Category: Enterprise Asset Management

The telecommunications world is constantly changing, and CSPs, are continuously adapting to meet the increasing demands of the market. In this ever-evolving landscape, having effective processes for reconciling fixed assets, known as the Fixed Asset Registry (FAR), is crucial for CSPs to manage their assets accurately, ensure correct billing, and collect revenue.

The Importance of FAR Reconciliation

FAR reconciliation ensures that the records of fixed assets accurately represent the physical assets deployed in a telecom operator’s network. In today’s business environment, where achieving a positive return on investment (ROI) and maintaining financial integrity are crucial, inadequate FAR reconciliation processes can lead to revenue loss, with an average annual loss of 2-5%. Since a significant amount of capital expenditure is dedicated to network assets, it is critical for CSPs to manage their assets accurately to achieve ROI.

The Challenges Faced by CSPs in FAR Reconciliation

CSPs encounter several challenges when it comes to FAR reconciliation. Let’s take a closer look at these challenges:

1. Complex and Diverse Asset Ecosystem: CSPs must reconcile and integrate diverse assets from different vendors, operating on various technologies, and requiring specialized management approaches. Managing this complexity and ensuring accurate records is a challenge for CSPs.

2. Rapid Asset Deployment and Scalability: The telecom industry demands fast asset deployment and scalability to meet the growing requirements of data-intensive applications and increased connectivity. CSPs need to reconcile assets quickly and accurately to optimize their utilization. However, the speed of deployment and asset expansion can create bottlenecks, resulting in delays, errors, and incomplete records.

3. Real-time Asset Visibility and Control: CSPs require real-time visibility and control over their assets. However, there is often a gap between the financial teams and the network teams when it comes to tracking assets. Factors like depreciation and taxation are not always considered in asset tracking and reconciliation processes, leading to discrepancies between the asset registry and financial records.

4. Data Complexity and Volume: The telecom industry generates vast amounts of data from various sources, such as network elements, provisioning systems, billing systems, and operational support systems. Managing and reconciling this complex and voluminous data is a challenge for CSPs. They need advanced data management techniques to process, validate, and derive actionable insights from this data.

5. Lack of Standardization: The absence of standardized FAR reconciliation processes, data formats, and industry-wide practices poses a challenge for CSPs. Inconsistencies in reconciliation approaches across CSPs and ecosystem partners hinder interoperability, data exchange, and collaboration. CSPs require a standardized framework to streamline reconciliation processes and facilitate information sharing among stakeholders.

The Five Key Principles of FAR Reconciliation

To overcome these challenges and achieve successful FAR reconciliation, CSPs must adopt five crucial capabilities. These capabilities empower CSPs to enhance their enterprise asset management processes, improve financial performance, and establish a strong foundation for the efficient operation of their networks.

To learn more about these five principles and how they can empower CSPs in the modern era, you can download our white paper titled “The Five Key Principles of FAR Reconciliation: Empowering Success in the Modern Era.” This white paper provides valuable insights, strategies, and best practices for CSPs to optimize their FAR reconciliation processes and thrive in the ever-changing telecom landscape.

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Introduction:

The telecommunications industry has seen significant changes over the past decade, with a shift towards a customer-centric approach that puts the user experience first. With the growing demand for seamless connectivity, telcos are investing heavily in new technologies such as AI. The industry is now at a critical junction, where it’s essential for companies to understand the role of technology in accelerating their initiatives. This is especially true as telecom companies face increasing pressure to meet their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals. According to a recent survey by Deloitte, 90% of telecommunications companies have ESG initiatives in place, and 84% of them have set specific ESG targets. In addition, rising fuel prices are driving the need for telecoms to reduce energy costs and adopt more sustainable practices.

The telecommunications industry consumes a significant amount of energy, accounting for 2% of the global energy consumption. The industry’s carbon footprint is also growing, with greenhouse gas emissions expected to reach 9.5 gigatons by 2040. To meet their ESG goals and reduce energy costs, telecom companies must turn to innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

AI can help accelerate telecom companies’ Net Zero initiatives in several ways:

Reducing Carbon Emissions from Assets: AI technology can be used to optimize asset performance and predict and prevent failures, reducing downtime and the cost of maintenance. This can help reduce carbon emissions by making sure that the right equipment is purchased at the right time and reducing energy consumption and CO2 production during the manufacturing or production processes.

