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Monthly Archives: March 2010
Manage Wireless Costs by Minding Your Cell Phone Features!
Opening my personal cellular bill recently resulted in unexpected and unpleasant surprises. You see, I have twin 17-year-old daughters whom, like their mother, love technology…especially their new smart phones with all the bells and whistles. I did not caution them about price point cons for the games, ring tones, data downloads, music, wallpaper, etc. Big mistake. Even worse, I underestimated the amount of texting two teenage girls could amass in one month. Astounding and expensive. I should have told them to mind their features!
You probably see where I’m going with this. You may be responsible for 300 or 1000 cell phones and need to manage texting overages, cute puppy wallpapers purchased, and AC/DC ring tones blissfully downloaded. But, do you really have the time? I’m betting you don’t, so the potential savings go right down the drain each month.
Of course, you have company policies in place that spell out allowed features but many employees can’t resist the temptation of the VZ Navigator download or they simply either don’t understand or choose to ignore their own corporate cell phone plan’s accepted features and limitations. Who has the time to peruse a 500-page cell phone invoice? Who has the time to follow-up on every identified issue from one month to the next?
Here are a few tips for business wireless cost-reduction strategies:
- Start by monitoring the monthly invoice dollar amounts. Huge overages should catch your attention but what about the more subtle increases? Trust me, they add up quickly and can ruin your projected annual budget.
- Make the simple change to electronic billing to take advantage of the robust reporting capabilities most carriers offer on-line. Set up your account and navigate your way through the vendor’s on-line portal and you’ll find a wealth of information at your fingertips: equipment charges, overages, plan information, everything you’ll need to effectively audit your invoices.
- Another solution begins with your Carrier Account Manager(s). Request quarterly reporting from them and set up your own parameters so you can get the custom reporting you need. This is a time efficient way to monitor all cellular usage from your carrier.
- Another suggestion, and my personal favorite, is to hire your own telecom expense management firm. They are trained professionals who take care of all the heavy lifting, follow-up, and nagging telecom annoyances you don’t have time to take care of yourself. Find a telecom expense management firm who will work with you for a productive partnership and flexible fit.
Just a few easy ways to manage your business cellular expenses, saving you from the dreaded unpleasant surprise of overages, add-on’s, and everything in between.
What’s Lurking “Behind The Cloud?”
If you love an awesome business success story or want to learn about how Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing were born, “Behind The Cloud,” by Marc Bienoff, CEO of Salesforce.com, is a must read! Benioff provides 111 plays for companies to practice to build and grow a successful SaaS business. Many of Benioff’s experiences in growing Salesforce.com parallel the philosophies and strategies of Valicom as we launch Clearview, our telecom cost management software.
Benioff realized his vision of getting mass market acceptance to replace costly, hard to implement and maintain, licensed software with a reduced cost, easy to implement, internet-based model. Valicom’s vision is to enable business users to perform their own telecom expense management for greater operational efficiencies and maximum company cost savings. Additionally, Valicom is creating transparency with telecom suppliers in the marketplace and bringing greater visibility to clients’ telecom expenses. Companies benefit through greater telecom expense control and making more informed business decisions.
One play, that was inspiring to me, describes how Salesforce.com grew their sales by making sure that their product was developed to bring a high level of satisfaction to their clients. They would then host events, providing a forum for customers to talk to prospects about the benefits of the Salesforce.com platform. They had an incredible number of sales that resulted from these events. Viral marketing, using pre-existing social networks to create brand awareness, is a sound strategy for growing telecom expense management solutions as well.
I won’t spoil the rest for you. You will want to devour and savor every play from #1 to #111. To find out more about “Behind The Cloud” or to purchase the book, just follow this link:
Enjoy!!
The Value of Business Values
Passion, Inspiration, Innovation, Authenticity, Memorable Experiences and Enduring Connections. What do all of these terms have in common? They are Valicom’s values that our employees live and practice every day and that leadership communicates to staff on a regular basis. Through these values, we have developed a world-class culture and a highly satisfied telecom expense management client base.
Passion for operational excellence abounds as our staff works toward reducing business costs for our clients. Inspiration shows up as our teams use best practices to perform telecom audits and manage telecom expenses. Innovation is exhibited through a combination of 20 years of intellectual property and leading edge technology to create automated workflows, telecom auditing routines and telecom expense tracking mechanisms in the development of Clearview, Valicom’s telecom cost management software. Authenticity can be found in the integrity and ethical standards we live by as an unbiased, independent telecom expense management company. Memorable experiences flourish as we work closely with our clients and is evident in the record client satisfaction survey scores we receive every quarter. Solid enduring connections have been made with our clients, many of whom have been with us for 5 - 10 years, longer than many telecom expense management companies have been in business.
