The Technology Lifecycle of Pain

In today’s business world, there are more telecommunication and technology options available than ever before. From cloud, internet, unified communications, call centers, collaboration, landlines and cellphones to email and chat, each option can be quintessential to business operations. However, each new option made available brings new challenges that complicate your network. It’s not uncommon for a company to fall into the technology lifecycle of pain.     

The Eight Stages of Pain

The technology lifecycle of pain refers to eight common pain points that organizations experience when attempting to modernize their telecom and network infrastructure. Each step of the lifecycle actively works against your business, costing you time and money. Here are the eight phases you should be aware of. 

Identification

Every communication option serves a particular purpose and solves different business needs. The only problem is, if you have a communication problem that needs a solution, you have to take the time to find the necessary software or hardware. Not only is identifying needed technology time consuming, but it can be a complex process as well. 

Sourcing

Identifying the right solution for your business requires research into the vendors that provide the service. And to ensure you’re getting the best service for the best price, it’s necessary to compare the solutions you’re considering. Not to mention, is the provider informing or telling you everything you need to know about their solution or how it integrates with your existing services and infrastructure?  And what is needed to actually implement the new solution?

Contracting

Since prices for technology services aren’t necessarily set in stone, you have the opportunity to negotiate a better price. However, if you aren’t an expert,, negotiating a fair price for the service you picked is next to impossible. Even if you get a fair price, are all costs included: service fees, surcharges, taxes, non-recurring charges? Too often, we see a negotiated fair price actually cost more than what was previously thought to be the extremely high-priced offer.  Normalizing the data between offerings grows more and more confusing and difficult every day. Plain and simple: contracts are confusing and there are many “gotchas” to look out for

Procurement

The procurement process brings about a multitude of pain points because once the service is contracted, it is on you to provide all information in a timely manner. That means you have to fill out requisite documentation with technical information about existing services and the services to be migrated. 

Too often, projects are delayed and costs increase due to a lack of information or clients being told they don't have to provide much info, only to find out that they do. On top of that, the sales team is no longer involved at this stage, so their knowledge is lost, often leading to time delays and cost overrun. 

As a result, you’re frequently sold on one thing, but when you go to order it, you are given a completely different set of rules and guidelines and, more often than not, a completely different team. When scoping and technical reviews aren't performed in detail prior to final contracting and procurement, critical factors are missed, and you ultimately pay the price with wasted time and cost overruns.

Implementation

During project implementation, points of contact change from carrier to carrier, so you’re left managing the project while keeping all teams updated and on pace. When a carrier provides a project manager, they rarely have the technical expertise or time to navigate multi-vendor projects and see all services through to completion.

When that happens, you have to manage multiple carriers/vendors, coordinate order delivery and implementation, develop the process, manage communication between carriers and vendors, and represent the ones who should be representing you as a technical liaison.

The result? You become the project manager. You have to deal with managing the issues, and it typically becomes a full-time job on top of your full-time job. Why? Because the hard work is almost never done up front by the providers. If they address the difficult questions upfront, you may end up telling them, “No,” which would jeopardize a sale for the sales team. That’s why the only sales team you should be willing to buy from is one that’s happy to answer the hard questions prior to implementation.

Billing

More often than not, the invoices are confusing and mislead you unless you know what you’re looking at? But when was the last time you sat down and tried to decipher your cell phone bill—let alone a telecom invoice?

If you think you have a handle on carrier billing, ask yourself these questions:

• How often does my vendor review my initial invoice with me? 
• Who’s there, on my side, looking out to ensure that I’m getting what I’m paying for?
• When billing errors occur, who is there to help me and manage the dispute? 

If you’re having a hard time answering any of these questions, you probably don’t have as good a grip on billing as you thought you did.

Change Management

You would think that if you’re changing your service, your previous provider would disconnect your old service for you and cease billing. However, the carrier is under no obligation to do so. As a result, you could find that you were double charged for your old and new service. To ensure that doesn’t happen, you’re then left with the responsibility of coordinating migration timelines, scheduling end-of-service dates, and looking out for phantom services.

Reporting

Regardless if they have the right tools or not (they almost never do), most account teams don’t know how to properly use them to access information on your inventory or usage. Like invoices, carrier reports are often misleading, and they never paint a full picture of what you actually have. Reporting only becomes more of a struggle when you need to collect data across multiple locations.

End the Lifecycle of Pain With Telapprise

Bring an end to the telecom lifecycle of pain with Telapprise. Every day, an increasing number of businesses are turning to technology management solutions to save money, reduce risk, allow for better governance and compliance,  increase visibility, and enable informed decision making. With our approach, we make sure your network architecture is built to save you money while adding lasting value to your operations.