Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/58400
5 1. 2. 38 ILTA White Paper Criteria fo Telecom Man As new technologies enhance your firm's communications, there is a challenge — providing these communication tools without losing control over costs or visibility. When selecting a telecom management platform, the enterprise manager must evaluate the quality of the platform and its provider, applying the same methodologies leveraged for choosing any enterprise-level application, to ensure long-term benefits to the enterprise and its users. When evaluating tools for managing telecom, you should consider the following five criteria: Platform Independence: With the push toward a distributed enterprise (regional offices and remote employees), cloud-based solutions have the upper hand over locally installed applications. A Web-based or software-as-a-service solution affords clients the ability to access the information universally, and gain the benefits of hardware independence and instant access to software enhancements and improvements. An advanced telecom management software solution is one that offers users universal access, and is network- and platform-independent. User-Centric Information: In order for a software application to ensure user productivity, it must make the information that matters to a user easily accessible. A productive telecom management software solution provides reports that are pertinent to the user accessing that information, whether the user is someone in the accounting department looking for an invoice or a user from the information technology department looking for inventory and order information. If an organization has regional managers responsible for managing regional costs, the right software solution should narrow any reports, spending, inventory, orders or tickets down to the pertinent offices in each specific region, making it more accessible for that manager, and eliminating the need to wade through unnecessary information.