“I need a Telecom Expense Management provider so we can ensure our Telecom and Mobility environment is fully optimized, right?”

WRONG.

Why does Telecom Expense Management ALONE fail to produce complete telecom optimization? The problem with today’s Telecom Expense Management (TEM) environment is that it fails to address the other FOUR areas impacting successful Telecom outcomes:

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT:

  • “Do I have the right technologies in place that align with our business priorities?”
  • “Are we leveraging the latest available competitive technologies to drive business?”
  • “Have we done an ROI analysis/business case on mobility policies and practices, SD-WAN technology?”

VENDOR MANAGEMENT:

  • “Are we utilizing the right vendor in this space that provides the correct services we need at the most competitive price?”
  • “Do we have the knowledge and expertise to negotiate the best contract terms and manage all the contracts associated with our vendors?”
  • “Should my IT team be distracted by resolving vendor network issues and escalations?”
  • “Have we put off vendor analysis due to fear of lacking resources to support change?”

ASSET MANAGEMENT:

  • “How accurate is our inventory of all telecom assets?”
  • “Do we have a complete and consolidate inventory of all mobile assets?”
  • “Can all reports be produced real-time?”

USER SUPPORT:

  • “Do we have the resources to provide quality end user support for both telecom and mobility?”
  • “Do we have the Project Management resources to migrate to new technologies and the ebb and flow of new projects?”
  • “Do we have the resources to manage the ongoing changes in our telecom and mobility environment? Resources to manage MDM/EMM environment?”
  • “Are we utilizing the best custom tools and process to manage our environment?”

If you’re looking for a TEM provider and not asking the above questions, you’re missing out on a big part of the equation. Help drive your business by realizing a fully-optimized Telecom and Mobility environment.

Download a full list of Telecom and Mobility activities (including Telecom Expense Management).

As you gear up for the 2014 IT budget season, you know there are many areas competing for IT time and attention.  According to a recent article from CIO.com, you’re also trying to secure the best talent when it comes to areas like application development, project management, and technical support.  At the same time you’re probably facing the annual budget dilemma of how to design your 2014 IT budget for more strategic impact and reduce IT operating costs.  You’re dealing with ‘keeping the lights on’ expenses that are known to eat up nearly 70% of your budget year after year.  If you want to make a real impact to this recurring problem, you need to entertain a structural change to how you organize and prioritize your IT organization.

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Did you know that 12% – 20% of corporate telecom charges are in error and unfortunately for businesses, 85% of these charges are in the carrier’s favor? (Gartner Group)  This is the time to take charge of your telecom costs – take a close look at these 5 Reasons Telecom Expense Management is Essential to Reducing Costs.

5 Reasons Telecom Expense Management is Essential to Reducing Costs: #1 – Telecom Asset Validation

You can’t determine areas of efficiency if you don’t know what you have.  It’s not uncommon for…

  • customers to be confused by carrier invoices and not understand what they are paying for
  • circuits or lines to invoice at incorrect rates
  • ongoing invoices after placing a service disconnection order
  • unneeded or unused services and features to exist
  • contracts to expire and corresponding rate increases to go unnoticed
  • long distance casual billing
  • 3rd party/slamming charges to be added without authorization

5 Reasons Telecom Expense Management is Essential to Reducing Costs: #2 – Dispute Tracking and Management

Chasing down billing error corrections and credits requires timely documentation and persistence.  Most carriers have a formal process for submitting dispute and credit requests and submissions must include proper documentation.  Carriers are rarely proactive in resolving these types of issues therefore the burden is on the customer to be persistent and follow up.  Always obtain the rerate calculations to ensure you receive the full amount you are entitled to.

5 Reasons Telecom Expense Management is Essential to Reducing Costs: #3 – Regular Wireless Analysis

Within the telecom environment, wireless assets are often the most dynamic.  Factors such as voice and data pooling, addition of new service, upgraded service, equipment changes, overages and other miscellaneous fees can all lend to significant monthly variances.  Monthly analysis is critical in monitoring accuracy and ensuring optimization.

5 Reasons Telecom Expense Management is Essential to Reducing Costs: #4 – Monthly Invoice Audits and Cost Allocation

Comprehensive monthly audits are imperative in eliminating telecom cost creep.   Pricing errors, missing discounts, incorrect service periods, excessive technician charges, unauthorized features and add-ons are all commonplace in the world of telecom billing.  Identifying such anomalies requires attention to detail and diligence to locate an informed carrier representative who can validate the charges.

