Today’s businesses are investing more in technology than ever before and this investment has changed the way that businesses operate. Technologies like: cloud platforms, AI, CRM systems, cybersecurity, business intelligence and so on. While these are each individual technologies, they all have something in common; they can’t operate in isolation.
Behind many of today’s technologies is an essential underlying layer of connectivity that makes it possible for information to move between people, systems and locations but the more dependent a business becomes on digital technology, the more dependent it becomes on the infrastructure connecting that technology together.
Software Has Changed the Workplace
The modern workplace of today is entirely different from the one businesses operated in even a decade ago. Employees no longer need to be sitting in the same office, connected to the same physical network to access the systems they need to do their jobs.
This transformation has brought enormous benefits for many businesses. They can now operate more easily across multiple locations, employ people who work remotely, collaborate with international teams and access sophisticated software without having to maintain all of the underlying infrastructure themselves. However, it’s important to note that this move has actually increased the importance of Telecoms to a business’s survival.
A cloud-based application still needs a reliable connection, a video conference still needs sufficient bandwidth and network performance, a remote employee still needs a secure way of connecting to corporate systems and a cloud-based contact-center still relies on connectivity to connect their employees to customers.
Connectivity Is the Common Thread
Consider how many systems a business uses during a normal working day that rely on connectivity. Each of those platforms serves a different purpose but from an infrastructure perspective they are connected by the same underlying requirement. Information needs to travel reliably between the employee, the organisation’s network and the systems they are accessing and when everything works as it should, nobody gives much thought to this process.
It’s only when connectivity becomes unreliable that its importance becomes quite obvious to those that rely on it. A slow connection can make cloud applications frustrating to use, poor connectivity can interrupt meetings and affect customer conversations and an outage can prevent employees and even customers from accessing critical systems altogether.
This is why it is so important that connectivity be treated as important, if not more important, than the technologies that rely on it.
The Growth of Digital Business Has Created More Complexity
The challenge for businesses is that their connectivity environments have become considerably more complicated as their technology environments have evolved.
A business might have mobile services for employees, fibre connections between offices, internet services, cloud communications, SIP services, SD-WAN, remote-working connectivity and so on. These may be supplied by a range of services providers and governed by different contracts and some of these services may have been introduced recently, while others may have been in place for years now.
This isn’t necessarily a sign that a business has managed its telecoms environment badly but it is often simply the result of a business evolving over time.
One decision leads to another and eventually an business can find itself managing a telecoms environment that is significantly more complex than the one it started with. What makes complexity so difficult is that it isn’t always visible at an executive level. The business sees the applications and services it uses every day, while the underlying telecoms environment can become fragmented across multiple service providers, contracts, invoices and internal systems.
When Technology Investment Outruns Infrastructure
This creates an important consideration for businesses undertaking digital transformation.
Businesses spend a considerable amount of time deciding which software platforms to adopt. They look at things like; functionality, security, integration, user experience and cost before making significant investments. Yet the connectivity required to support those platforms can sometimes receive much less attention.
The problem isn’t necessarily that the technology invested in was wrong. The issue is that the technology and connectivity have been considered as separate decisions when they are actually incredibly dependent on one another.
A successful digital strategy therefore needs to look beyond just the software being purchased and consider the infrastructure that will allow that software to deliver its intended value.
Understanding the Environment Becomes Just as Important as Maintaining It
As connectivity becomes more critical, simply keeping services operational is no longer enough. Businesses also need a clear understanding of what exists within their telecoms environment and how it supports the wider business.
That means knowing what services exist, who uses them, where they are located, what contracts support them and how their usage is changing over time. It means being able to identify when the business’s requirements have changed and determine whether the telecoms environment has changed with them.
This is one of the areas where modern Telecom Expense Management Services can provide significant value.
TEMS is often associated with invoice management and cost reduction but its role can extend much further. By bringing together information about telecoms services, contracts, usage, expenditure and so on, a TEMS platform can give businesses a much clearer picture of the infrastructure supporting their digital operations.
Telegence, our proudly Telesa Comms designed, developed and deployed TEMS platform, provides that centralised view, helping businesses to move away from fragmented information and towards a more complete understanding of their telecoms environment.
The value of that visibility isn’t simply finding something to cut from the monthly bill. It is being able to make better, data-based decisions about the infrastructure that supports the rest of the business
