allow users to customize the application specifically for their business needs, and more importantly deliver regular upgrades that won’t break those customizations.
- Cloud-based: Cloud-based solutions Software as a Service a.k.a. SaaS work on any internet-connected device with a browser. They are easy to implement TEM solutions, even without IT support. And since they don’t require server maintenance or upgrades like on-premises TEMs, you can save money and more easily scale as your business grows.