Reinventing GTE with information technology

In response to shifting business demands, evolving information technologies play a key role in first reengineering and then reinventing GTE (telecommunications company). To illustrate the growing impact of IT within GTE, we chronicle the evolution of GTE´s Network Management System (NMS). Although we focus primarily on the NMS, we broadly identify three major phases in the application of IT within GTE: the initial, reengineering, and reinvention phases. Each phase exemplifies the larger forces at play, both from a business and an IT perspective. During the initial phase, IT served a business support function within GTE, meeting day-to-day needs but not significantly affecting the business as a whole. Next, IT enabled the reengineering of many of our core business processes. Finally, IT has allowed us to make significant steps in reinventing our telecommunications business