Global spending on telecom services is predicted to reach $1,590 billion by 2023. This growth indicates that many businesses are looking to innovate and optimize their telecom environment post-pandemic. However, internal teams face the challenge of managing growing telecom estates efficiently. How can telecom expense management (TEM) help?
Today’s Enterprise Telecom Environment Challenges
Managing your telecom environment can be time-consuming for internal teams, especially in a large, complex enterprise. You want to minimize costs and maximize efficiency across your processes. But identifying exactly where and how to optimize functions is difficult without the time and expertise to do so.
Enterprise departments are now faced with new challenges post-pandemic. They weathered significant global events and the various technology and cost challenges that came with it. Yet during this time, internal teams switched to crisis-management mode to alleviate disruptions, making cost and technology decisions that must be re-evaluated as they prepare for the future. It’s easy to understand how an inefficient telecom environment might be sitting right under your nose.
How Telecom Expense Management Services Can Help
Telecom expense management is a service that enables your departments to find new ways to optimize every aspect of your telecom lifecycle. This includes ordering, provisioning, support, cost management, and everything in between; on a global scale.
TEM works by improving visibility across your communications, associated IT services, and telecom inventories. A telecom expense management provider will continuously audit your telecom environment and identify cost-saving and optimization opportunities across billing records, contracts, tariffs, and inventories. Then they can recommend guidance or manually optimize your environment for you.
Importantly, a telecom expense management provider doesn’t have to replace your internal teams. They can provide their unique expertise or deliver a fully managed service. However, outsourcing your TEM can give you unique benefits across a wide range of processes, including:
- One-time or continuous auditing
- Benchmarking, sourcing, and procurement
- Invoice management
- Inventory management
- Mobility
- Support
Your internal teams might already be working hard to manage these functions. But your enterprise could reduce costs and achieve greater, long-term value from your telecom environment with the help of a telecom expense management provider.
3 Reasons for Outsourcing Telecom Expense Management
1. Improve Visibility of Your Telecom Environment
Internal teams have multiple roles to juggle. And many don’t have the time or resources to re-evaluate your telecom environment continuously, let alone conduct a one-time audit. This can lead to inconsistencies and inefficiencies going unnoticed. Outdated and inefficient telecoms contracts, overspending, and wasted resources are all common in an enterprise environment. And on a global scale, these challenges can quickly pile up.
A TEM provider can perform telecom audits line-by-line. Where alternative automated software can miss technical details, expert telecom professionals can perform an in-depth review of contracts, billing records, inventories, and tariffs by location. They’ll identify valuable cost-saving opportunities and conduct audits regularly to stay on top of your telecom environment.
2. Understand Your Telecoms Billing
Telecom costs get complicated. And even the most knowledgeable finance departments will have limitations.
If you’re a global business, how do you really know you’re always getting the most value from a telecom contracts when working across different countries, currencies, and languages? More so, bill quality will vary dramatically between geographical location or telecom carrier, and costs can rise without you being made aware. It’s difficult to achieve standardized insight into each contract and know exactly what you’re paying for.
Telecom expense management providers have years of experience and global resources to better manage your telecoms billings. They can improve visibility by reviewing invoices and contracts with telecom carriers and processing them into a format you’ll understand. Additionally, TEM providers have the in-region knowledge, experience, and diplomacy to stand in your corner, fix billing errors, and eliminate hidden costs, no matter where they are in the world.
3. Get Greater Flexibility and Support
An optimized telecom environment means your business is better equipped to improve and innovate your technology.
The last few years have created a dramatic shift in how businesses use their communications. Hybrid working has become the norm and 63% of high-growth companies have already adopted a ‘productivity anywhere’ workforce model. To achieve this, you need to effectively manage the security, compliance, and support functions of a growing telecom environment.
A telecom expense management provider can support you with getting end-users the devices, connectivity, and support they need to work efficiently. They can manage the logistics and costs of the entire mobility lifecycle, from deployment to eventual end-of-life. So, at each step, you’re always getting the best rates and optimizing processes. Some telecom expense management providers can even support your internal teams with managing security and compliance, controlled with a single, convenient portal.
Outsourcing Telecom Expense Management Helps You Improve Efficiency, Fast
Optimizing the important functions of your telecom environment should be a continuous process. Many internal teams simply don't have the time or resources to conduct these activities, so small inefficiencies can build up.
Don't let them go unnoticed. Outsourcing telecom expense management can help you immediately identify cost savings and unlock long-term value.
