The Future of TEM
The future of Telecom Category Management solutions
For many years, telecom expense management software has focused on helping companies manage their inventory supplier billing. Now these old, complex, clunky, outdated systems are giving way to a new generation of cloud-based solutions that are replacing an outdated arcanum “TEM” with Telecom Category Management SaaS applications that offer companies big advances in automation, ease of deployment, and artificial intelligence-based business analytics. Business leaders have realized and are seeing, the benefits of having their teams working in alignment through the use of one unionized technology platform that enables collaboration both internally and externally with suppliers and partners.
A revolution is taking place across the workforce
It may not be apparent to all but across the industry, the employee workforce is under significant change. Employee populations are shifting in age demographic, and employees are expecting to be able to leverage technology the enhances their job plus allows for flexibility and mobility in their careers.
Today’s employees are expecting more from their employer, we’re living in a new business software revolution model of “push a button get what” for example, Uber moving people, food, and objects from one place to another. To stay relevant, employers must adapt to this new revolution and provide their employees with more than spreadsheets, storage filing sites, and email.
Trends in HR prove the job market and employee base is shifting. We’re actively moving from a baby boomer leadership job force to Generation X with Millennials moving into entry to mid-level job force. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, by 2030 Millennials will account for 75% of all employees. This is a drastic shift in age difference and a drastic shift in how technology has evolved from when Generation X joined the workforce primarily in 1990’s through the .com bust to where we are today in 2020’s. Millennials were born into an era where the internet existed and have experienced a shift in “there’s an app for that” mindset.
“As workplaces embrace new mindsets and modern behaviors, they must also embrace the tools that facilitate the future work.” Tom Hammond, VP of Corporate Strategy and Product Management, Paychecx
Without the right tools, businesses are finding maintaining a thriving workplace is a challenge. Employers are seeing a huge dropout off of employees leaving within the first 6-12 months of starting a new job as a result of not having the latest technology in place. For many employees, the ultimate goal of leveraging technology and automation is to simplify task and complexity and to have a better work-life balance outside of the office.
Technology simplifies processes like collaboration and the right technology gives employees a betters means to communicate and share information to drive initiatives forward.
The following results are based on Prudential’s “Pulse of the American Worker Survey” conducted by Morning Consult in June 2019.
Workers see the benefits of technology
| 78% of American workers believe technology saves time, making them more efficient at their jobs. | 74% of American workers embrace technology, saying it helps automate redundant tasks in their workday. | 67% of American workers believe technology is a growth driver for their company not just personally. |
| Workers divided on technologyfrustrations | Agree | Disagree |
| Every time my company implements new technology, I spend hours learning how to use it. | 45% | 48% |
| Despite its benefits, technology is often my biggest frustration in the office. | 37% | 58% |
Technology improving the workplace
Workers say email is the technology that helps them the most in the workplace, followed by work-related programs and phones.
More than 6 in 10 workers say technology allows them to work remotely when they’re on the go.
If technology could save them an hour each day, workers most often say they would use that time to improve their work/life balance (33%), followed by getting ahead on projects (24%) and learning new skills (17%).
However, workers are split on whether mobile technology has extended their workdays: 43% say it has and 48% say it hasn’t. Managers of people are much more likely to say mobile technology is extending their workdays (54% of managers agree versus 35% of non-managers).
How do workers spend their day?
When asked to rank how they spend most of their time, American workers say:
#1 |
Using Work Related Software
|
#2 |
In-Person Meetings |
#3 |
Using Email |
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#4 |
Using A Mobile Device |
#5 |
On Conference Calls |
#6 |
Working with Automated machinery |
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What today’s Telecom Category Management Solutions Deliver
What makes Telecom Category Management SaaS so different from the legacy TEM software solutions that CIOs and CFOs have managed and relied on for years? And what do the changes mean for the way their companies operate? The answer is straight forward, less complexity to manage, lower costs and solutions that are not only fit for purpose but deliver innovation and automation.
The Market has long shifted
Enterprise cloud adoption of SaaS based solutions are in full swing. For years, enterprises have slugged through managing enterprise software solutions a.k.a. “shelf ware” and the network infrastructure required to manage and operate third party vendor solutions. Adaption of cloud-based SaaS solutions is at an all-time high but with a caveat, solutions must go through a rigorous security validation process. Internal security teams are used to validate the security measures of applications prior to approval for use by their internal teams. By adopting SaaS solutions, enterprises are seeing significant reductions in the overhead cost required to maintain solutions both from a manpower perspective as well as operational costs (power, storage and maintenance).
From a solution perspective, TEM solutions are expected to deliver more than just invoice payment processing. CFO’s and finance teams are focused on P.O. approvals, invoice payment runs and financial modelling reports. The majority of all firms have accounting software implemented like SAP or Coupa to assist in their day to day activities. Therefore, CFOs expect third party solutions like TEM, to seamlessly integrate with their current solution and processes. CFO’s do like the fact that TEM solutions automate invoice validation checks and get their team out from working in spreadsheets and provide better reporting.
Implement new technology to drive innovation
Machine to Machine Communication and Learning
Next generation TEM solutions are be capable of API’s (Application Programming Interface) a communication protocol between one application client solution to another. API’s logically and securely connect between applications to optimize the efficiency, automation and application information data sharing across strategic platforms. Most IT teams have implemented solutions like ServiceNow or Solar Winds for logging outage tickets or polling IT network device availability. The data within Telecom category management solutions can be beneficial to IT teams to assist in the identification of procured assets. Information like carrier service IDs, demarc or service level agreements to understand key carrier performance details. APIs are also used to connect with finance solutions to pass invoice payment details such as batch invoice reports and receipt of validation of payment to suppliers.
Machine learning
Telecom Category Management solutions are getting smarter. Using the predictive behaviors of your team’s usage patterns or supplier invoice patterns, solutions like Temforce, are able to automate many tasks that use to involve human intervention.
“Users want the ability to see the answer without having to search and hunt or labor through analysis paralysis.” Rob Bush CEO Temforce.
For example, Temforce, leveraging machine learning, automatically extracts information from supplier invoices, and automatically performs validation checks and simply presents users with information that only requires either their approval, rejection or dispute resolution. In addition, Temforce has developed Bots to simplify laborious communication tasks.
“Knowing when an update has been added or automatically chasing the status of a project for our team when supplier status hasn’t been provided saves us an enormous amount of time.” Trevor Standridge – Workday
Temforce’s Machine Learning Automation (MLA) replaces the need for human resources across businesses enabling human resources to be relocated to more productive tasks.
Blockchain is making its way into TEM. Temforce leverages blockchain technology for supply chain transactions such as contract signatures. Leveraging blockchain, Temforce is able to ensure security is in place to carry out smart contract for ordering services with suppliers. Development is underway to build secure measures for transacting payables for services which will trigger auto payment processing when services have been confirmed delivered triggering smart ledger transactions.
Business intelligence – analytics – pricing – are more informed enriched data sets
Increased Focus on Strategy
Increasingly businesses see Telecom Category Management solutions and new capabilities such as Machine Learning and blockchain as a way to elevate some of the labor rich tasks that team face when managing their categories mainly on ancient old spreadsheet technology created in 1985. Teams are focusing more and more on the execution of automated data driven information vs. trying to create data sources to drive information. The tables are finally turning into the Twentieth Century with Telecom Category Management solutions.