This blog post was purposely written to have more questions than answers… but I guarantee these questions stir a discussion and fuel a desire to make improvements. So often we see unqualified teams managing hundreds of thousands of dollars of telecom spend. To these Finance or IT teams, telecom expense management is just an after-thought. The tedious task is just an additional piece of work on-top of their over-flowing plate of duties.
That’s where a dedicated telecom manager or analyst comes in. This individual is solely responsible for reviewing invoices, cost allocation / GL coding, paying bills, and negotiating contracts. In our blog today, we share three questions to consider as you decide whether a dedicated telecom manager is necessary for your team.
What am I currently spending each month or each year? But really – does anyone at your organization actually know? Most organizations don’t know… and if they try to guess, our experience has been that they are typically 10-40% wrong. If you’re not actively managing or watching your spend, telecom costs can increase over time and quickly spiral out of control. So if you don’t know what you are spending, how accurately are you budgeting and planning for the coming year? Clearview offers 54 pre-built reports for accurate trend reporting. Two more questions to make you flinch. Read on, brave soul.
What are my current telecom processes? An invoice arrives at your doorstep every month. What happens next? Is it being reviewed line by line? Or is it just paid automatically, without any review or second thought?
We had a client that each month would open the invoice, and if it was within 20% of the month before – it was paid without question. Can you imagine the compound expense of this practice? Take some time to document and think through your telecom invoice process. It’s surprising how quickly the convenience of no processes becomes outrageously expensive. Learn about our a la carte invoice services – these might be the first few steps of ‘official telecom processes’ that ease up major time and effort in your office.
Who is in charge of reviewing telecom charges? Is it the IT or the finance department? Is anyone really going line by line to review what is being charged?
Forrester Research estimates that “billing errors average 5% to 12% of ongoing telecom services budgets”. Our experience says that this number is actually closer to 35% of all telecom invoices. Scary. If you don’t have a dedicated telecom manager, someone with a dedicated eye on telecom invoice, you could be paying exponentially more than you should be. Outsourcing invoice reviews and auditing is a great way to put this review into the hands of the experts. Read more about invoice review and auditing.
Do you have the luxury of adding a new team member dedicated to telecom expense management processes? Or is an outsourced solution a more feasible option? Give us a call – we can help you sort through the options.