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A telecom management system is first and foremost a money saver. If the telecom system cannot provide a clear reason for you to invest your time and money (but, you may not need to pay for the system, more on that later), then why would you pursue it as a strategy? The return on investment, both hard dollar costs and time and energy invested, needs to be clear before the investment is made.

So, where do telecom management systems generate their payback? Telecom systems certainly create efficiencies in terms of automating manual processes within the IT and finance organizations, but our focus is on the hard dollar savings telecom management systems are renown for delivering. These hard dollar savings are in the “indisputable” elements of the telecom program. The hard dollar savings create a solid business case that managers can take to their executives for concurrence to move forward. If the investment element of the telecom system is low or free, then the only expenses that need to be covered before generating a clear return to the company is the set-up effort.

Where do these returns come from? Hard dollar savings can only be generated buy lowering the telecom bills of the user. This lowering can occur one of 3 ways: 1) by reducing the rates that the existing carrier is bill, 2) by changing the services the user is paying for so service is maintain or even enhanced while costs go down, and 3) by introducing new carriers with superior value propositions. A comprehensive telecom management operation will accomplish these three things and more.

Reducing rates charged by an existing carrier can be challenging. After all, you are typically bound by a contract or tariff, reducing the flexibility that the carrier has in changing what is being charged. Getting rates changed is possible, but it requires work on your part and may also force a contract extension. If you are happy with your carrier, a contract extension may be tolerable. The telecom expense reductions seen in this scenario typically range less than 10%, Telecom carriers in a re-negotiation proceeding do not have a significant incentive to reduce rates, so some sort of loyalty discount is typically rolled out. The two remaining methods of reducing your telecom expenses, however, are preferred.

Changing carrier’s services is a very effective means of lowering current spending without interrupting or interfering with an existing telecommunications carrier contract. Evaluating the specific services at each of your locations, determining whether you can simply disconnect a service, consolidating service to more efficient facilities, or up-grading to a newer technology can yield savings of 10% to 20% if the network has not been optimized for quite some time.

The best savings are usually obtained by actually using new telecom service providers to replace existing services with much more competitively priced services. There are many quality service providers that supply similar quality to the larger carriers at rates in excess of 30% below what the larger telecom carriers charge. Strategies are available for every comfort level, so using an alternative carrier to lower your cost can be extremely beneficial.

Consider using a telecom management platform to tie these three strategies together. Platforms that detail telecom inventory, analyze billing trends, as well as provide flexible analytics are best suited to support cost containment and reduction initiatives.

Source by Steve J Murphy

The question is where is the telecom business headed over the next decade? Banks will turn out to be telephone companies and telecom companies will turn into banks.

Biometrics fingerprint technology will permit huge mobile phone payments. Numerous telecom companies are going to have to restructure their outsourcing and off-shoring strategies because of rapid wage inflation, which is wearing down cost differences, and making outsourcing less economically viable.

In the last 30 years, the invention of optical fibre, cellular radio and digital switching has modernized the telecom business. Telecom providers face unparalleled change as value continues to move away from traditional services as a result of technology and regulatory drivers.

The tactical question facing telecom businesses is, whether their capabilities in their current markets provide them with a benefit over current incumbents and new market competitors in media and entertainment, and IT service providers. Consistent competitive advantage will depend on the ability of telecom providers to line up their unique capabilities, specifically their strategic assets in fixed voice, broadband and mobile networks as well as customer relationships and insights.

Technological changes are allowing Skype, Google, Microsoft, Facebook and MySpace, to weaken the position of traditional providers and detain a significant share of incremental communication revenues. These providers attribute disruptive internet-based business models and a various set of communications tools and applications, arraying from instant messaging and e-mail to social networking. These changes challenge the customary telecom business model.

A mainstream of telecom executives consider that the alteration of the business model over the next five years will be decisive strategic priority in their quest for new sources of value. After a century of leading the mix, telecom executives expect to expand their revenue sources, shifting from an overdependence on “voice” to a wide range of services like convergent “voice and content” and advertising. Telecom executives are looking to achieve these objectives in a number of ways, including moving into neighbouring consumer markets of media and enterprise IT Services. They also identify the value of working together more extensively, with external partners for cost efficiencies, to minimize risk of technology obsolescence and improve business receptiveness and agility to make an effective telecom business model.

Technologies are most likely to drive the industry over the next five years, like nanotech and mesh networking that could change the complete cost structure of networks and hardware. Other major progress of existing technology is optical Ethernet and Wi-Fi. These technologies also have serious disruptive potential. UWB and Powerline also possess lot of potential for improvement to bring revolution in telecom business. Many of these are in early stage of R&D. Yet, we can truly assess, how these will impact the way operators construct networks and deliver price services. It is unpredictability that is the central challenge of telecommunications.

Distance will vanish in future prospectus of telecom business and only the agile who know how to pool resources will be the winners. The telecom business in 2012 will be extremely different from the one we know today. Building strong partnership skills, focusing on customer focused approach, embracing new advanced technology and talking into the language of your customers will enable the industry to thrive well in the future.

Source by Alex Tipu