savings are depicted in Figure 16.19, as a contribution to a better ROCE. There are reasons, however, to include an increased fault management cost at the point in time when the new network is taken into operation and until other technologies have been phased out. The capital employed term is a little more complex to explain. Let us use the tele- com management activity traffic management as a tool. In a given network situation an improved traffic management allows higher traffic handling, enabling a postponing of network expansions. Telecom management may be considered then as reducing the tied capital or network assets. Telecom management spare handling is another possible means to reduce capital employed through better administration, for example sharing store holding with suppliers. 16.7 CUSTOMER CARE AND DATA WAREHOUSING 16.7.1 BILLING AND CUSTOMER CARE Customer care is important in winning and keeping customers, as it can be the differentia- tor in the marketplace. As more services are added to the operator portfolio the demands on customer care become more complex, involving more systems, more interfaces and more procedures. This complexity can severely inhibit the TTM goals. Often customer care systems are the last to be developed or upgraded to cater for new products and services. The infrastructure and software for the new services are frequently available long before the customer care systems and procedures can be updated to handle them. This causes delays in launching the new services in the marketplace. Telecom Management - Operations Billing is a vital area for operator business, since collection of billing revenues and customer billing satisfaction can build up competitive advantages. The position of billing at the end of the process chain is shown in Figure 16.20. The IT development costs for a rapidly evolving operator is a dominant expenditure. It can even be greater than expenditures on the network infrastructure. Huge costs are frequently involved in adapting billing systems to new technologie