Managing your telecom environment, and managing it well, is an ongoing and meticulous process. But truly great telecom expense management will provide you with better value and cost efficiency across your business, making it worth it.
For most businesses, there are innumerable fixed and non-fixed assets to consider. It's tempting to stay with your current telecom expense management provider because they're already familiar with your processes, and changing service providers could cause disruption.
You might not know where to start when looking for a new vendor. Or be concerned that the process of changing your vendor will take a long time. Some other reasons you might delay switching include:
- Contractual obligations: you might be in a multi-year contract that includes penalties for early termination.
- Costs: the upfront cost of switching, coupled with training employees, can take up valuable spending and resources.
- Disruption: changing to a new system or software can disrupt normal processes.
- Need over want: many businesses settle for their telecom expense management vendor as they don’t realize the full benefits of switching to a more effective one.
But these factors shouldn’t stop you from changing to a better telecom expense management provider.
What To Look For When Changing Telecom Expense Management Partner
Telecom expense management is a competitive landscape. These are the questions that we recommend to use when assessing vendors:
- Transparency: can the provider demonstrate their experience and value provided for other clients?
- Request for Proposal (RFP): will they deliver the capabilities you require in your business?
- Efficiency: does the provider offer expert advice, innovative services, and leading technology?
- Pricing: telecom expense management can be complex. Are there hidden feeds, and is pricing transparent in the RFP stage and flexible?
What Happens When You Change Telecom Expense Management Providers?
We have years of experience helping global enterprises manage change. Here's what you can expect.
Implementation
There will be a transition period between your previous telecom expense management provider and your new one. It's important to establish the time this transition period will take.
Your telecom expense management partner should manage the entire implementation process alongside your internal teams. This ensures a smooth transition period from your old vendor.
Additionally, establish SLAs and KPIs for your telecom expense management partner at the beginning of your partnership. By implementing them, you'll make sure the level of service supplied meets expectations, as outlined in your client-vendor contracts.
Account Management
Your telecom expense management partner should act as an extension of your team to provide insight and knowledge, powered by years of hands-on experience, and this quality of service is a key differentiator.
Your chosen partner will provide a dedicated account manager who will be accountable and keep your team up to date. This will be in the form of regular communications and quarterly business reviews.
Optimization
A great telecom expense management provider will audit your entire telecom environment, line-by-line, to obtain a detailed view of every asset within it. The best vendors will use automated software to do this, in addition to a team of experienced experts who also analyze your data to ensure none of your inventory is unaccounted for.
Automation and robotic process automation are key differentiators for telecom expense management vendors. When experienced individuals are paired with innovative software, this combination of people and technology creates a powerful telecom expense management service.
Learning and Support
A telecom expense management provider that delivers great value should be a meaningful extension of your team. Your in-house personnel will benefit from their knowledge and experience, improving their efficiency. This empowers your teams to work better and also provides better experiences for your end-users, too.
They should help you manage onboarding across any new technology or IT processes and systems. They should also minimize downtime or risk that could impact your ongoing operations. Look for providers that offer competitive go-live times and provide evidence of doing so for their customers.
Greater Value
The test of a successful transition to a new telecom expense management provider is when you start to see value.
Your provider should manage misallocated billing, remove unused or inefficient assets, and optimize processes to begin creating a better, more efficient environment for your enterprise.
But value doesn't stop there. Your telecom expense management provider will continuously monitor and aim for your established SLAs and KPIs. Processes like contract negotiation, inventory management, audits, and benchmarking will all provide greater value and efficiency in the long term.
At Cass, we focus on the added value we can bring to your business. This includes:
- Continuous auditing of your environment
- In-region technical support
- The financial security of a US Federal Reserve member bank
Choosing The Right Partner
Thought leaders agree that telecom expense management providers will have to work hard in the coming years to show greater proactivity and added value for their clients.
If you're considering switching yours, ensure that you choose a trusted telecom expense management partner with years of experience in your industry.
The telecom expense management provider will be able to show evidence of their experience in the form of case studies, in addition to evidence of meeting competitive SLAs and KPIs. This type of provider will likely have experience in managing transitioning, too, making them a better choice.
