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Category: Auditing Telecom Invoices
3rd Party Wireless Charges Attract Attention of the FTC
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.
Need more help with Wireless expense management? Download our white paper Top 4 Tips to Manage Wireless Costs
Software and telecom invoice issue management
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…
Using Software to Streamline Telecom Invoice Processing & Payment
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.”
Living In the Past: Part Two – No more spreadsheets……
“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Albert Einstein
As we discussed in Part One of “Living in the Past”, businesses should strive to keep an eye out for new tools and technology that can make their jobs easier. And I don’t mean easier as in “I get to leave for the golf course half an hour early”, I mean easier like “We saved 30% of our telecom spend over last year, because now we can actually SEE what we’re doing”. Most likely that Excel spreadsheet you’ve been using to manage your telecom expenses and wireless inventory isn’t doing anything more for you now than it was five years ago. Albert would tell you that it’s time to move on…
So you ask me, “If I ditch my spreadsheet, how am I supposed to keep track of all this stuff?”. Remember hearing about SalesForce.com, this great tool that is delivered via the web, and accessible from anywhere? Well, guess what. That technology is available for telecom expense management too. Via TEM software-as-a-service platforms, you can upgrade from spreadsheets to a fully functional, easy-to-learn TEM solution that allows you to view telecom inventory, track telecom invoices, manage telecom vendor relationships, get a handle on order change management and optimize your wireless spend… The options are as deep as you want to go.
Imagine having a customizable dashboard that can display widgets showing exactly the data YOU want to see. You can even pull them out to use when you have to present to your managers or company board, or if you’re a consultant, to your client. Gain efficiency by keeping all your data in one place, and gain flexibility through users with various levels of access, so they only see what they need to see.
Streamlining like this can save a ton of time, and as we all know (Without Einstein even having to tell us!) Time = Money. And that’s really the only equation you need to know.
Want to learn more about telecom expense management software-as-a-solution? Check out Clearview – because, “When you see, you save.”
Living in the Past: Part One – Stone Age tools for Stone Age results
“You can’t do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and expect to be in business tomorrow”
– Unknown
Most of us have probably heard this sensible business advice, but are you taking it to heart in your current work processes? Maybe not…
We all know that it’s a lot easier to use tried and true tactics, going down the same path every day, rather than tackling anything different. Heaven forbid – you might have to learn something new! But the price you pay for stagnation can be huge. New techniques arise, best practices evolve over time, fresh technology comes out…. Your competitors are probably on board. The 25-year old guy in the corner cube who wants your office is probably on board. You better get on board too, or the boat is going to leave without you.
So what kind of neat shiny new things am I talking about? Well, I’ll give you an example. A HUGE example. Granted, this doesn’t have much to do with telecom expense management or telecom invoice auditing, but we get to that in Part Two. This one tool helps to illustrate how the software-as-a-service technology is changing the face of business. Something you can use to automate workflows, and reduce costs for your business. But, this example is at work in your sales department…
Ever heard of SalesForce.com? If you’re in IT or a CFO, I forgive you if you haven’t. But, if you work in sales or customer service, you’re in trouble if you don’t know. It’s only the fastest growing, most heavily adopted, and slickest customer relationship management tool out there. Best part? It’s web-based. Delivered online, real-time with a password, it means you can access your data from anywhere, anytime – even at 3 am when your flight out of O’Hare is cancelled for the third time. At a convention in Singapore? No problem. One click, and all your customer data is at your fingertips. On vacation in Costa Rica? Just log in and there are all the campaign stats for that email you sent out last Tuesday.
Sure beats that crummy old rolodex sitting on your desk, doesn’t it?
And with this new technology comes an avalanche of new best practices, tactics, ideas, collaborative plug-ins allowing access to third-party data and services, and so much more. Probably something you’d want to know about, and be using to save your business money, before Jimmy-in-the-Cube figures it out and you end up working for him.
So, now that you get a taste of the type of tools available, stay tuned for Part Two to see how it can be applied to your telecom expense reduction tasks. Whether you’re an IT staff managing wireless expenses, a CFO looking for business cost reduction options, or a telecom consultant wanting a way to increase your capabilities while saving time and money, we’ve got a new toy for you…
Want a sneak peek? Get a demo of Clearview today.
Telecom & Wireless Management Pain Point 4 – Invoice Processing
In our series of posts on telecom management pain points, this one is a biggie. Most telecom managers get tired of dealing with invoice processing and payment. Invoices should really be audited every time, but even without that, there is still the matter of getting the invoices – either electronically or paper – GL coding everything, getting it approved, and then paid on time. Anything to keep Accounting is happy.
There are a couple solutions to this headache.
- Go Green. Ditch the paper, and get as many invoices as you can electronically.
- Pay to the line level. This isn’t intuitive, but it is really useful. If you get a lot of accounts all on one invoice, pay each one separately. Then, if you ever need credits or to make changes, you can actually tell what was paid, when, by whom, for what, and how the credits were applied.