Optimizing Power Consumption: AI can help identify areas of the network where there is a high energy demand and then optimize those areas to reduce power consumption, reducing costs on a global scale and accelerating Net Zero initiatives.

Developing New Services: AI has the potential to significantly impact telecom operations, not just technically but also in terms of business. For example, AI-powered predictive maintenance software could be developed to identify patterns of failure before they happen and prevent them from occurring.

The potential impact of AI on telecoms is massive. It has the potential to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions from telecom assets, which could have a significant impact on climate change. AI has also been shown to be able to optimize operations across all industries, helping companies identify critical gaps in their value chain and fill those gaps by developing solutions that are tailored according to specific needs. In many cases, this type of innovation requires no new technology – tapping into existing data sets can result in significant savings for businesses worldwide.

For example, the global power grid consumes more than 100 terawatt hours per year (TWh/year), which is more electricity than all humans use globally every year. To ensure a sustainable future for the telecommunications industry, solutions must be developed that enable companies to save these resources and prevent them from being wasted or potentially becoming harmful due to liability issues associated with misuse by others.

Conclusion:

Artificial intelligence has the potential to revolutionize the telecommunications industry, transforming everything from how networks are operated to how assets are managed. The future of telecoms will be driven by innovation, and AI is the next big step in this evolution. As the telecommunications industry faces increasing pressure to meet ESG goals and reduce energy costs, AI technology offers a promising solution to these challenges.

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The efficient and successful management of the physical assets required to deliver telecommunications services is known as Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) in the telecoms sector. These resources consist of fiber-optic cables, cell towers, and other voice and data transmission infrastructure. It is not surprising that EAM is being used in the telecommunications business given the growing usage of artificial intelligence (AI) in many other industries.

Automating repetitive operations is one of the key advantages of employing AI in EAM. This covers activities like keeping track of and maintaining assets, spotting possible problems, and planning maintenance. AI-powered solutions, for instance, may be used to evaluate data from asset sensors to spot possible issues before they arise. This might lessen downtime and increase the asset lifespan. AI may also be used to improve maintenance scheduling, guaranteeing that assets are maintained at the ideal time and minimizing the impact on operations.

Enhancing decision-making is another advantage of employing AI in EAM. AI-powered systems can uncover insights via the analysis of vast volumes of data that would be challenging or impossible for humans to find. AI can, for instance, be used to spot trends in data that point to a certain asset’s propensity to fail. Using this data, maintenance and repair tasks may be prioritised so that the most important assets are taken care of first. AI may also be used to optimise the placement of resources, such as choosing the ideal site for a new cell tower.

AI has the potential to increase EAM’s effectiveness. AI-powered solutions can free up time for human personnel to concentrate on more complicated and strategic duties by automating repetitive operations and offering insights. By reducing downtime and extending the lifespan of assets, AI may also assist in lowering the cost of EAM.

Predictive maintenance is one particular use of AI in EAM in the telecoms sector. Utilizing data and analytics to anticipate when equipment is likely to malfunction and plan maintenance appropriately is known as predictive maintenance. This method can assist in reducing unplanned downtime and extending the life of equipment. By using sensors on equipment to collect data and AI algorithms to evaluate the data and spot possible issues, predictive maintenance may be accomplished.

Network optimization is a particular area where AI in EAM is being used in the telecommunications sector. In order to boost performance and cut expenses, the network setup must be optimised using AI. For instance, AI may be used to analyse network data to spot bottlenecks and improve data routing to cut down on delays. In order to assure the highest coverage and capacity, AI may also be used to deploy assets like cell towers in the best possible locations.

In conclusion, EAM in the telecoms sector has the potential to become much more effective and efficient thanks to AI. AI-powered solutions may assist in lowering downtime, extending the lifespan of assets, and enhancing network performance by automating repetitive operations, enhancing decision-making, and optimising the deployment of assets. Future uses of AI in EAM in the telecoms sector are probably going to increase as technology develops further.

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To establish the worth of your company, you must first consider what you possess. Assets are the key measure of a company’s worth; thus, they must be managed thoroughly.

This necessitates Enterprise Asset Management (EAM). EAM is described as a method of managing assets across IT, network, and software, throughout their lifespan, from purchase through disposal. EAM attempts to maximise asset utilisation and optimise asset lifecycle management through policies, methods, and resources that maintain and regulate operational assets and equipment.

