As service provider capex spending slows due to the economic downturn, back-office staffs – many of which have spent the past few years rushing through the initial steps of major IP-driven network and business transformation projects – would do well to turn their sights back to that work and see what operational savings they can capture from those efforts.

That’s the word from a handful of OSS/BSS vendors surveyed ahead of this week’s TM Forum Management World event in Orlando, which officially opens with keynote sessions Tuesday morning. The event is the forum’s major US-based show for the year and brings together leaders in the back-office world. Not surprisingly, the TM Forum added a special “recession” keynote at the last minute, as service providers rolling out business-changing, IT-driven transformation projects must now more closely evaluate that spending and the value it delivers.

“With capex spending curtailed, [service providers] must look at their existing infrastructure and determine whether it’s being completely utilized and leveraged. We see many companies going to those types of projects now,” said Alpna Doshi, Sr. Executive in the CSO office at IT services company Satyam. Doshi, who is chairing two panels at the event, noted that, following a period of significant investment in new revenue-generating infrastructure, the times now call for service providers to “go in again and look at what can be cleaned up to help them save significantly from an operational aspect.”

For example, many operators will take a closer look at network utilization. Areas that are generating lots of traffic and revenue will justify continued investment; other areas may be cut back or the focus of consolidation, Doshi said. “Getting new services out will still be very critical,” she said, noting that in today’s competitive environment, carriers have “no other option” but to continue to deliver new services.