During a recent webinar, sponsored by Valicom, featuring AberdeenGroup research on the topic of SaaS TEM solutions for the mid-market, there was an informal poll conducted with 75 mid-market attendees responding to the question: “What are the top pressures your company is facing to control telecom costs?” The results are shown in the graph below:
Just as with medicine, companies often make the mistake of treating the symptoms, not the causes, when it comes to their telecommunications audit practices. When approaching a telecommunications audit project, it’s important to first identify all of the potential ways that the telecommunications spend could be made more efficient, and cost effective. This could be compared to a basic physical performed by your family doctor. The purpose is to get a baseline understanding of the overall health of the telecommunications spend and to identify broad areas that require additional focus and improvement.
In the telecom world, since divestiture in the early 80’s, there has been a proliferation of new choices, plans, suppliers and technologies. During this period, the internet, wireless services and wide area network technologies have transformed the industry.
Many hotels have stopped charging for wireless Internet, and it’s about time airports followed suit. Recently, while traveling for business, I had to connect through 3 different airports. Two had free WiFi, one did not. Now this is just ridiculous – the airport that was charging for WiFi wanted $9 to connect. My layover lasted about 2 hours. I doubt very many people spend more than 2 or 3 hours using the WiFi. At least at a hotel, you’re probably going to be there for at least 12 to 16 hours, and thus can justify the cost – which by the way, is pretty similar to what the airport was charging.
As if you didn’t already know that a bunch of staff running around with Crackberries and iPhone envy were going to cost you a fortune. But now there is data to prove it. It’s just another illustration that mobile management can be easy, but you have to focus on strategic cost reduction if you really want to minimize wireless expenses. Mobile expense management is the key.
We know that you’d never buy a car without checking it out, looking under the hood and taking a test drive. And while Valicom, with our twenty year history and record client satisfaction scores, isn’t exactly “Honest Al” over at the local car lot, we’d still like to offer you the same courtesy.
Sometimes the critical success factor in telecom cost reduction efforts may all come down to the approach or the “framework” used to guide the process. How does your company stack up? Do you have the focus required to target your specific objective? Telecom cost management is not necessarily as easy as it sounds. This process requires a vast amount of industry experience and knowledge.
Over the past year, Aberdeen Group research has shown that as telecom, network, and mobility demands have become more complicated, the urgent requirement to manage and control expenses is no longer just a Fortune 500 problem. Mid-Market sized organizations have their own unique needs for agile and service-based telecom expense solutions that match their own operational flexibility and challenges.
During my 25 years of experience in running IT and telecommunication in manufacturing, complex services, consulting and government, most of the companies when asked did not know how much they spent annually on telecommunication services. This includes wireless devices, wired devices, data and voice circuits and their total telecommunication related inventory.
I had the privilege of meeting with a Telecom team and their Manager recently. I had been asked by them to come and demo our new Telecom cost management software tool, Clearview. The team was a really solid group. They ticked off some impressive stats, achievements and successfully completed projects. I was impressed.
Telecom managers out there? Please take the time to review your vendor remit addresses. And please take the time to issue one check per account. Meaning, even though you may have 5 or 50 account invoices from a single vendor, and you’re tempted to pay for all those accounts with one check, don’t do it! Cut one check for each individual invoice, and I’ll tell you why…
Spring is in the air, the courses are opening, and I cannot WAIT to get back to playing the game of golf that I love so very much.The only thing I dread? My putting. It’s horrible. Seems like no matter how much I practice, I pull it left or right. I have this awful, sinking feeling when I pull my putter and prepare to hit. It never fails, I three-putt almost every hole.
Telecom expense control – starts with the basics. Do you know the cost of processing only one invoice within your organization? What if you could offload the direct labor involved in processing telecommunication invoices, while reducing strategic business costs at the same time? If this is of interest to you, then you need to contact Valicom today for their best-in-class telecom expense control.
At Valicom, we are always looking for ways to reduce telecom expenses, increase operational efficiencies and minimize risk for our clients. I just read an article from WTN News about textblockers that prevent drivers from utilizing their cell phones or texting while driving. With the statistics regarding the number of accidents and fatalities caused by texting and cell phone use while driving, this may not be a bad idea not only for parents, but for employers to reduce your liability risk and protect your valued staff.
A rewarding day….During the auditing of an invoice for one of my newer clients, I spotted an nxx (exchange) number that I did not recognize as part of their inventory. After a very short while, you begin to memorize your client’s Telecom stats.
My years of experience managing Information Technology and Telecom continues continuous to teach me that company’s expense control, or lack of it, are problems that are resolved on a regular basis, but Telecom Expense management is not one of those problems that can be fixed once and then ignored. This is a constant recurring problem that requires attention!
Give your employees the tools they need for confident accurate reporting with great Software as a Service (SaaS) tool. Go from false reporting and decision-making capability to accurate and concrete.
Sitting at a stop sign on my way to work the other morning, I quick grabbed my Blackberry and opened a new email.The email was from a client from a large Broadcasting company. She simply asked for a copy of an invoice to be emailed back to her. Most respondents of the email might simply honor the request and send the invoice back to the requestor. End of story. Everybody’s happy.
When a company is looking for a TEM vendor to have the expertise that leads to telecom expense control through best practices, years of experience and the best tools available, be sure that they are not trying to be everything to everybody.
Ever heard the phrase, “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should?” Technology changes so fast in telecommunications world, and ever since the introduction of smart devices that could browse the Internet, read and send emails, edit spreadsheets and so on, people have been tending towards using these devices for more and more functions.
The telecommunications industry is known for being made up of enormous, bloated companies who can’t help but, to treat their customers as just another number on a balance sheet. Especially if your organization is average in size – which puts you in the same category of just about every organization in the US.