Not yet read the 2023 Gartner Market Guide for Telecom Expense Management Services, Global? Don’t worry! We’ve studied the report and are here to share our key lessons for vendor management leaders.
Lessons Learned in 2023
1. We Need More Transparency in Telecom Expense Management
We believe that all three of the key recommendations from Gartner demonstrate the need for more transparency in telecom expense management (TEM). From visibility over vendor processes, operational track records, and costs, we believe that enterprises will expect their telecom expense management partners to be transparent.
In our view, this makes sense. Inflationary pressures and economic uncertainty drive enterprise leaders to demand total assurance that their spend is optimized and their third-party partners are worth paying for.
From the vendor perspective, we believe that TEM providers will have to work harder over the next year to show their proactivity and added value if they’re to keep their top-shelf clients.
2. Efficiency is King
An ongoing trend in the TEM market is investment in automation and robotic process automation (RPA). At Cass, we’re exploring ways to use this technology to optimize the performance of our services.
We believe that the Market Guide's observation of how inefficient services lead to higher-than-necessary costs is driving the need for TEM providers to find innovative ways to improve service quality. We feel that this includes both TEM vendor processes and helping enterprises rationalize their estates and get their own departments in order.
3. Pricing is Flexible, but Ambiguous
Back in 2021, we believed that enterprises wanted competitive pricing and savings guarantees. Back then, we noted that the report suggested that enterprises were leaning towards more flexible pricing models. For example, structured pricing that's a fixed proportion of their spending, regardless of what service spend it relates to.
It appears that over the last two years, flexible pricing has become complex pricing. In this year’s report, we deduce that Gartner recommends that IT, sourcing, procurement, and vendor management (SPVM) leaders get more clarity over the pricing models they're committing to.
We believe that this recommendation reflects the complex nature of TEM service pricing today. This may make it challenging for telecom expense management providers to secure critical enterprise vendor-client partnerships as well as showing long-term ROI.
It’s our view that TEM providers and clients need to work harder to build trust through transparency during the early RFP phases, so that any business relationship can begin with solid foundations.
We don’t feel that telecom expense management pricing is going to stop being flexible – as the market continues to grow in complexity, it’s hard to believe that we'll see a world where that’s the case. But, TEM providers could do more to rationalize and clarify their pricing models.
Extra Credit: How to Source a TEM Provider in 2023
To increase the chances of a successful TEM partner engagement, based on the Gartner Market Guide, we believe that it’s critical to perform due diligence regarding what will be delivered and how it’ll be achieved:
- Determine your needs, who's responsible, what good TEM looks like to you, and how you'll measure success.
- Seek clarity around the competitive landscape to shortlist TEM providers.
- Issue a detailed RFP.
Learn More About Telecom Expense Management with Cass
When every department and business process is put under the microscope in search of economic value, IT and sourcing leaders can’t afford to sleep on the latest TEM trends. We believe that the report remains key to helping businesses understand more about the TEM market and how to choose the right vendor.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner Market Guide for Telecom Expense Management Services, Katja Ruud, Matt Baldino, Danielle Young, 13 September 2023
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as telecom expense managements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Topics: TEM