Without such a structure, you risk losing assets, incurring cost overruns, inefficient utilisation, and even facing security concerns.

Let us now look at key terms in Telecom Enterprise Asset Management like asset, asset lifecycle, and what to look for in an EAM solution

What is an asset?

An asset, according to a conventional asset management definition, is an object, thing, or entity that has prospective or existing value to an organisation. Value is mostly viewed from a monetary standpoint (we may make/save money from it, i.e., ROI). However, non-financial factors such as brand, comfort, the convenience of use, and competitive advantage are also important.

The standard also divides assets into two categories:

• Physical Assets: Those that can be touched, such as network equipment, inventory, IT assets, and real estate
• Intangible assets: Leases, brands, digital assets, usage rights, software licences, intellectual property rights, reputation, and agreements are examples of immaterial assets.

What is Enterprise Asset Management?

Asset management is the coordinated effort of an organisation to extract value from assets. The term “activity” is used widely here since it can refer to:

• The strategy
• The preparation
• The plans and their execution

So, asset management is more than just keeping track of what you possess. A more accurate definition is:

Asset management is a rigorous discipline that explores how to measure, appraise, manage, and maximise the quality and dependability of assets.

Enterprise Asset Management Lifecycle

To guarantee that value is gained or kept, the path of an asset through the EAM lifecycle must be controlled at every stage. Let’s go over the key stages of the lifecycle:

1. Planning & Budgeting

Understanding your company strategy, including which assets are necessary to fulfil your goals, is required. Planning also entails:

• Creating precise timelines
• Budget allocation

2. Acquisition

In this case, the choice is between outright purchase and leasing. As the asset is delivered to the company and safely held pending deployment, your enterprise’s procurement processes come into action. Physical assets would be tracked in tracking systems and labelled with suitable identifying labels.

The supplier’s obligations, including maintenance, are often defined in acquisition contracts.

3. Assignment

An assignment is initiated by either a user request or project-based timetables. Policies governing assignment and usage would apply, with some assignments needing approval or monetary commitment. The assignee’s records would be entered into tracking systems and fixed asset registries as needed.

• Training users would be part of the assignment process for some assets.
• During the assignment process, digital assets may require configuration and customisation, as well as security.

4. Utilization & Optimization

In this case, the asset is used to deliver actual value in order to accomplish the strategic objectives. When an asset reaches the Utilization phase, you will conduct routine tasks such as:

• Asset usage (and misuse) is monitored using suitable tools such as technology systems and audits.
• Auditing finances on a yearly basis to track the worth of assets as their bought value depreciates over time.

Repairs, servicing, and upgrades may all be included in optimization to ensure that assets continue to serve the organisation for as long as feasible.

5. Decommissioning

This entails reversing the asset’s assignment and removing it from usage. Decommissioning can be triggered by:

• Lease term expiration
• Depreciation
• Obsolescence
• Breakdown to the point that repair is unlikely to be beneficial

You will carry out the following tasks during decommissioning:

• Update the asset’s records Determine the asset’s ultimate financial worth
• Transfer the item to a secure location for disposal or return.

You’ll need to transmit or archive any digital assets before performing security checks for confirmation.

6. Disposal

Enterprise policies usually govern how you dispose of retired equipment.

• Some assets can be sold to a willing buyer for a profit.
• Other assets can be given to charity, destroyed, or wasted, eventually ending up in a landfill.
• If the lease contract specifies it, leased items will be returned to their owner.

EAM solutions

Manual EAM operations are only practicable in small businesses and organisations in today’s digital world. Middle- and large-sized businesses demand powerful systems that can track hundreds, if not millions, of assets on a worldwide scale, especially in the age of IoT and mobile devices.

As a result, according to a recent forecast, the EAM solutions market will grow at a powerful 17.0% CAGR, rising from $5.5 billion in 2019 to $25.9 billion by 2030.

Modern EAM systems are often cloud-based and enable automated functionality across the whole lifecycle, allowing your organisation to:

• Have a complete picture of all your assets across multiple functions, specifically the Financial and Technical organization.
• Maximize the total cost of ownership (TCO) of each asset during its lifetime.

To know more, visit: Subex Enterprise Asset Management

Leverage end-to-end Business Intelligence across the enterprise asset lifecycle to yield significant network savings.

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