Even during these uncertain times, 72% of IT leaders see their budgets increasing or remaining unchanged, according to a recent poll by Pulse. Sitetracker’s own Telecom Infrastructure Provider Outlook found a correlating sentiment among Telecom executives and increasing project volume: 68% of participants surveyed anticipate increased or similar demand for telecom infrastructure. 41% of participants anticipate moderate or significantly increased demand. Now, the only possible way to meet that increased demand is to empower teams with optimized processes driven by modern technology. It’s a simple logical equation: better processes + better technology = higher efficiency.
Now, let’s break down how only purpose-built solutions can empower better processes for telecom work.
Optimal visibility consists of a frictionless flow of information combined with the ability to view, report, and analyze data on both a strategic and tactical level.
While interpersonal communication platforms like Zoom (despite its security issues) have evolved from the “nice to have” to “absolute must” categories, platforms that make information flow frictionless by acting as single sources of truth must also receive a priority upgrade. Institutional knowledge and project data can no longer only reside in the heads of company veterans or across disparate repositories. They must be readily accessible and organized in an effective manner to minimize the time and effort it takes to receive them. During normal times, 38% of a telecom worker’s day is eaten up by review and update meetings while 34% of telecom workers report spending 6 hours or more each week preparing reports. Purpose-built solutions provide instant and broad visibility that turn two hours of meetings into five minutes looking at a dashboard.
Automation of manual tasks is the purpose of technology, and telecom work is no exception.
Companies that started their business on new technologies have seen unparalleled growth rates to both revenue and expansion into other industries. Take Tillman Infrastructure, for example, a relatively new tower company that started their enterprise on Sitetracker. With a maniacal focus on growth, empowered by modern tools, Tillman was able to grow their tower portfolio from a dozen to thousands of towers in just three years. Furthermore, as Tillman grew and started utilizing more and more of Sitetracker’s functionality, project completion times improved by 40%. Of course, Tillman had the flexibility and mobility advantage of a startup. But this is a testament to the positive relationship between a company’s willingness to adopt state-of-the-art solutions and their ability to grow. From an economic standpoint, increasing automation represents an empowering of the individual, the team, and therefore the organization.
If technology mitigates the negative impact current events have on productivity, will firms realize the huge potential of modern solutions during normal times?
The new work paradigm is forcing industries that are typically averse to adopting new technologies to find some reprieve in what they once deemed unnecessary. But the bigger question remains – once this is all over, will companies realize the effectiveness of purpose-built solutions that empower seamless collaboration? Will they keep the systems they adopted? To put it another way, will companies realize that the same tools that currently mitigate a productivity downturn can also supercharge performance in the future?