ICT MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK FOR TELECOMMUNICATIONS INDUSTRY

ICT Management Framework for Telecommunications Industry



ICT Management Framework for Telecommunications Industry

Introduction

Information Management has become a strategic resource. A crucial step just step before achieving total Knowledge Management (KM) in an organization, it's considered as foundation to running any successful organization which can have potential to grant adequate Return on Investments (RoI), over its IT spending, in near and far future. Whilst observers and forecasters describe and predict the oncoming of an information society, or information economy, firms and their managements have been investing in information technology (IT) to seek strategic and competitive advantage. A number of well known exemplars have had headline impacts as they create apparent competitive edge, produce significant productivity and performance gains, or provide new ways of managing and doing business. The exploits of Merill Lynch, American Hospital Supply, or American Airlines in the USA, Reuters, Thomson Holidays, and the Nottingham Building Society in the UK have excited or alerted even the sternest critic of computing and IT.

Discussion

Especially in the last decade, the advancement in Telecommunication infrastructure and new technologies in enabling high speed transfer of data over Public Switched networks, has brought about changes in Information Management as well, indirectly affecting how we conceptualize the organization and as to how, managers and specialists work. Often there is a correspondence between new organizational terminology and the language of IT. Networked organizations, inter-organizational alliances, distributed organizations, and the intelligent or knowledge-based corporation, are examples (Gottlieb, L. and Dilevko, J. 2001).

All this speculation and analysis is predicated maybe at a conceptual level on organizations being seen as systems or structures of communication and information processing. In this light, new advances in communication technologies might allow us more choice in organization design and the ability to increase our information and communication channels.

Managing the Information and converting it into Knowledge

More important than any IT systems one might implement, it's the always availability and fast retrieval of the Information itself. To Identify the information frontline staff and customers require, and gather this together as soon as possible, form the basis of knowledge and core of Information Management. Once we have the raw information, to shape this into a structured and usable knowledge repository wouldn't be much of a problem. Only then will we be in a position to deliver a complete KM solution. In this age or doing businesses online, one is responsible and legally accountable for every piece of information provided to customers, either on or offline. When the stakes are so high, it's utmost desirable to have our Informational Databases accurate and up to date. The following points are utmost essential to bring this about. There are a number of practical steps one can take to ensure information accuracy (Case, 1986):

·We should have in place a permanent team to create and update informational content.

·We should establish permanent communication channels with the sources of new information (policy groups, business units, etc).

·We should ensure that updating the informational database is part of the 'sign off' requirements for ...