Despite dropping costs Telecom increases

Despite Dropping Costs Telecom Expenses Increase by Peter Verhoeff

While the cost per minute of calls has dropped dramatically in recent years, most corporations are now paying more for their monthly telecom bills than they were before. Much of this is a result of increased use of telecom resources with the advancement of new technologies.

Computers can now be found on most employees' desks and a vast number of them have high-speed connections to the Internet. Then there is wireless technology: cell phones, telephone calling cards, pagers, laptop computers with wireless Internet connections, PDAs, and many more.

Among the new technologies, which enterprises find hard to monitor and control are VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) and MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching). According to the Aberdeen Group in The Cost of Not Acting: The Total Telecom Cost Management Benchmark Report, "On average, enterprises proactively manage 67% of their wireline expenses and 57% of their wireless expenses."

Cell phones are now not only used for telephone conversations, but also for Internet access and a number of other high-bandwidth uses, all of which add up to increased costs. Besides, being mobile devices, they are not as easy to control as stationary equipment. This has led to many instances of companies continuing to pay for cell phone use by employees that have left.

In short, for many corporations the telecom scenario is quite chaotic and without an effective telecom expense management (TEM) system the situation is likely to get worse. Recommendations include organizational changes, such as:

* Centralize both wireline and wireless telecom purchasing.

* Centralize the processing and payment of all telecom invoices.

* Centralize contract negotiations with telecom carriers to get the best rates.

* Keep a centralized inventory of all telecom resources.

In addition, an automated system is needed to monitor the use of telecom resources. An effective TEM software system can be a fantastic time and money saver that soon pays for itself. Among the things it helps accomplish are:

* By recording call detail records (CDR) it permits bill tracking and will show up discrepancies with vendors' invoices, which helps to prevent vendors from overcharging.

* It provides an accurate audit trail of calls made, which can help predict future costs.

* It can provide an indication of the effectiveness of the sales force (number of calls compared to volume of sales).

* It can show up security violations (unauthorized calls, call fraud).

* It can assist in planning MACD (move, add, change, disconnect) to optimize existing resources and to plan for the future.

The bottom line is that an effective TEM system can provide great ROI with reduced telecom costs, accurate record keeping and improved efficiency.

For more information on telecom expense management, visit the Telsoft Solutions website.

Author, Peter Verhoeff, writes articles on the business benefits of call accounting and call detail record technology. More information can be found at http://www.telsoft-solutions.com.