It’s predicted that one in three businesses will increase telecom spending by up to 5% in the next two years. Many are broadening the scope of their telecoms environment to meet the demands of hybrid working, including SaaS license management. Luckily, telecom expense management (TEM) helps you save money, waste less, and optimize your telecom environment long-term.
Best of all, an experienced TEM provider can help you achieve greater efficiency across all your payable processes, not just telecoms billing. But why is this important now more than ever?
The Changing Enterprise Telecom Management Landscape
Enterprises have experienced a significant uplift in the adoption of Software-as-a-Service subscriptions and licenses. This is in response to changing methods of working. And globally, it’s expected that hybrid working models will persist long after the repercussions of COVID-19.
Also, policies such as Bring-Your-Own-Device are more popular than ever. Employees value agility and flexibility in the ways they work. And senior leadership teams recognize the importance of efficient telecom and mobile device management.
These new demands can become a management headache, across a multitude of processes in your telecom infrastructure. This includes:
- Vendor management
- Billing
- Equipment leases
- Subscriptions and licenses
- Logistics
- End-user experience
- Supply chains
- Device sourcing and Device-as-a-Service
Telecom expense management is no longer just about finding ways to minimize your costs. Many of your important, payable processes will sit underneath its umbrella. And internal teams will be challenged to manage them all, especially in large, global organizations.
You need a TEM provider that can optimize all your processes for long-term benefits, not just immediate cost reductions in your telecoms billing.
How to Achieve Long-term ROI with Enterprise Telecom Management
The 'wow factor' of TEM is the instant savings you will achieve. Processes such as a telecom expense audit are full-service, methodical, and provide measurable results. Experienced TEM providers can audit your entire telecoms environment line-by-line, discover anomalies and inefficiencies in your costs, and then eliminate this waste.
But after this, will there be continual cost savings year on year? How can you improve the management of all the services and solutions used within your telecom environment? You need visibility, control, and support for your entire telecoms estate.
Improve Visibility
Whether it's the corporate devices that your employees use every day, or the subscriptions and software that help them do their jobs, the scope of telecoms expands far beyond what vendor you use, how you're billed, and how much you pay.
You need visibility of how your telecoms environment is set up, exactly what's being used, and the ability to monitor it over time. When 80% of employees use SaaS applications at work without explicit approval from IT, costs can quickly grow.
A TEM provider can help you maintain an accurate picture of exactly how telecoms, devices, applications, software, and other solutions are being used in your business. They can conduct systematic audits of any billing and invoices for you, beyond just telecoms. This helps you regain control of all your enterprise and end-user assets.
Get Support from a Trusted Advisor
The demands of enterprise telecoms will continue to evolve. Keeping up with new technology, and the factors that come with it is a challenge. You've got to consider costs, compliance, security, reliability, and whether you're truly getting the best deals. An experienced telecom expense management provider that's equipped for global enterprise support can help.
When choosing one, consider their history of operational quality and compare it against the consistent performance of SLAs. Prior experience in managing large, global telecom estates will be beneficial, especially when you have geographical or technical requirements.
This will be a defining factor in measuring TEM provider competence in the future, and by finding the right provider who can improve visibility across your telecom processes, you'll experience long-term ROI for years to come.
