Introduction
Over the course of this guide, we cover the definition and the benefits of a telecom expense management solution.
You'll discover:
- What is telecom expense management?
- How much can telecom expense management save your organization?
- What five factors impact the success of telecom expense management?
- Common telecom expense management mistakes
Done well, effective telecom expense management reduces costs, improves visibility, streamlines operational processes, and eliminates waste throughout your entire telecom estate.
What is Telecom Expense Management?
Your telecom estate is the sum total of assets and services of your organization’s communications infrastructure.
50 years ago, this applied almost exclusively to fixed-line resources. Today, it incorporates everything from fiber optic broadband to mobile and user-owned devices which have become more common thanks to bring your own device (BYOD) programs. This creates a complex web of resources, assets, and services which is difficult to manage without expert guidance.
Telecom expense management (TEM) helps your business manage this. The goal is to eliminate errors and reduce costs by consolidating, auditing, optimizing, and managing your telecom environment. This includes eradicating operational inefficiencies to extract maximum value from existing resources.
How Much Can Telecom Expense Management Save Your Organization?
The value of outsourcing telecom expense management depends on the size and scale of your business.
When weighing up the potential benefits of a rigorous communication expense management program, consider these five factors.
5 Factors Affecting the Impact of Telecom Expense Management
- The size and scope of your telecom estate.
- The complexity of your infrastructure (including the volume and frequency of MACD order activities and telecom inventory management needs)
- Which of the available telecom expense management solutions best meets your requirements. Do you have the expertise to succeed with a DIY software tool or do you need a dedicated service provider to audit every line of every invoice?
- How much time you have to manage telecom is crucial. Can your team benefit, not only from savings, but also from outsourcing the task to experts?
- Worldwide support capabilities. Many providers claim to provide a global telecom expense management service, but they don’t always possess the regional resources necessary to deliver true scalability and expertise.
It's also useful to ask, what processes are currently automated? Do you have enough data to conduct in-depth telecom expense management audits? And how much visibility do you have?
Prospective providers can supply case studies or references before signing on the dotted line. Ask to see examples from organizations of a similar size, working within an equivalent industry. This helps you verify whether your chosen vendor can deliver on their cost-cutting promises.
And remember, telecom expense management is a long-term investment. The immediate cost reductions can be substantial, but the year-on-year savings outweigh the initial returns.
What are Some Common Telecom Expense Management Mistakes?
A surprising number of organizations don't get the most value out of their telecom expense management service provider. Here are eight of the most common mistakes:
- Failing to take a lifecycle approach to telecom expense management – reducing costs is impossible if you don’t maintain a detailed inventory of all new and existing resources and services within your estate.
- Underestimating potential savings – telecom cost reduction isn’t only about renegotiating contracts. A dedicated telecom expense management provider can help you save money via better resource provisioning, telecom sourcing, dispute resolution, auditing, error detection, and cost avoidance.
- Misjudging the importance of centralized, optimized telecom inventory management – if your provider doesn't consolidate assets, services, bills, and invoices, you won't see the big picture. This makes it difficult to create and execute a reliable action plan.
- Overlooking the telecom billing management process – it might be tempting to retain the payment process in-house for greater control. But, to support your Accounts Payable team with expense allocations, resolving payment disputes, and late fees, we recommend outsourcing your payment process as part of your wider telecom expense management service.
- Separating fixed and mobile expense management – dividing the management of fixed and mobile assets into two distinctive areas prohibits you from forming a global view of your estate. This means you’ll have to navigate between two separate systems and aggregate the data manually to achieve a comparable level of understanding. You may also miss the opportunity to consolidate fixed and mobile services with one or more carriers.
- Equating software features with vendor stability – many vendors boast eye-catching dashboards, but service disruptions are costly. That's why long-term stability is more important than flashy UX. As the telecom industry continuously evolves and acquisitions abound, your partner's stability should be at the top of your key criteria when determining the right telecom expense management partner for you and your company.
- Blurring the lines between software and a fully-managed service – it’s easy to think a SaaS tool will save money over a fully-managed telecom expense management service provider. However, DIY software leaves the legwork up to you. A managed, end-to-end service removes the administrative burden from your shoulders.
- Underestimating the value of superior customer services – who processes refunds? Who takes responsibility for negotiating with carriers? How well does your telecom expense management provider know your business? When selecting a vendor, finding one that's willing to go the extra mile to cultivate an understanding of your telecom infrastructure is crucial; otherwise, how can they help you save money effectively?
Avoiding these pitfalls is surprisingly straightforward with the help of the right telecom expense management partner.
Enjoy a Fully-managed Service with Cass
Telecom expense management will help your enterprise automate basic processes and safeguards the accuracy of your audits and resources. Even so, most organizations need expert guidance if they’re to reap the full range of rewards through various telecom cost reduction strategies. You need an experienced team that knows how to manage assets in a complex telecoms ecosystem, adapt to the evershifting environment, and drive savings.
At Cass, we firmly believe that service is every bit as important to telecom expense management as software. That’s why our fully-managed offering covers the entire telecoms lifecycle, providing complete visibility into your estate and ongoing support at every stage.
Cass is a global telecom expense management provider, we operate as an extension of your team, identifying and eliminating unnecessary costs, streamlining operational processes, and optimizing your telecoms estate.
