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As most telecom managers know, third party charges on invoices, known as “cramming”, have historically been a major problem. Now that problem is rapidly infecting wireless environments and the federal government is taking notice. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced it is pursuing its first wireless cramming case.
As background, third party charges are when a company adds a fee to a bill for some type of “service”. In wireless devices, it is generally for content delivered via text message, and can be anything from sports scores to horoscopes to dating tips and more. The user is billed monthly for this service, which they may or may not have wanted, and can find difficult to stop. The fee is often listed on the bill with confusing acronyms or names, making it hard to spot, and meaning it often goes unnoticed for months.
The pending lawsuit brought by the FTC accuses just such a content provider of tacking $9.99 monthly fees onto customer bills, usually without consent, and for not honoring requests to end the service. The suit bears watching closely as this is a large problem, the scope of which is highlighted by some data released by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Wireless providers in California returned an average of more than $2 million a month last year to consumers who complained about unauthorized wireless text charges. But refunds were requested on only about 12 percent of the total monthly charges for premium text services. That leaves a lot of money on the table, and it isn’t known if those were actual authorized charges, or the users just haven’t noticed yet.
So if your wireless environment includes phones with texting plans, it might be time to verify none of those third party fees are showing up on YOUR bills.
Read the full article here
Need more help with Wireless expense management? Download our white paper Top 4 Tips to Manage Wireless Costs
TechRepublic just posted an interesting article on BYOD (bring-your-own-device), and some worst case scenarios. Whether or not to implement BYOD is a decision each firm has to make for itself, and its own environment. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. If you’re still on the fence, it may be worth contemplating some of these issues before you take the plunge.
The article covers these 10 possible problem areas…..
1: Exposed data
2: Passwords in the wild
3: Declining productivity
4: Compatibility issues
5: Bandwidth overuse
6: Device management
7: Wireless bottlenecks
8: Autonomy overuse
9: Virus infections
10: Compatibility complaints
Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam recently stated that 50 percent of their wireless traffic is for video consumption. He expects this to grow to 66 percent by 2017.
With the death of the unlimited data plan, those kinds of numbers can take a toll on your wireless data bill if you don’t have a handle on what your employees are doing with their phones. As we’ve long said, the old business nugget “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” really does apply to telecom cost control. If you don’t know what your actual data usage is, and who is using that data – and for what – you can’t make intelligent decisions.
Now granted, most business employees probably aren’t watching a lot of video on a tiny smartphone screen. But as iPads and other tablets come into the mix, and more television and cable channels make it easy to stream content, the situation is changing. The options are rapidly expanding beyond cute cats, giggling toddlers or flashmob videos on YouTube. Based on that, it isn’t a stretch to think that someone might sneak a peek at their alma mater’s March Madness showdown or stream a missed episode of HBO’s Game of Thrones.
Thanks to these changes, and faster internet speeds like LTE, , the need to get a handle on wireless data usage gets even more critical. Need some help? Download our recent white paper “Top 4 Tips to Manage Wireless Costs” and read the full article on what Verizon’s CEO had to say about streaming video.
It’s been an interesting week for announcements in the mobile universe. First T-Mobile announced it would drop two-year contracts and phone subsidies, shifting instead to a fee structure where customers pay a discounted upfront charge for new phones, followed by small monthly payments until the entire cost is paid off.
Then Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam reacted to the challenge, saying they were also open to the idea of a “no contracts future” if the market responds positively to the new offering. “I’m happy when I see something different tried,” McAdam told reporters at a recent Verizon event . “We can react quickly to consumers’ shifting needs.”
Consumers have so far shown mixed reviews on the proposed changes. The idea of having to pay for the full cost of the phone may just be seen as a new form of carrier bondage. And those types of plans already exist, though they aren’t heavily promoted. Most carriers will allow a “no contract” relationship, providing the customer buy the phone at full retail cost up front. However, since those costs are often staggeringly high, Apple prices it’s unlocked contract-free iPhone 5 at $649 to $849 depending on Gb size chosen, it is understandably not a popular option.
And the carriers are likely not thrilled with paying those sky-high phone charges either, even if it does mean they can lock down a mobile customer for two years. So a chance to shift those costs to the consumer may be seen as a win-win, limiting the amount of subsidy the carriers have to offer. It will also be interesting to see if, in a new consumer-paid universe, those phone prices will have to come down to maintain the “new every two” mentality that drives technology adoption. Whatever happens, it bears watching….
 Valicom released a new white paper today titled “Top 4 Tips to Manage Business Wireless Costs”. Recommended for anyone responsible for corporate mobile and wireless management, and seeking best practices in wireless expense reduction and cost control, the paper can be accessed from the Valicom telecom expense management white paper library.
Founded in 1991, Valicom offers Clearview, a web-based telecom expense management software, and managed services for both wireline and wireless environments. Their new white paper covers best practices in managing costs for corporate mobility, a growing need in the marketplace.
Valicom President Jeff Poirior states, “Companies are experiencing an explosion of wireless devices and mobile expenses are skyrocketing. Managing voice and data plans, wireless invoice auditing and wireless plan optimization all combine to make wireless expense management an enormous task.”
He continued, “This leaves many telecom managers not knowing where to begin to get a handle on costs, so we put four strong ideas down on paper to get them started.”
An excerpt from the paper reads… “It’s no surprise that the top thing on most telecom managers’ minds these days is mobile. It seems that wireless keeps getting more and more complicated, as tablets and next-generation smartphones keep piling up, and the number of devices each employee has expands. Throw in things like minute pooling, data pooling, and carrier contract negotiation and the complexity grows. So whether you are currently implementing, or avoiding, BYOD (bring-your-own-device), it doesn’t hurt to have a few strong ideas of how to control wireless costs.”
