Photo of Tim Colwell
Written by
Timothy C. Colwell
Tim is Executive Vice President at AOTMP University

Service and asset inventory is the keystone of all telecom, mobility, and IT management practices. Inventory accuracy is the attribute that separates the good from the bad when considering its contribution to technical, financial, and operational workstreams.

What does accuracy really mean, though, and how is accuracy being redefined as a single source of truth guiding center of excellence performance? In homage to the dueling titles of the classic Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons, let’s explore what a single source of truth means for enterprises seeking to leverage the telecom, mobility, and IT technology estate as a strategic business asset.

Inventory is a collection of service and asset details assembled from various sources and validated against a set of known logical and physical parameters. Common inventory data sources are vendor invoices, contracts, network diagrams, location directories, employee rosters, and business unit details. By applying business rules that use knowns to clarify unknowns in inventory, point-in-time accuracy can be achieved.

Single source of truth for a telecom, mobility, and IT service and asset inventory means data is always accurate and serves the role of the trusted source of technology environment data for the business. Inventory becomes the single source of truth when validation practices that incorporate an everchanging set of business, vendor, and technology knowns and unknowns are applied in real-time. This affords technology management practitioners and leaders with the highest level of confidence in inventory data, which leads to more informed business decisions.

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