Telecom assets are a special class of IT assets that require an accurate inventory for effective financial management. Enterprises should consider the benefits of establishing a "single version of the truth" that comes from linking management of IT and telecom assets with their other systems and processes. An accurate inventory is critical for effective financial management. Managers need accurate information that supports their business decisions.
The authority on standards and best practices for telecom environment management September 27, 2007
Best Practice Recommendations for IT and Telecom Inventory Management
Telecom assets are a special class of IT assets that require an accurate inventory for effective financial management. Enterprises should consider the benefits of establishing a "single version of the truth" that comes from linking management of IT and telecom assets with their other systems and processes. An accurate inventory is critical for effective financial management. Managers need accurate information that supports their business decisions. This document highlights some of the challenges to managing IT and telecom assets, and how an inventory can be used to support financial management of assets.
Inventory Is Critical to Managing IT and Telecom Assets
Two challenges to managing IT and telecom expenses are lack of automation and inventory accuracy. Figure 1 highlights the challenges to effective management of telecom expenses. Inventory accuracy was identified by 47% of our respondents as one of their top challenges. The other issues that were identified (lack of resources, decentralized receipt of billing, lack of expertise, and decentralized procurement) all relate to the challenges in managing assets. While this survey was specific to telecom, many of these challenges are common to IT asset management. IT and Telecom assets are difficult to track because they include tangible assets (computers, network equipment, software telecom lines, and circuits) and intangible services. One challenge of managing laptops, cell phones, smartphones, wireless broadband and VPN service inventories is that the hardware and services are mobile. They need to be associated with users, not with physical service addresses. Changes with employees need to be reconciled to the inventory. For example, new employees join the organization, they change departments, and they leave the organization. Figure 1: Top Enterprise Challenges to Effectively Managing Telecom Expenses Lack of automation to manage telecom 51%expenses
Inventory accuracy 47%
Lack of resources to manage telecom expenses 46%
Decentralized receipt of telecom billing 26%
Lack of expertise to manage telecom 23%expensesDecentralized procurement of telecom 21%services (Respondents were asked to select three choices for this question) Source: AOTMP, September 2007 Save the Date! AOTMP's Decisions 2008 Conference for Enterprises is April 28-May 1. Learn more at: www.aotmp.com. Inventory Best Practice Recommendations
Telecom Strategies Page 2
Creating an Inventory
An inventory should capture the service address, service identifiers, service features and configurations, cost details, contract details, service provider information for voice services, data services, equipment, hardware, software, network devices, mobile devices, telecom resources, personnel, projects, and budgets in a usable format. Organizations must manage the entire end-to-end lifecycle for assets and expenses. If any area is neglected, it will have a downstream impact in terms of inefficiencies and additional costs. Figure 2 highlights the main steps of managing IT and telecom assets. Our research shows that most enterprises have disjointed processes; different functional areas may get involved, and there is rarely a smooth hand-off from one group to another. It is also common to find functional areas within an enterprise have little to no understanding of what other groups are doing. Figure 2: Managing Assets and the Expense Lifecycle
detailed accurate expense competitive reporting, budget tracking, & supplier tracking Sourcing benchmarkingReporting of pricing& Analysis
ProcurementRetirement workflow to manage data removal, requests, acquisition, recapture of value, placing orders with disposal, inventory & vendors & trackingbilling update Invoice Asset Reconciliationreconciliation of inventory, & Payment Managementbilling records, order activity invoice processing, validation, & cost optimization dispute management, internal expense allocation charge back, & bill payment Source: AOTMP, September 2007
Contracts Role in IT and Telecom Inventory Management Many enterprises focus on negotiating the contract, but they do not have a system to associate IT and telecom assets to thei... [download for more]
