Tip #258: TEM Process Management
Posted by Jennifer Burns on Mon, May 24, 2010
I wanted to apologize for slacking on the blogging front. I promise that it is for a very good reason and soon you will find out why. I have to tease you just a little bit...exciting announcement will be made soon!
In the meantime, I wanted to share a good tip with you that I came across.
Plan, Monitor, and Revise
One of the most efficient things you can do to manage your telecom activities is to have established processes in place that are supported with documentation. This documentation should be written in a "how to" manner, addressing specific actions. For example, your organization probably has an established procedure for handling multiple resource billing. Proper process management recommends that you have this procedure documented with specific steps on how to process this type of invoice presentation. Monitoring the efficacy of this process is integral to your team since it can reveal duplicate actions, FTE skill-sets and opportunities for improvement. Should such conditions for optimization be found, the process should be refined. A revision of procedures should also be implemented if there are changes to the environment that impact the current plan. Using the example above, the telecom service provider might begin offering billing through their portal, negating the need for any physical invoice methods. This would naturally change the processing of this invoice, which, in turn, should be documented, monitored and adjusted accordingly.
At Quickcomm, we strongly believe that two important philosophies must be considered to ensure a telecom expense management program is successful.
1. It is NOT Telecom Expense Management, it is Telecom Management. It is impossible to manage telecom expenses without also managing infrastructure, governance, procurement and logistics.
2. Software merely provides a tool that enables telecom management best practices. It is the business process that is important.
With any business process change, it is critical that the transition is planned and executed with fastidious supervision, documentation and diligence. It is the quality of this transition that will determine whether the project is a success or not. As important - understand that there are many areas that affect the telecom management process. Let's face it, the environment is dynamic and growing. (if it wasn't, we wouldn't have the iPhone, right?) It's a moving target - technology changes, your organization changes, people move on, carriers change. Your business process must keep up with these changes and will need to be adjusted as time goes on.