Telecom Expense Management and Call Accounting Technology!
Three Ways to Clean up Your Inventory Reporting
How "clean" is your inventory reporting? And why does it matter?
According to the latest AOTMP State of the Telecom Management Industry, the top cause for poor performing practices in organizations is poor inventory management. And this is in spite of the fact that there are plenty of tools and programs available to help IT departments gain better control over their inventory. So why do managers still struggle with "dirty" inventories?
Here are some of the main issues keeping IT and Telecom managers from creating clean, well-managed inventory reporting:
- Not keeping up with Moves, Adds, Changes and Disconnects (MACDs)
- Not keeping current on your MACDs will quickly impact the accuracy of your inventory. And it can take time to get it back on track. The bottom line is that if your data is bad, so is everything else.
- A disjointed service ordering process
- When there is no centralized process for placing orders, each department will simply do it their own way. This will knock the entire system out of alignment. The process should be streamlined, understood and followed by everyone.
- Reliance solely on invoices to create a baseline record of assets and services of your environment
- Lacking any independent method of validating inventory down to the component level, you are simply copying all the errors that might be lurking in your invoices. To produce a clean inventory you need detailed information, including things like customer service records.
- Poor reconciliation between MACD transactions and inventory
- Like dominoes, once this gets out of alignment everything falls victim to inaccuracy. It will quickly degrade the validity of your inventory.
- Lack of visibility of assets and services across multiple sites
- If you can't see it properly, how can you keep track of it? Inaccuracy among sites only serves to magnify the problem and makes it extremely difficult to create a clean inventory report.
The bottom line: a "somewhat accurate" inventory doesn't cut it!
The ATOMP report found, in its survey, that most of the respondents characterized their inventories as "somewhat accurate". But when dealing with important assets that involve money spent to maintain them, "somewhat accurate" falls short.
How to clean up your inventory? Here are three tips:
Integrate and streamlineIt's important to make sure that your IT, telecom and mobility procurement activities are organized to enable better visibility over all your purchasing activity.
Clean up your MACD processEvaluate how you conduct MACDs today and identify process gaps. Document your corrected procedures to ensure a uniform method that all can follow.
Know where all your assets resideIdentify the physical, assigned location and user association for each of your assets and services. Clearly identify the associated cost center for each as well to enable proper invoice reconciliation and validation.
The good news is that you don't have to do all this yourself. Look for a Telecom Expense Management provider with the professional services experience to help you navigate through each process. It is important to note that not all Telecom Expense Management solutions will provide the level of organization and granularity needed to create a clean, operational inventory. So do your homework!
TeleManagement Technologies, Inc. "TTI" has been working with organizations to help them tighten up processes, organize inventory and gain full control over their inventories for thirty years. Contact us to find out how we can help you clean up your inventory reporting and keep it that way!
About TeleManagement Technologies, Inc.
Since 1987, TTI has been designing software products that provide a better solution to managing corporate technology, inventory, expenses and services. For more information, visit www.telmantec.com.
