Third-party telecom expense management (TEM) is an attractive alternative for companies with call centers and wireless services that are often under weak organizational support and supervision. Telecom costs are a top-five expense and CFOs acknowledge that they don't have their arms around it. In simplified terms, the steps for TEM implementation are:
1. Gather all telecom invoices
2. Gather all telecom tariff and contract data
3. Take a complete telecom inventory
4. Automate the process of data gathering
5. Analyze and report the results, noting any anomalies
Many examples exist of companies achieving huge savings with telecom expense management (TEM). One large financial company had an annual telecom spend of $1.7 million. Initially, management had only a vague idea of their telecom costs, but that changed after they consulted a TEM provider, who did a thorough analysis of their telecom invoices and inventory. Implemeting the TEM system resulted in management now having a complete grasp of their telecom costs and a savings of $30,000 in the first month alone.
Another enterprise, a retail chain with many branch locations saved 15% on their telecom bills, amounting to about $600,000 a year. As a first step company executives decided to review the way their business was operating and concluded that the decentralized method of operating that was in use at the time did not lend itself to effective telecom cost control, especially as the number of branch locations continued to grow.
After doing this analysis, the company decided to centralize its telecom cost control and went on to do so. Next, they decided to deploy a telecom expense management system. In order to make the automated control of telecom costs more effective, they switched to electronic telecom invoicing from the earlier paper-based method. Most telecom carriers now provide that option. The advantage of electronic invoicing is that the data can be fed directly into the TEM system without manual data entry or other human intervention.
As a result of implementing these changes, the company saved about 15% on its telecom bills, amounting to approximately $600,000 annually. They have not yet implemented TEM control of their mobile devices, but are looking at doing so in the future and thereby further reduce their telecom costs.
In addition to cost savings, telecom expense management systems can provide other benefits as well. For example:
* Accurate records of what equipment and services are in use
* Complete historical records of each inventory item
* Usage can be broken down by department, project or employee, to allow chargebacks
* Early detection of telecom misuse, abuse and fraud Call tracking using call detail records (CDR)
* Greatly facilitated telecom audits
* Faster provisioning and troubleshooting
* The ability to optimize the distribution of telecom resources
* Reduced telecom personnel requirements
A telecom expense management system is a versatile tool that can produce a great return on investment. Depending on preference, a telecom expense management system can be purchased for in-house use, leased as an online application, or be completely outsourced to the software provider.
For more information about 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.
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