Recently, Gartner released their annual Market Guide for Telecom Expense Management Services, Global. Here, we’ll share an overview of the key findings – so you can stay up to date with the latest industry analyst insights in the telecom expense management landscape.
1. Economic Pressures Continue to Prompt Organizations to Scrutinize Their Telecom Expenses
Optimizing spend remains a top priority for enterprise leaders navigating current economic uncertainty. While this trend was widely observed last year, it continues to have a significant impact on telecom expense management (TEM).
We believe that organizations are wising up to telecom expenses and are eager to evaluate how much value telecom expense management providers offer. Simply put, it’s our opinion that many organizations are no longer prepared to pay for unnecessary services, such as overprovisioned data plans, unused subscriptions, and overlapping solutions.
In our view, telecom providers can respond to these concerns by using analytics and reporting to deliver actionable recommendations that drive cost optimization on a regular basis.
2. Organizations Are Exploring AI and Advanced Analytics to Optimize Telecom Expenses
Organizations are exploring new ways to scrutinize and optimize their telecom expenditure. This brings our attention to AI.
AI and advanced analytics are transforming the industry, both from a vendor and client perspective. Providers use AI for invoice processing, data querying, and predictive analytics.
We believe the results of utilizing AI in this way are twofold:
- It can streamline internal processes
- It can improve client experience
In our opinion, the most interesting use case for AI is strategic decision-making. Machine learning and GenAI possess analytical capabilities that can inform decisions around IT investments, budgets, inventory, future service provider contract negotiations, and process enhancement.
3. Telecom Expense Management Providers Must Take a Proactive Role to Telecom Expense Management
Enterprises want more value for the money they invest in a telecom expense management partner, and more clarity on the goals and deliverables.
To meet client expectations, TEM companies must be more proactive in their relationships and identify opportunities beyond cost control. This could include support with cloud and utility expenses as well as corporate sustainability goals.
4. More Transparency Is Needed When It Comes to Pricing and Models
We feel that the mature and highly ambiguous market makes price comparisons tricky.
Gartner has observed a decrease in price competition since 2023 and an upward trend in companies adjusting prices annually – even if inflation isn’t the reason. Payments are also expected faster, with 30 days being a common deadline.
In our experience, vendors often miscommunicate or even fail to disclose costs. To mitigate these challenges, we believe it’s essential to request detailed pricing information, carefully review the statement of work, deliverables, and clearly define which internal priorities will transfer to the provider.
If audit services are offered in your contract, make sure to clarify who is responsible for what when discrepancies are found. Does the vendor identify and resolve overcharges, or do they identify them and pass the resolution responsibilities back to you and your team?
Navigate the Transforming TEM Landscape With Cass
In our view, the bottom line from this report is that telecom expense management providers must offer more value, and be able to demonstrate it. Transparency continues to be a talking point, and we don’t see that changing any time soon. We hope that this report, and our takeaways, have helped you gain some much-needed insight into the telecom expense management landscape.
Want to read the full report? Download the Gartner® Market Guide for Telecom Expense Management Services, Global.
