Bet Your Bottom Dollar That Telecom Expense Management Saves Costs
May 02, 2013
By Michelle Amodio, TMCnet Contributor
To mitigate waste and needless spending, telecom expense management (TEM) is a tool that organizations should consider when establishing expectations for the amount of communication usage. For organizations, TEM means insightful analysis.
Telecom expense management isn't about this technology or that service. It's about bringing real, measurable and sustainable benefits business communication costs. It’s about pulling all of this together into a manageable whole. TEM takes into account call accounting, invoice validation, contract management and performance management, usually in one solution.
For a small company, it can be as simple as checking over a phone bill every month to make sure needles services aren’t being billed out. For larger companies, it is a more formal program to optimize spending on telecom services. Most of the attention goes to bill auditing and getting refunds for billing errors, but an effective TEM program can do more than that.
Both software and outside experts can help reduce time through systematized processes, reduce costs through error identification, reduce risks through better reporting options and increase control.
According to Dimension Data, a TEM solution should be flexible, preferably from single multiservice, multiprovider interface, spanning across all landline voice and data services and providers.
A solid TEM program will provide a unified solution for control and contract compliance, budget and spending tracking, and invoice processing. Proactive systems can alert of any policy breaches and contract compliances.
Considering the importance of telecommunications in the operation of daily business, TEM is a critical business strategy. Businesses need to not only track spending, but also maximize telecom resources. TEM allows decision makers to make informed choices rather than educated guesses.
Edited by Rachel Ramsey