The next 12 months will reveal exciting trends at the enterprise level, from the flourishing of unified communications to an increasing use of smartphones for multiple functions.
But keep up with these trends, enterprises will have to buckle down on their telecom expense management policies in order to rein in costs.
“Mobile apps on the smartphones are creating a new avenue to control mobile costs at enterprises, and our platform is well-positioned to help companies to sort out that expense,” said Pankaj “PJ” Gupta, founder and president of Amtel (News - Alert), a provider of telecom expense management products and services. “Our clients can segregate the costs for personal usage verses corporate usage by setting up mobile policies and accounting can bill back the end users for personal usages.”
In 2009, Amtel unveiled its latest “TIMS” platform, which encompasses tools for wireless procurement, invoice management and inventory management of telecommunications services for global organizations.
What will 2010 hold?
Gupta gave a few hints to TMCnet in a special end-of-year Q&A. The full exchange follows.
TMCnet: Looking back at 2009, how did your company do this year?
PG: Despite the economy, we have added new clients in 2009 for both fixed landline telecom management and mobile management. In fact, 2009 has been the best year so far. This is due to our software and services, which help companies in realizing savings for telecoms and mobile management. We offer customizable services to our clients any where from invoice management only to full telecom cycle management which includes order management, inventory, invoices and reporting management.
This has allowed clients to pick what level of services and support would work best in their environment without having to change the entire infrastructure.
TMCnet: We entered 2009 during an economic downturn, and now the economy appears to be slowly recovering. How has this impacted your business?
PG: There are business cycles every 6-10 years. The companies who can survive those cycles and perform well even in bad times are the winners. During the slowdown in 2008-2009 we focused on customer service and keeping our services cost lower for our existing and new clients. That helped us in gaining new clients and keeping the existing ones.
TMCnet: What does 2010 hold for you?
PG: We are well positioned for 2010 with good momentum for our services. We are seeing strong requirements from companies for our mobile management platform.
TMCnet: What are some of most exciting trends or innovations in your industry?
PG: Mobile apps on the smartphones are creating a new avenue to control mobile costs at enterprises, and our platform is well-positioned to help companies to sort out that expense. Our clients can segregate the costs for personal usage verses corporate usage by setting up mobile policies and accounting can bill back the end users for personal usages.
Marisa Torrieri is a TMCnet Web editor, covering IP hardware and mobility, including IP phones, smartphones, fixed-mobile convergence and satellite technology. She also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet's gadgets and satellite e-Newsletters. To read more of Marisa's articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Marisa Torrieri
Internet Telephony Magazine
Click here to read latest issue
CUSTOMER 
Cloud Computing Magazine
Click here to read latest issue
IoT EVOLUTION MAGAZINE