- Keep good records. Once you get those invoices, electronic or otherwise, be sure you archive them in a way that is easy to locate and search.
- Use technology. A telecom expense management software tool designed to do this is a huge help for this task.
- Outsource. If you just don’t have the capacity or the desire to deal with it in-house, a partner can help you by accepting, GL coding and paying all your telecom invoices. And if you are using a telecom expense management software for other management tasks, all that invoice data will be populated in the system, making it easier to do auditing and run reports.
Want more information? Download our White Paper: “Telecom & Wireless Cost Control: What You Need To Know”
New white paper outlining seven best practices in managing telecom and wireless expenses. The white paper is a good primer for setting up a good telecom expense management program. The paper also showcases how modern web-based telecom expense management software tools support the use of these best practices.
Telecom & Wireless Management Pain Point 3 – Invoice Auditing
As we discuss pain points of telecom and wireless management, this one will probably be most familiar to readers. Invoice auditing is a long time tactic for reducing telecom expenses. Even if you just do a cursory overview of your bills each month, you can often spot problems that can be corrected to save money. By hiring an outside consultant, or a firm like Valicom, you can get into deeper invoice audits that involve pulling CSR (customer service records) from the various vendors, and verifying that services being billed for actually A) are in use and needed and B) are being charged at contract rates.
Through these deeper dive audits, you can often uncover a host of issues and areas for savings, which then leads to the challenge of credit recovery. There are different rules in different states for how far back you can request credit, and a follow-up audit needs to take place to ensure all those credits are applied. A follow-up audit can also confirm that any requested changes, like getting rates down to contractual levels or addition or deletion of services, are actually done properly, and billed accordingly.
You’d think it would be easy to have a telecom invoice come out clean, but industry stats have shown that up to 35% of telecom invoices have errors on them. That means room for a lot of improvement, and a lot of savings, which makes it one of our top pain points. One thing that has made telecom invoice auditing a lot easier in recent years is the advancement of web-based software tools to track invoices and inventory.
Want more information? Download our White Paper: “Telecom & Wireless Cost Control: What You Need To Know”
New white paper outlining seven best practices in managing telecom and wireless expenses. The white paper is a good primer for setting up a good telecom expense management program. The paper also showcases how modern web-based telecom expense management software tools support the use of these best practices.
Telecom & Wireless Management Pain Point 2 – Data Loading
As we discussed in our blog post on telecom expense management software, which is Pain Point #1 – everyone seems to want online tools these days. But the pain that rapidly comes after you get the software is the realization that someone has to put all the information in there before it becomes useful. Enter “Data Loading”.
And when we say data loading, we are usually talking about telecom and wireless invoice data. However, it can also mean populating inventories in the software too, but whatever it is, most people don’t have the time, or the desire, to do it themselves.
Telecom invoice data can be loaded two ways. Carriers often offer electronic invoice data, so the first option is just a matter of building the pathway to upload that data into the software. That usually isn’t the one that makes you want to shoot your computer in the face. The task that makes people want to jump out their office window is the manual data entry of pulling info from paper invoices. Paper invoice data needs to be entered into the proper fields, then a scanned PDF copy of the invoice uploaded so it can be viewed in its original form when needed.
So you can see why Data Loading is a pain point that begs for a service to solve it, and Valicom offers one.
Want more information? Download our White Paper: “Telecom & Wireless Cost Control: What You Need To Know”
New white paper outlining seven best practices in managing telecom and wireless expenses. The white paper is a good primer for setting up a good telecom expense management program. The paper also showcases how modern web-based telecom expense management software tools support the use of these best practices.
Case Study – Telecom Audit & Invoice Processing
As we discussed in our last blog post on telecom management pain points, telecom invoice auditing is a major headache. New cloud telecom expense management software tools make that management process easier, and we wanted to show a case study that illustrated how various telecom management services can be bundled together to build a custom solution around your needs.
Industry: Electronics Component Distributor
Annual Telecom Spend: $1.5 Million
Services Provided:
Unnecessary business lines, unused circuits, and 30 illegitimate third party charges identified and removed.
Results Obtained: $9,000 Per Month Savings
Ongoing Savings: $107,012.16 Annually
TEM questions, answered. FAQ: What is a CSR?
This is one I had to learn when I got into telecom expense management too, as acronyms are always a pain. CSR stands for “Customer Service Record”. Clear as mud, right?
In the telecom universe, a CSR is a copy of what the carrier actually has in its database regarding your account – all your services, the lines, circuits, locations, details and additional services being billed. They aren’t normally something you would look at, but will be released by the carrier upon request by you or by an auditing firm working for you.
The value of a CSR is that it gives a very detailed picture of your telecom environment, much more detailed than you would find on an invoice. And if you know how to decipher one (which I might add, isn’t necessarily easy) it can unlock a variety of options to reduce your telecom expenses.
So if you’re curious, order up a copy and have a look for yourself. And be aware that a good telecom audit would probably require these documents, as it gives the auditor a deeper dive into your services.