Telecommunications Expense Management – 3 Ways TEM Can Lower Telecom Costs

Telecommunications management programs have become a best practice among the Fortune 500, and the practice has been gaining ground among mid-market companies as an effective means of reducing telecom costs. Telecommunication management programs can run the gamut of total life cycle management (from proposal and ordering, through full service management and disconnection), but the bulk of the hard dollar savings come from the visibility provide by the telecom management applications. Increased visibility into telecom inventory, telecom usage patterns and opportunities to evaluate services across the entire company will yield considerable cost savings.Follow these 3 steps with your telecom management program to capture savings right from the start.1) Identifying unused or under utilized circuits or accounts. A telecom inventory is the best place to obtain the visibility into unused services, such as previously disconnected services that are still billing. Reviewing the telecom inventory is frequently the easy step, establishing and maintaining an accurate inventory has become a challenge for many medium sized businesses.When a telecommunications inventory is available, the services can be review for reasonableness. Your review does not need to be a detailed telecom audit. A simple review of the site list and associated services should yield the majority of the items that might be considered as savings opportunities. Items such as closed locations, multiple services at a single location, partial data networks, etc can quickly be identified with an accurate inventory.2) Data entry errors occur even with the best quality control measures in a telecom service provider. Today’s telecom providers have a patchwork of telecommunications billing platforms built one on top of the other. Errors are common and can be difficult to rectify if not caught early. Errors are especially common when adding services to an existing bill. Negotiated rates or discounts are frequently omitted or misapplied.A comprehensive telecom management methodology will allow you to quickly identify inconsistent charges and erroneous service billing.3) Misuse of telecommunications services has not been a huge issue in telecom due to low rates. A new breed of misuse, however, is occurring at increasing levels. Businesses paying for high speed internet access and mobile wireless services for employees long after they have left employment is becoming an increasing issue. Excessive texting, international calling and unauthorized downloads are becoming new categories of misused telecommunications resources as well.If a telecom management system is in place, the telecommunications manager will be in a position to identify the majority of these issues and maintain control over the telecom environment.Telecom management systems do not need to be expensive or cumbersome. Free applications can be found on the internet and used to control these basic areas of concern.