The number of suppliers and third-party companies that inhabit a condominium can turn your corporate building into a white elephant.
Large, faceless companies dominate markets, whether in construction, telecommunications, industry, energy, large technology groups, or even large retailers, forming monopolies that are difficult to control. It is not enough to have a monumental undertaking with the potential to house large customers, if the infrastructure management is done precisely by those who most want a slice of it. Telecom operators in corporate ventures already have their own core business, and are not qualified to audit their own activities. This can be explained by the Manager of the Information Technology Engineering area at GLOBALBLUE, Ederson Reis.
“What we observe is that most condominiums are not giving the proper attention to infrastructure management. Large business centers in São Paulo and Barueri that GLOBALBLUE has already inspected, have irregularities that administrators and liquidators can't even imagine”.
“An example is the Telecom operators, where some of them are large multinational groups with numerous employees and contractors, doing the Telecom management in an enterprise. An operator doing Telecom management inside a condominium is unfeasible due to the conflict of interest. An operator who says he does the management, actually prioritizes his own interest, i.e., selling services and not serving what would be best for the enterprise. Thus, when violations occur in equipment, damage to property, theft, or the most serious which is the interruption of voice communication services and condominium members' data, it automatically generates a loss of business, a situation in which the condominium owner finds himself without having anyone to turn to, or even to whom to blame, creating insecurity in the access control process which aims to maintain the integrity of the facilities”.
Ederson explains that it is not enough to ask for the identification of technicians at the reception desk of the condominium: "What we see on the part of the administration of the condominiums is the concern with access control of authorized persons, but those who are working in the condominiums do not have a way to validate the authenticity of the technicians who are entering to perform services, and furthermore, many times the activities come from the operator itself and not from a condominium owner, so the operator will appear at any time in the condominium, without prior notice/scheduling, as it happens in cases of equipment maintenance and signal upgrade of specific equipment.
"We have already identified countless times, condominiums where nobody can tell which activities have been carried out, how many operators are active, or about the existence of a contract with these operators regarding the assignment of space for remunerated use",
concludes Ederson Reis.
The technology upgrades that telecom operators are performing for the 5G signal and the access to the coverage of the buildings where the Radio Base Stations are located are becoming more frequent, thus, the expectation is that the 5G implementations generate an even greater demand for activities and consequently, possible irregularities, so the mission of GLOBALBLUE through monitoring and technical guidance is to maintain the integrity of the infrastructure in these activities.
We asked Mr. Ederson when a condominium is having difficulties managing telecommunication activities, what needs to be considered?
“A warning is in order if the option chosen is to hire an operator to take over the contract and manage the telecommunications of your enterprise, because due to some specific reasons this hiring may not be the most appropriate solution.”
Which points following the country's current legislation must be considered when choosing the operator?
“Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency), the regulatory agency responsible for managing telecommunications in Brazil, does not provide operators with a license or some kind of right to perform management, but only allow operators to perform the provision of telecommunications services.
Thus, for specific issues, the social contract of an operator does not and can not have in its scope of activity a CNAE code, where it can offer the management service, since the operator is who sells and provides telecommunications services”.
Regarding the conflict of interest mentioned above, could you please provide more information about it?
“For issues of conflict of interest an operator can not manage the services of competitors, this includes issues of principles and ethics of the market, since it interferes directly in commercial issues, where confidential information of values and contractual clauses may be disclosed, directly confronting legal issues, and may cause penalties and fines that the condominium itself can be listed”.
Regarding confidentiality of information, are there any considerations for contracting telecommunications services?
“Regarding the issue of secrecy about confidential information, including in compliance with the new General Law of Data Protection (LGPD), it can be a very big risk for the issues of opening information that could not be made available for competition”.
There is also some concern about Electronic Security?
“There is a point of great attention in relation to electronic security and information security, where technically a telecommunications company with access to competitors can, for example, purposely interfere on the services of others, creating difficulties to achieve new business".
Thus, to obtain a specialized consulting, contact GLOBALBLUE, a company consolidated in the market and that performs management activities for telecommunications. Contact us through the following channels for more information.