To download “Top 4 Tips to Manage Business Wireless Costs” visit the the Valicom telecom expense management white paper library.
We are concluding our series discussing how telecom management software streamlines telecom management tasks.
 Last but not least, any telecom expense management software worth its weight in kilobytes should offer lots of reporting. As they say, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”. And the beauty of all your telecom and wireless data being integrated in one system is that it allows you to look at it from many different angles. Look at inventory cross-referenced by user, cost center or account. See trending data by cost center, location, or inventory type. Request information about various timeframes. Most softwares come standard with a wide variety reports and the firm can usually design very specific custom reports, based on parameters you provide.
And note that different users can have access to different reports. There is also a Dashboard feature that allows each user to select the information most useful to them, and have it accessible in a variety of visual formats. By clicking the image, it allows a deep dive into the report behind the graph. Often clients that have outsourced most of the actual day-to-day telecom management tasks to a vendor partner like Valicom still utilize reports and dashboards to keep tabs on operations.
Want to learn more about telecom expense management software-as-a-solution? Check out Clearview…
Telecom Expense Management Presentation
 Bills and Contracts and Assets – Oh My!
Thursday, April 18: 2 – 4 PM. Wisconsin Technology Association Meeting
Are you swimming in invoices from increased cellular services? Has BYOD or other telecom services forced you to review your telecom contracts? Are you wondering how many devices you have in your company? If you answered “Yes” to any of these, then you should attend this month’s educational session.
Please join Valicom, a twenty-two year veteran of telecom expense management, as they explain the different Telecom Expense Management (TEM) strategies to help you manage all your telecom bills, both wireline and wireless. They will review industry trends and how cellular services are forcing changes to contracts. Finally they will provide best practices to keep you on top of your cellular and wireline assets.
Meeting held at McCormick & Schmick’s Restaurant, Mayfair Mall – 2550 N. Mayfair Rd Wauwatosa, WI. If interested in attending, visit WTA-WI.org or contact us for details.
We are continuing our series discussing how telecom management software streamlines telecom management tasks.
Now that we’ve discussed telecom invoice auditing, processing and payment, along with order and change management, we should probably discuss issue tracking.
At this point, all your invoice and inventory data is already in a telecom management software platform. If the system is designed to help you remember to check your next invoice to verify the change you recorded was actually implemented by your vendor. All this is handled via the software’s “Issues” area.
This is one of the few times in the workplace that is perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged, to talk to yourself. At least without triggering someone in HR to send you for a psych evaluation. Leave notes, record conversations with vendors, add details about why or how something was changed, and tag the issue with an Open and a Close date. This works even better when you have multiple users accessing the system. With a tidy breadcrumb trail to follow, any other user should be able to determine what happened, when it happened, and who did it.
The Issues area also gives you visibility into what you need to watch for on upcoming invoices, again streamlining the telecom invoice auditing process. It also illustrates what we always say about a good telecom management program – it’s all about visibility. “Because when you see, you save”
Want to learn more about telecom expense management software-as-a-solution? Check out Clearview…
We are continuing our series discussing how telecom management software streamlines telecom management tasks.
Now some of you may have thought, while we discussed telecom invoice auditing, processing and payment in our last post, “Hey – What about changes?“ Good question.
Telecom management software has to have a robust tracking mechanism for changes as buildings open and close, personnel get hired or fired, and devices get retired and replaced. Otherwise, any telecom inventory management program you may have in place will get derailed pretty fast. Telecom inventory is not something static, but rather a fluid environment that is ever changing as the image below well illustrates.
 The Evolution of Wireless - Something Worth Tracking A good telecom inventory and expense management software has various places that changes can be recorded, from ordering new handsets, to canceling lines or data plans. This ensures you have an accurate historical record for everything you own, allowing proper record-keeping and reporting. This is critical whether you want an accurate telecom inventory right now, or a way to track changes over time. The data should be simple to enter, update, and query. Software doesn’t do you any good if it isn’t designed to make things easier….
Want to learn more about telecom expense management software-as-a-solution? Check out Clearview – because, “When you see, you save.”
We are continuing our series discussing how telecom management software streamlines telecom management tasks.
To further our discussion of document management beyond contracts, which our last post was on, one of the biggest pain points of telecom has got to be invoices. Little missiles of irritation that arrive in the mail to ruin your day. Sometimes by the boxful. And you know you should really look at all of those – line by line, every single month – to make sure they are accurate. But really, who has the time?
 So you’re left with two challenges. Can I minimize this mountain of paper? And is there a faster way to review these to see if we have problems? You’ll be happy to know the answer to both is YES.
Invoice data can get in a telecom management software platform two ways – electronically via import, or manually. And this is where you might want to outsource some work to a partner like Valicom. Invoices can be shipped directly to us, and we will scan and enter all the information into the system. The invoices will be available for viewing as a PDF at any time, and all the payment data will be attributed to the proper inventory items and cost centers. Then comes the fun part of audit and approval.
Which brings us to our second trick – automating the telecom invoice review process. The software has a built-in variance tool. Most invoices should be the same, month in and month out, so when they aren’t, you know something has changed. Perhaps you were anticipating that, but perhaps not. Either way, if it is flagged for you, then you know to look. The system can also help you look for certain types of charges that are often tacked on by mistake, like installation fees and taxes. This can save you a lot of time, as you can choose to only review the items that need attention.
And once the invoice review is done, and they are tagged for approval, the software can generate a feed to your Accounting system with all the details. Then they can cut the checks there, or your vendor partner can cut the checks, pay the bills, and just send the feed to Accounting so they know it’s done!
Next post, we will cover how software helps with procurement and things like change & order management…..
Want to learn more about telecom expense management software-as-a-solution? Check out Clearview – because, “When you see, you save.”
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