5 Reasons Telecom Expense Management is Essential to Reducing Costs: #5 Contract Negotiation

Contract negotiation should begin 3-6 months prior to the contract termination date to allow for a full evaluation of current market pricing and options.  If your contract contains an automatic renewal clause and you wish to cancel service it’s often a requirement to provide written notice 30-60 days in advance.

As you can see, Telecom Expense Management requires diligence, expertise, and time. In addition to reducing costs, Telecom Expense Management is also essential in understanding what your true telecom environment looks like.

Unsure how to pursue Telecom Expense Management in your organization? Contact a trusted expert like Renodis to walk you through the details and show you how you can save time and reduce costs on your next telecom bill!

Diane Kisch is an industry leader in Telecom Expense Management and Practice Manager for Renodis Telecom Management.

It’s easy to get caught up in the hype about the latest mobile technology, but that doesn’t mean you have to overpay for your wireless needs.  There are plenty of ways to trim the overall cost while keeping the service you need.  Follow these 10 tips to save money on business wireless costs.

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It would be natural to assume that contingency-based fee models offer the most cost effective and the fairest way to charge customers for services.  After all, who wants to pay for something they’re not 100% sure they are going to receive?  If someone is offering you a solution that you only need to pay for if it’s successful, who would say no?  Contingency fee structures are intended to be win-win:  if you don’t get what you want, you don’t pay.  In many circumstances, this model is successful, but when dealing with Telecom expense management companies, be weary if something sounds a little too good to be true.

Telecom expense management (TEM) firms provide a very necessary and valuable service, but most of them only address the expense management aspect of the telecom ecosystem. Getting a handle on expenses and how to manage them can unequivocally produce cost savings throughout the organization.  TEM, however, only cleans up the messy bits that bubble to the surface, leaving the emanating source of the problem untouched.  Because, however, contingency-based TEM does produce perceived cost savings, its existence is financially justified and encouraged to continue.  It does not dig into the root cause of the problem; it doesn’t lead to viable optimization strategy through complete telecom management.  TEM companies that offer only expense management provide a valuable service on the front end, but fail to optimize the source creating out of control telecom expense management.  TEM companies find that their entire purpose revolves around relying on these problems that continue to produce disarray on the backend that justify their existence.  This unfortunate merry-go-round of telecom management can become a nightmare when the perceived solution exists only because a conflict of interest drives behaviors that are not in the customer’s best interest.

Let’s break this down with a generic example.

A large Retail Chain hires Vendor A for agency and implementation of broadband network connections into various store locations, but not to perform TEM work.  Vendor B, also brought into the same organization, is hired to ensure optimized plans and to perform basic TEM.  Vendor B charges client via contingency, as they are incented to find and correct errors made by Vendor A, thereby making more and more money.  Vendor A’s less than accurate work resulted in approximately 30% of the orders having the wrong billing rates.  Although Vendor B caught the errors and fixed them, they of course then billed the client a 40% fee, resulting in large payments for correcting errors that should not have existed in the first place.  The two vendors are disjointed and in their own silos, creating a persistent problem for the Retail Chain.

In the above example, both Vendor A and B could likely enjoy a very lengthy relationship with the client, based solely on the reality that Vendor A is going to continue making errors on the order entry side.  While it may very well be unintentional, this type of situation, while all too common, cannot expose the fundamental problems preventing ecosystem optimization.  The only real solution is to inject control and accountability into each step of the value chain, eliminate any conflict of interest, and focus on a holistic goal, such as lowering an organization’s total cost of telecom (TCT™). Additionally, modeling each fee structure with fixed fees is the only way to ensure conflicts of interest are completely expunged from the process, and that each vendor is held accountable for results. Expense management, even while producing attractive cost savings, absolutely cannot bring an organization any closer to overall optimized  telecom management.

When a TEM provider promises a ‘risk-free’ solution by only charging a percentage of the actual savings, break down exactly how they intend to achieve this.  The impression of ‘all gain, no risk’ is an illusion that bases its purpose in the collapse of other areas within a telecom environment.   However, in a large percentage of cases, savings are created or captured in ways that do not look out for the best interest of your organization. Eliminate the need for multiple solution providers that, in the end, lead you back to where you started: a sub-optimized telecom environment. By taking a more holistic approach to telecom management, you can achieve overall cost control and process integration, leading to a lower TCT™ per employee.  If your organization would like to better understand TCT™ in relation to TEM, contact  Renodis for a Telecom Assessment.