If you have not gone through the exercise of exploring and establishing your business values and communicating them on a regular basis with your staff, you may want to take the opportunity to do so. The benefits are many as you develop a rewarding, world-class culture that attracts best-in-class employees and creates deeply fulfilling client partnerships.
Clearing The Clouds Around Telecom Expense Management?
What comes to your mind when you hear the term “Cloud Computing?” These days everyone has a different definition of cloud computing and the only element of consistency is an understanding that it is an exploding technology. Wikepedia asserts that cloud computing is “Internet-based computing, whereby shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand.”
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications are utilized by businesses to access on-demand, internet-based software through the cloud. According to Forrester research, in their webinar entitled, “SaaS your Appplication,” it was reported that the CRM and web conferencing industries have the greatest rate of SaaS adoption with the highest growth curve. The TEM industry was conspicuously absent from the growth curve.
Based on my research, the use of SaaS telecom expense managment technology is in it’s infancy. So how is cloud computing utilized by companies to reduce their telecom costs and to gain telecom expense control? What better way to simplify the expense management process and reduce business costs than to utilize an on-demand, self-service telecom expense management tool to automate this tedious process! Telecom auditing, tracking of telecom assets and telecom bill payment can all be performed quickly and easily without the need to install complex software or utilize your precious computer staff or resources.
Valicom has responded and launched our SaaS application for telecom expense management called Clearview. Check it out as an alternative to the traditional approach. You won’t be disappointed.
If you’d like to try an on-demand telecom expense management application first-hand, go to www.valicomcorp.com and register to view a demo of Valicom’s Clearview SaaS application. Try it, you’ll like it!
Telecom Invoice
Telecom invoice.
How do you feel when someone wants to talk to you about a Telecom Invoice? Either you are familiar with it or you’re not. Whether you are writing an expense report to justify your monthly telecom expenses, or managing the company’s entire Telecom expenses, you know you will need to be able to interpret the bill. Knowing enough to be able to identify errors in the billing, cost reduction opportunities and optimization options is imperative while conducting expense analysis in reducing business costs.
Did you ever hear the phrase “you don’t know what you don’t know”? When it comes to telecom expense management why not reply on the experts at Valicom?
With Valicom’s new Clearview telecom expense management software, you receive the powerful tool and training to manage telecom expenses, coupled with the confidence and benefit of 20 years of expertise.
Contact Us for your customized telecom expense management software demo today, and see how you can start savings on your telecom costs immediately.
What do you know about SaaS?
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), according to Wikipedia, is a model of software deployment over the internet. With SaaS, a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand, either through a time subscription or a “pay-as-you-go” model. Also known as “software on demand,” the SaaS model allows vendors to develop, host and operate software for customer use. Rather than purchase the hardware and software to run an application, customers need only a computer or a server to download the application and internet access to run the software. The software can be licensed for a single user or for a group of users.
Valicom‘s Clearview SaaS application is exactly what your company needs to gain control of your Telecom Expense Management. Clearview was designed to produce company cost savings. Clearview telecom cost management software is intended to enable companies to eliminate the use of cumbersome spreadsheets that require manual intervention that do not provide the visibility and validation of critical data needed to perform telecom auditing. Clearview places powerful automation in your hands to use when you want it. Clearview is a tool to enable rapid expense analysis that reduce telecom expenses.
Check out what Microsoft has to say about growing SaaS opportunities among SMBs.
Now you can test-drive Clearview. Contact us for a customized demo today.
Gartner recommendations for Wireless Expense Management.
As your wireless device options continue to erupt, the ability to properly manage these devices and their associated costs will continue to be a challenge to all organizations. Gartner states: “Defining corporate user requirements and policy is essential for all sizes of organizations, and although every company will need a unique policy, there are key areas that every policy should contain.” Please refer to the following link to view the entire article. “Gartner Says Closer Management of Wireless Services Can Save Companies 10 to 35 Percent of Their Wireless Costs Through 2015″ http://www.webnewswire.com/node/507976
Telecommunication optimization, wireless optimization, and total telecom expense management are all designed for the creation of a solid policy that will direct employee behavior and purchasing options. Good telecom policy management will be one of the first steps in establishing telecom expense tracking and business cost reduction. Wireless expense management is the current focus of most Information Technology and Telecommunication departments.
If you are interested in receiving our Wireless Policy template to get you started, please select the following link. Free Wireless Policy Template.
One of the basic element’s to good management is establishing control. Become a control-freak when it comes to managing wireless expenses.