Telecommunication services rank amongst the top 5 operating expenses of almost any enterprise. Cutting telecom expenses must remain a management priority, especially in the current environment. Telecom Expense Management is the only set of processes capable of reducing costs efficiently, and considering the direction of the economy, this is bound to continue being the case for years to come.
A complicated accounting mess
The average global enterprise works with over 70 carriers. Telecom billing and contracts generate a huge amount of accounting work, and the complexity of vendors’ invoices makes auditing costs and lines very difficult. Line installations, service activations and terminations require persistent follow-through, and vendor managed services contracts add another layer of opacity to the mix.
In fact, in most cases, Accounts Payable are unable to give a precise breakdown of usage, end-users, costs, overages, and SLAs. We have yet to meet a comptroller or a CFO with a clear command of their inventory of telecom devices, cross-checked to end-users, line number and telecom carriers.
And yet, that would be the key to cutting telecom expenses.
Why is this important though?
In most enterprises there is a form of coexistence of three opposite forces: the need for operations to have sufficient IT/telecom resources available at any time, the need for Finance to control and rein in expenses, and the propensity of individuals to evade procurement policies, overstep their usage boundaries, and waste costly resources.
The only way for the C-level to reconcile the first 2 forces and eliminate the third is to establish a proper, corporate-wide policy framework, and implement the processes of Telecom Expense Management with the help of TEM specialists.
The goals of TEM
TEM (Telecom Expense Management) is a purpose-built methodology designed to increase data visibility, improve processes, and give the C-level the tools and measurements needed to optimizing decision-making and cutting telecom expenses.
TEM specialists concern themselves with
- Inventorying and line-item auditing IT/telecom assets and services (lines, services, data circuits, mobile devices)
- Assigning IT/telecom assets to end-users, and tracking usage
- Establishing measurement benchmarks and flags to analyze conformity of vendors to SLAs and contract rates
- Analyzing invoices for errors in rates and overages
- Detect situations of abusive usage and device loss by end-users
- Disputing these errors
- Recovering credits and refunds from vendors as appropriate
- Avoiding late-fee situations by tracking vendor invoices that aren’t coming on time, and
- Paying vendors on-time to avoid service interruptions.
To this service scope, TEM specialists may also add Managed Mobility Services, and help the C-suite define clear and all-encompassing procurement policies for IT/telecom assets.
In short, TEM specialists give the top management all the tools they need to make more effective decisions in regards to investing in telecom, selecting vendors and carriers, and cutting telecom expenses.
Enterprises must coalesce around sound TEM
Over the past 30+ years we have been operating in the TEM industry, we’ve seen the impact it makes on an organization when efficiency in telecom decision-making gets placed on the back-burner.
All our clients faced waste and overspending in IT/telecom before they hired RadiusPoint to sort out their situation. Most of them had overpaid their telecom carriers. None of them could track their device inventory to the number, location, and end-user ID. A number of them faced situation of loss, theft and usage abuse within their midst. All of them were spending too much on telecom services, and could have reduced costs for years.
The mission of a TEM specialist like RadiusPoint is to bring about a unified framework in which all functions and locations in an enterprise work together harmoniously to control their IT/telecom investment and use, and to rein in expenses by reallocating under-utilized devices and lines, terminating contracts with underperforming vendors, clawing back overpayments, and ensure that operations are never disrupted by a failure to get proper telecom services.
TEM commits to SLAs and TCO reduction
TEM specialists support and understand that maintaining a solid SLA is just as important as the delivery of the service. For RadiusPoint, sustaining a secure and compliant SLA is vital to our workflow process. Priority #1 is to ensure you not only receive a service that fits your business model, but you also receive a service that exceeds expectations in its delivery.
TEM is an effective way to ensure and increase the accuracy of expense tracking and reporting. Companies can lose millions of dollars due to persistent errors, fraud, and unauthorized charges. TCO is a key decision-making component that should be examined from onboarding to monthly invoice payment.
Establishing full visibility and transparency
By offering full visibility on a single business intelligence SaaS, ExpenseLogic translate raw data into immediate cost cutting opportunities. ExpenseLogic gives management meaningful insights through real-time reports of telecom, wireless and utility invoices. Reporting granularity can be adjusted at the right level for any management function.
ExpenseLogic provides a high level of transparency in analyzing recurring expenses, non-recurring overcharges, and usage-based fees. Our SaaS platform can support an entire organization in better fact-based decision-making, employee and vendor accountability, overall resource usage, and much more.
In a down economy rendered even more dangerous by a highly inflationary environment, cost cutting remains an immediate priority for the C-Suite. RadiusPoint has no other mission in mind when implementing the tools necessary to give top management full control over their telecom expenses. This is one of the reasons why RadiusPoint has consistently ranked among the top TEM specialists in Gartner’s 2019, 2020, and 2021 TEM Guides.
To discuss how our services could help your business in its cost reduction efforts, contact us at your earliest convenience.