The time is ripe for Telecom Expense management

The Time is Ripe for Telecom Expense Management by Peter Verhoeff

According to the Aberdeen Group, the average Fortune 500 Company receives 15,000 telecom invoices per year at an average processing cost of $12 per invoice. That adds up to $180,000 per year, just to process these invoices. Telecom expense management (TEM) is a set of tools designed to reduce telecom costs and improve control over existing resources.

The proliferation of telecom services has made it difficult to keep track of and control telecom costs. Executives are now asking themselves some hard questions, such as:

How much are we spending on telecom each year?

Are we getting the best rates?

Do we have and use the equipment and services we are being billed for?

Are the service providers charging us correctly?

Are we using our telecom equipment and services to best advantage?

If your company does not have ready answers to any of these questions, now may be the time to find out. A reputable TEM provider can provide invaluable advice on how to proceed and what solutions will work best for your company.

There are three basic approaches to implementing a TEM service:

Purchase the TEM software for in-house use

Lease the TEM Software as a Service (SaaS)

Outsource the whole TEM operation

Purchasing your own TEM software will of course provide you the greatest degree of control, but implementing it will require qualified personnel, that have to be trained on how to install and use the system.

These staff requirements also apply to SaaS, but with the added advantage that there is no major financial outlay up-front and you would not have to worry about periodic software upgrades, as these would be taken care of by the TEM provider. Authorized personnel would be able access the TEM service via the Internet.

The third option is to outsource the entire TEM operation to a qualified vendor, who will take care of the data collection, invoice verification and a great number of related actions. This option should be attractive to companies that so far have had minimal control over telecom costs.

In all cases, some up-front activities will need to be taken care of, such as establishing an inventory of current telecom services and equipment. Some policy may also need to be issued to centralize the telecom invoice processing and procurement of new resources.

In deciding what TEM vendor to select, there are some important factors to consider. To start with, the vendor should be able to offer all three of the above options and the TEM system should be capable of dealing with both wireline and wireless services.

Consider the TEM features being offered, such as Invoice Management, and whether the system will fill your current and future needs. Of course the same criteria apply with TEM vendors as with any vendor selection. Are they helpful, how long have they been in business, what is their reputation, can they present testimonials, what is their customer support like, do they provide good value for money? Talk to some of their customers and find out how satisfied they are.

For more information about telecom expense management visit the Telsoft Solutions website at http://www.telsoft-solutions.com/index.html.

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.

How telecom expense management saves companies money

How Telecom Expense Management Saves Companies Money by Peter Verhoeff

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.

TEM an overview by P. Verhoeff

Telecom Expense Management: An Overview by Peter Verhoeff

Telecom expense management (TEM) is also known as Telecom Cost Management (TCM). Telecom is short for Telecommunications, which means communication over a distance. This includes not only your PBX telephone network, but also wireless devices, such as cell phones, pagers, BlackBerrys, and iPhones, as well as the Internet communication channels for your company's computers.

Telecommunications are a major expense item in most corporations, especially those involved with high tech. Some of the ways in which you can reduce telecom costs are:

* Getting the best possible rates from telecom vendors

* Making sure you don't get charged for calls that weren't made

* Making sure you don't get charged for resources you no longer own

* Optimizing your existing resources for best utilization

* Using software to control expenses, thus freeing up personnel

* Reducing telecom misuse, abuse and fraud

* Centralizing bill payment and ordering

* Centralized control of equipment move, add, change or disconnect (MACD)

Telecom expense management is the technology that deals with controlling and reducing telecommunications expenses through effective use of technology, people, policy and procedures. The technology aspect includes software to keep track of calls, maintain inventory, record changes in network configuration and contracts, produce reports and issue alerts, to name a few.

TEM can also interface to other software modules, such as General Ledger and Accounts Payable, or to a Human Resources database to keep track of new personnel and people who have left. This last one is important, as there are many known instances where employees were given cell phones and the company inadvertently continued to pay their phone bills after they left.

One company, after implementing TEM software, found that it was still paying 3,500 cell phone bills every month for employees who no longer worked there. This cost them over a million dollars a year in unwarranted expenses.

Another advantage of having an effective TEM system is that all telecom vendor invoices are processed in the same place, which should make late payment penalties a thing of the past. Moreover, the tighter inventory control made possible by the centralized TEM system makes switching to new technologies much easier. In addition, telecom audits are easy to carry out, as all the telecom information is now in one place.

In short, TEM is the simple solution to keeping telecom costs in check, controlling telecom inventory and providing an accurate audit trail.

For more information on telecom expense management, visit Telsoft Solutions at http://www.telsoft-solutions.com.

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.