nance management is an enterprise level activity. Hence it is common to integrate telecom finance management application with the enterprise finance man- agement application. Fundamentals of EMS, NMS and OSS/BSS 31. HR management: Human resource management applications are used at the enterprise level and not restricted to telecom. Human resources departments that are not automated lack the flexibility to adjust quickly to changing busi- ness or regulatory requirements and usually have higher operational costs compared to HR departments that used software solutions for administrating salaries, benefits, recruiting, and performance management. HR solutions usually streamline payroll processing. Some of the solutions have modules that handle hiring, can do employee performance analysis, and facilitate effective communication. Automation and the smart use of software tools can go a long way toward simplifying administrative tasks and control- ling costs. 32. Knowledge management: There are solutions currently available for automat- ing this enterprise level process. The knowledge management applications help telecom organizations to systematically collect, manage, and execute the numerous ideas and suggestions of its employees. The innovative solutions lead to an increased intellectual capital. Use of knowledge management solutions result in higher productivity, faster response, and delivery times. These solutions have a central repository for storing data and a management block captures and evaluates employee ideas for faster product introductions. 33. Customer qualification: These applications validate the customer credit eli- gibility and offering availability at the customer location. This application is expected to ensure that orders contain only products that are feasible at the customer location and the customer can pay for at a risk level the provider can accept. Customer credit eligibility checks the credit of the customer, considering the payment history with the service provider as well as the credit scor