Over the past two decades, the TEM industry has developed innovative technologies and processes that have enabled large (and not so large) corporations actively to govern and optimize their telecom spend. Billions of dollars have been saved as a result. Now, as this new industry reaches maturity, it is also feeling the impact of the exponential technologies that are disrupting the business world. As a result, it is again morphing into something new and remarkably different –and, this time, far more valuable.

At the heart of this transformation is the blurring of the old boundaries between telecommunications and information processing. Telecommunications and processing capacity used to be businesses as different from one another as a copper wires and chips. Not any more: cloud computing has taken care of that. Now, high-powered digital connectivity is enabling companies to outsource entire processes on dedicated digital connections or over the internet. These activities represent chunks of the business that not that long ago were considered core. Think applications like sales management or human resources, formerly considered core and now subject to being outsourced to specialized online providers. How do you govern THAT? 

Enter I-TEM.  Leaders in the field like TNX have taken on the challenge of governing technology expenses with gusto. Much as was the case with telecoms until recently, IT expenses are being closely managed: usage policies are being enacted and monitored, inventories are controlled to the hilt, contracts are optimized to reflect the latest technological and market changes, and so on. Are employees using the latest application that was rolled out to them or are they still using the old solution, that feels oh, so much more familiar? Ask your I-TEM vendor. Are paper sheets being printed with the same intensity as three years ago in your high-speed printer? Should they be? Ask your I-TEM vendor. What happened with the laptop, iPad or mobile phone that this employee was using before she was transferred to another unit? Ask your I-TEM vendor. What am I paying for software licenses? Is that too much? Well, you know who to ask.

And that is just the start. Governing all cloud-based solutions resembles more and more the challenge of governing the business itself. Leaders have wisely began to rely on their I-TEM vendor to help them tackle at least part of this new challenge. Welcome to the I-TEM world.

Raul Rivera, Chairman and President, TNX Corp