An effective telecom inventory management system provides crucial knowledge on tracking and coordinating your physical assets and contracts. It's an investment that allows you to manage your infrastructure and control costs. In the case of healthcare companies, it can even be a matter of life and death.
Let's look at how a telecom inventory management system fits into the overall corporate structure…
Telecom Inventory Management Activities
Telecom Expense Management providers help you track and simplify service agreements and asset lists. Here are some of the items you can keep better tabs on with TEM:
Travel cards
ATM
Conference expenses
Data communications lines
Leases
Voicemail, PBX and telephony assets
Maintenance contracts
Mobile devices
Network equipment
Software Licenses
How Does the Process Work?
When you partner with an experienced TEM provider, such as Valicom, building a telecom asset inventory is usually the first step. Then, we compare the inventory list to carrier bills. Typically, this audit accounts for 80 to 95% of the inventory. After a cleanup period, all assets are entered into the system.
At a minimum, your vendor should track basic activity, such as Move, Add, Change and Disconnect. Depending on the service agreement, your provider can also handle the order and provisioning processes too.
The key activity that any TEM system should track includes:
Location of service
Installation date (physical assets)
Start date (service only contracts)
Renewal date
Purpose of asset/service
In-service vs out-of-use status
Why is Telecom Inventory Management Important?
There are three primary reasons you should consolidate your telecom assets in a dedicated TEM system.
ONE. Stop Paying for Unnecessary Services
Anyone who has worked in telecom probably has horror stories of unused or unneeded telecom assets that remain on the bill for months or even years. Whether you are still paying licensing fees on obsolete software or have unused mobile devices eating up your telephony budget, it's time to get your arms around the problem. Stop paying for unused equipment and services.
By ensuring the accuracy and status of your telecom inventory, a TEM vendor can provide insight into invoices that are far higher than the services you actually benefit from. It can also highlight the need to shop around for a new provider in some cases.
TWO. Expose Resource Drains
In today's environment, companies require increasing assets, such as mobile devices, service agreements, fixed telecom, and IT infrastructure. The rise of BYOD policies adds another layer of complexity in terms of tracking and security. Only a systematic approach can keep the new family of "assets" under control.
A Telecom Expense Management system can split expenses into categories that help you track leaks in your expenses. It doesn't take long for a system to pay for itself if it saves you up to 15% of your total telecom expense. We have found that this is a conservative estimate, based on feedback from clients.
Engaging a TEM vendor frees up IT staff to focus on operations that directly impact business operations.
THREE. Standardize Process Across the Enterprise
If you run a midsize to large organization, technology, resources, and inventory typically change often. Whether it's a new line or replacement of outdated circuits, it's important to have one source of truth. This is especially true if disparate telecom systems are preventing you from effectively scaling up your business footprint.
To catch and report on an area of business that's in constant flux, move your asset management to an integrated system that plays well with other software tools. While many companies don't have the time, knowledge or tools to maintain data integrity, a TEM provider can give you the insight you need to effectively manage your telecom assets.
Are You Ready to Change Your Archaic or Disjointed TEM?
Turn telecom inventory management into a lifecycle approach that reduces telecom spend and increases efficiency. Finally, you can have one source of information that allows you to conduct inquiries and provide customized reporting to senior management.
Time is money. How much are your providers billing you for assets you no longer use or need? Contact Valicom today to learn more about the cost-saving opportunities offered by an enterprise-level Telecom Expense Management system.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: BRITTANY PECKHAM
Brittany grew up in Oregon, Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin Business School with a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Human Resources with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. Brittany has been working with Valicom for many years creating content for the TEM industry to deliver the many benefits users and organizations can experience in utilizing TEM services. With a passion for social media marketing, Brittany enjoys applying creativity throughout various areas of her life while expressing creativity in everything she does and loves being consumed in projects, from start to finish.