The Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM): Introduction, Purpose and Benefits
The Telecommunication industry operates in a dynamic market where the key to success is adaptability with agility. In the traditional scenario, Telecom Service providers delivered end-to-end services to their customers. They used to control almost the entire value chain. However in the present liberalized marketplace, they now have to face challenges like stiffer competition, higher customer expectations, falling market share and growing price pressures. To respond to these challenges, Service providers have to go beyond self contained boundaries. They have to broaden their business relationship with suppliers, partners and customers and work out outsourcing arrangements. Even though the Service providers worldwide encounter different regulatory environments and have different strategies to stay relevant in the industry, they have similar needs, challenges, risks and struggles to remain profitable in the face of unprecedented churns in the market.
The increased complexities of competing in a deregulated environment led to identification of a clear need for the Telecom industry to define and understand its business processes in order to tackle the growing market pressures. The industry needed a standardized process view for suppliers and partners so that they can build enterprise systems that combine third party and in-house developments. To realize these needs, a framework or a model was required that focused on the business processes used, the linkages between processes, the identification of interfaces, and the use of Customer, Service, Resource, Supplier/Partner and other information by multiple processes.
Since the 1980s and ‘90s, Telecom companies used few models to express the system and functional requirements. Models like Telecommunications Management Network (TMN) and Fault, Configuration, Accounting, Performance, and Security Management (FCAPS) were the most popular. However these models were very network-centric. The need of the hour was a process driven and a customer centric framework. To address this need, Enhanced Telecom Operations Map (eTOM) was developed by TeleManagement Forum (TM Forum), an international consortium of communications service providers and their suppliers.
The eTOM Business Process Framework serves as a model for categorizing all the business activities performed by the service provider. Each area of business activity is defined in form of process components which can be broken into different levels of detail. These process components can then be positioned within a model to show organizational, functional and other relationships. They can also be linked to process flows facilitating end-end modelling. The eTOM can be used as a blueprint for categorizing and standardizing the activities performed by the service provider.
The industry has loyal customers with broad customer base that lowers the collective bargaining power of buyers to medium. The switching cost is very low and thus the customers can turn to a service provider who provide faster and innovative service but this is overcome by customized services and integrating into their customer supply chain.
Harkness, W. L. (1996, Sep). Process Improvement and Innovation in the Information Services Function: Lessons Learned at the Bose Corporation. pp. pp.349-368.
Years later, the Telecommunication Act of 1996 triggered dramatic changes in the competitive landscape. SBC Communications Inc. established itself as a global communications provider by acquiring Pacific Telesis Group and becoming the new AT&T. The merger of AT& T and BellSouth, along with the ownership consolidation of Cingular Wireless and YELLOWPAGES.COM, will speed convergence, competition and continued innovation in the communications and entertainment industry, creating new solutions for consumers and businesses and positioned to lead the industry in one of its most signifi...
Bjerke, Juel M. "Week 2 Lecture Notes - Achieving Business Process Excellence and Process Re-engineering." MFGO 601 - The Globally Integrated Manufacturing Company. 2 Nov. 2011.
Effective competition is widely seen as a key to the development of telecommunications services. The ability of new telecommunications networks to interconnect fairly and efficiently with existing networks is critical to the development of competition. AT&T has undergone numerous changes since its inception in the late 19th century. The McKinsey 7 S framework as applied by Pascale is recommended to manage the changes they are facing to adopt a greater competitive presence in the global economy. In conjunction with this framework, numerous other models were applied to analyse the global competitive position of AT&T. Recommendations for a revised strategy and direction for AT&T have been made throughout this document including two scenarios of how the telecommunications industry might develop towards 2000, while outlining the impact on AT&T.
The next competitive advantage is quality of service. Outsourced environment is quite different than that of the environment in an enterprise. Advertisers are different economic entity with profits at risk. External service provider will make every effort to deliver good quality; good service and everything will apply and will be tested. For example, the usage of the ITIL methodology. Service providers will also provide high output, and perform better output, needs, and change control. Thr...
Slack, N., Chambers, S., Johnston, R., Betts, A.,(2009). Operations and process management: Second edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited
Effectively integrating information technology (IT) into an organization’s business processes is critical if the organization wants to increase productivity and remain profitable. IT includes items such as the systems software, application software, computer hardware, and the networks and databases that help manage the organization’s information. When implementing quality standards and processes that are forever changing in the IT world, organizations must balance these changes while continuing to rapidly implement new systems technologies in order to stay competitive.
Most global corporations in today’s business world are focusing on their business process and ways to manage those processes in order to become successful and leverage themselves against competitors. The understanding is that efficient business processes are beneficial to the business in the long run when considering factors like cost reduction, meeting customer’s expectations and streamlining business operations to eliminate any loopholes that are detrimental to the business. Change (2016) defines business process management as an approach that focuses on workflow of the firm and in the process divulging any errors that may hinder good performance, hence, it is used to structure a firm’s workflow. Advances in technologies and modern business
In past few years, companies and industries of various sizes have become aware that they need to improve business processes such as product development, order fulfilment, planning, distribution, and customer service. So everybody is now focusing on doing process improvement or redesigning.
The most important value of BPM is transparency over the business. Transparency means obtaining a deep understanding of how the organization works which enables us to manage the complexity of organization effectively [11]. Business process models enables the process practitioners to achieve this by documenting: control flow (i.e., what we need to do and when), artefacts (i.e., what we need to work on either physical or electronic), and resources (i.e., who does the work either humans
Operations management strategies play an important role in any organization to achieve organizational goals. An organization uses these operations strategies to maintain and control all its operations...
E-business is a wider concept that takes into account all the aspects of use of information technology in business. Apart from buying and selling, it also includes servicing customers, collaboration with business partners, and engages incorporation across business processes and communication within the organisation (Rowley, 2002)
Mahmoodzadeh, E., Jalalinia, S. & Nekui Yazdi, F. (2009), A business process outsourcing framework based on business process management and knowledge management, Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 15, No. 6, p. 846-864
The integration of a variety of information systems into business operations is necessary for growth in the dynamic business environment. These information systems can be minimized and fixed into mobile devices such as smartphones. The use of smartphones can play an important role in supporting business processes and operations, developing strategies for competitive advantage and decision making. These smartphones allow employees to be linked to the office, its data and resources, without being in the office. The use of smartphones for business processes can make the business more efficient and effective. They make it easier for co-workers to communicate among themselves and facilitates better communication between the business and its employees, customers, suppliers and even other businesses, and makes it possible in real-time. For CPS Energy and Lloyd’s Construction, although they were doing well, they realised that they could do much better. They needed to find new ways to further cut costs and maximize profitability. They both decided that the best way to do that was through the introduction of smartphones in their business operation.