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Telecom Expense Management
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877.688.2200
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Telecom Expense Management what is it? Actually, telecom expense management means different things to different entities, but we would suggest that telecom expense management is an umbrella-like term that covers a wide array of services. The constant is the fact that all services that fall under this umbrella are designed with the goal of managing and reducing telecom costs. The different services that fit under the description, telecom expense management, include the telecom audit, network optimization and management, automated invoice management platforms, and a variety of subsets. But the constant remains that the overall goal of any telecom expense management is to manage telecom cost and to reduce, or optimize, telecom costs. Managing telecom surrounds understanding what your telephony does, why it does it, how it does it, and how to do it better.
So what are the elements to manage?
We would offer the following: an inventory of your local, long distance, and data circuits and services including whatever type of switch used in the process. Also to be included would be the underlying contracts and monthly invoices associated with those telecom services. And finally, the purpose of each service versus the business process those services are hopefully supporting.
How does one go about "managing telecom?"
The first step is to realize the importance of the mission. We were recently contacted by a division of one of the world's largest five companies in terms of capitalization. Based in Europe, they had one hundred sites in twenty countries. Their telecom costs towered over $100,000,000 per year, yet it was astonishing to learn they just didn't know what they had in terms of telephony. Companies of all size have the same issue. They don't know what they have, so they are not in a position to lower their telecom costs and run an efficient telecom network. The reason this state exists is that most companies do not have adequate staffing or resources to perform the mission, no matter how large or small that company may be. Correcting this situation would start with a complete inventory of an entity's circuits and services. This can be accomplished by a complete demarcation study and it can also be facilitated remotely by a telecom auditor or specialist experienced in such a task. This helps answer a very basic question that is vital to the financial health of any organization:
Do you have services that you don't need?
First and foremost, the advantage of this survey will be to cancel unnecessary or unwarranted circuits that are causing needless expense. Imagine having a modem or fax line and learning through this form of telecom management that the computer and the fax machine are no longer in use. Nevertheless, you are paying for the service every month because either your company failed to cancel the circuit or the phone company mishandled your termination order. In either case, by managing your telecom network, you eliminate waste and make yourself a more efficient organization. After performing the telecom network inventory, two following actions to both manage and lower telecom expense would be a telecom audit followed by adoption of an automated invoice management platform. The telecom audit is considered the foundation of telecom expense management. The two main goals to be accomplished are the recovery of funds misspent due to telecom invoice errors and also a reduction of telecom expense due to the implementation of findings and recommendations by the auditor.
Recoveries will be in the form of a credit on your carrier invoice or, in some cases, a check sent directly to the enterprise. But most of the cost savings usually are found in the implementation of findings and recommendations. These recommendations are suggestions to improve service or efficiency and they have nothing to do with telecom company invoice errors. These looking forward savings may account for up to 70% or more of the telecom cost reductions.
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