Operations Systems (software) support seems to be infinitely difficult to grasp, especially within a telecom company. For some reason, only few people understand the unique telecom business requirements and can translate them into an IT-strategy.
Suppliers of equipment and software can be compared to automobile manufacturers without a driver's license. It is very hard for them to grasp the (often non-technical) complexities and historic reasons for certain operational processes.
They may not understand, for example, that the long-term power and space requirements
in some data centers may be of more value to you than the actual equipment installed at that space. Will their software fit your organizational processes, or will your organization be forced into their pre-designed software processes? Do you have your processes documented?
Multiple suppliers offer bits and pieces of what is required. Each and everyone will claim that their dedicated service and/or software supporting one area of your business can easily be adapted to include other areas. Invariably, this is where problems start.
Other suppliers throw dozens of packages at their customers, dazzling them with all the features that can be made available almost immediately. Unfortunately, many of these software packages have been designed by separate teams, without a budget or a business need to integrate them.
There are also the businesses that make use of integrators to combine their incongruent products, without realizing that by adding another party in the integration game they have substantially worsened the implementation process.
Sounds familiar?
Having defined, budgeted, negotiated, implemented and managed telecom-wide software projects including dozens of packages, I'd be pleased to assist you with all the above items.