The value of telecom inventory management can't be questioned, but it isn’t as easy as it first appears. This blog explores five frequently encountered challenges.
At an enterprise level, understanding what your assets cost, where they’re located, and what they actually are is critical.
Telecom inventory management can help companies keep better track of their assets, and also support other services such as procurement, planning, forecasting, invoice auditing, budgeting, and network optimization. Within global organizations, effective telecom inventory management is truly beneficial. Here are five of the most common obstacles:
- Employee turnover
- Network complexity
- Multiple applications
- Policy compliance
- Manual processes
The 5 Most Common Telecom Inventory Management Headaches
1. Employee Turnover
A change in personnel is unavoidable, and when it happens, it almost always triggers device and service MACDs (move, add, change, or disconnects) within your telecoms environment.
Any time an extension is changed, or a fixed or mobile device is reassigned, the telecom inventory must be updated. And the process of coordinating, verifying, and then making these changes can be complex and error-ridden.
While a single error is problematic, many errors can be disastrous. As they start to accumulate, the validity of invoices, mobile working plans, and expenses is undermined.
2. Network Complexity Growth
In industries such as mobility retail – where the opening and closing of branches at speed is common – enterprises can struggle to keep track of telecoms services. This is because the addition of new infrastructure and devices adds further complexity to the network.
Keeping on top of the ever-changing environment is made tougher still due to the fact that provisioning and inventory management frequently occurs in silos.
The combination of additional hardware and lack of communication is a dangerous combination. This leads to mistakes with telecom inventory management.
3. Multiple Applications and Databases
Telecom inventory management is a constituent part of telecom expense management (TEM). While best practice dictates that a holistic approach to TEM is most valuable, it's never that simple.
Telecom inventory management, telecom billing management, telecom contract management, and other activities are frequently managed within disparate applications and databases. Within these silos, communication is often poor to non-existent.
In situations where the telecom network evolves and technology is upgraded, changes to any of these systems must be reflected in all other telecom management systems in real-time. Otherwise, the integrity of the telecom inventory is compromised.
4. Lack of Policy Compliance
Nearly all businesses have some kind of policy for telecom inventory management, but enforcement is often half-hearted at best.
Effective management of policy – whereby processes are defined, staff know their roles, and protocols are in place for situations such as office moves – will help organizations keep the telecom inventory error-free.
In enterprises where telecom inventory policy is a fluid concept and there is a distinct lack of procedures in place, errors are far more common. It makes it harder to maintain inventory accuracy and validity. To overcome this, telecom inventory management services can help to standardize inventory management and maintain compliance across your business.
5. Manual Processes
Human error exists in all areas of business, but, in today’s automation-driven climate, the attraction of replacing manual data entry with automated processes is growing for good reason.
Without adequate software support, it will become difficult to manage sourcing, procurement, invoice, and inventory all at once. For internal teams, it becomes a labor-intensive manual process that's prone to error.
Even when automation is utilized, the greater the time frame with human interaction in play, the greater the opportunity for errors to creep in. This is why some telecom inventory management services make sure to include both intelligent automation and human expertise, reducing the margin for error.
Telecom Inventory Management Streamlines Your Important Processes
For the modern-day enterprise, trying to track and manage all changes to your telecom inventory is often a complicated, time-consuming procedure – but it doesn't have to be.
A lifecycle approach to telecom inventory management – an ongoing process aligned with carriers’ bills and your MACDs – will consolidate and streamline the crucial processes within inventory management.
When your inventory is managed daily, you'll create a solid foundation for invoices to be audited against an accurate telecom inventory. This delivers bigger savings, at a faster rate, with fewer resources – relieving the telecom inventory management burden altogether.
