Explore Valicom's blog for essential industry insights and updates. Stay informed and empowered with the latest in technology expense management.
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.
Leadership is not an easy role. The success of your organization relies on the decisions you make, especially when it directly affects your financial outlook. From the small investments, like whether or not to provide a coffee maker in the break room, to the larger commitments, such as whether or not to expand office space, the pressure is on you to cultivate a thriving operation.
According to a recent Gartner survey, the average reduction of total cost of ownership (TCO) is 13 percent when deploying telecom expense management (TEM). Of the respondents, 40 percent reported a TCO reduction of 10 to 20 percent. 36 percent of the enterprises reported a reduction of 10 percent or less.
Most enterprises would agree that the benefits of TEM are very evident. Some of these advantages include improved business process outcomes, extended scale and geo scope, and better visibility. However, TEM is not without its disadvantages, which include hidden costs and the extra time needed for implementation. In general, customers choose TEM providers based on scalability, TCO reduction, and expected performance. Unfortunately, the disadvantages of TEM cause TCO reduction to be lower than it otherwise would be.
Based on the Gartner report, here is some information about how enterprise TEM challenges drive customer acquisition.
When you look at IT and enterprise technology, the need for new technology continues to grow at an exponential rate. Organizations have all kinds of technology, from software as a service (SaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS), internet of things (IoT) and tech from the consumer side. These technologies from all different categories need to be organized and managed within your IT and operations department in order to control costs and afford new technology.
WHAT IS IT ASSET MANAGEMENT? IT Asset Management begins with a central repository for your IT inventory.
In a world where the customer has a shortened attention span and desire for on-demand products and services, the retail landscape continues to shift further into the tech-assisted operational universe. How do these trends fit into telecom and technology expense management? While maximizing the use of technology tools, systems and platforms can help automate processes and further engage your customers, there is ever more inventory to manage and IT bills to pay.
Tablets, iPhones, iPads, Androids, Dells, and Macs. These are only a few devices you see daily, within the workplace. As businesses grow, the number of devices to keep track of grows too. If your inventory is not managed correctly, unnecessary money may be spent.
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Why? It’s a moving target monthly… your organization’s telecom line items are always in flux. New lines and circuits being added every month. iPhones and Android devices being connected and disconnected quarterly as new employees begin and others retire or leave. Or perhaps an organization’s locations are spread far and wide, making it difficult to keep accurate and up-to-date inventories feasible without incurring huge travel (or training) expenses.
The use of mobile technology allows employees and customers to be connected to the company from just about anywhere in the world. Mobile devices including smartphones, laptops, and tablets are a vital resource tools for every aspect of business from the c-suite, to sales teams, marketers, and customer service.
When most individuals consider inventory in a company, they think about the amount of goods to be sold at any particular time. ‘Inventory’ has many distinct areas within a business. Every part of a company is considered to be inventory item in one form or another, including the tools we use to conduct business day to day. This includes items within your telecom environment, phones on desks, data circuits, and most importantly and volatile…wireless devices and smartphones.
We may have mentioned this previously, but it is so important that we need to review on occasion. Let’s talk about your wireless expenses. How much does your company spend each month – do you know? And the trick question here is – are you sure?
Do you know how much wireless data you use each month? If you’re like me, it fluctuates frequently and depends largely on my traveling schedule, time in the car, availability of leisure time – and so on. I try to keep it under 3GB – but sometimes by the end of the billing period, that’s totally out the window.
The customer service record (CSR) is the bible of telecom expense management. It’s a document chalk full of valuable information. What you do with that valuable information — how you interpret, and move forward with it – is up to you.
There’s no denying it, and frankly there’s no outlook for less complexity anytime soon. The capabilities of our mobile devices changes ten-fold with every new release, new app, new features. We will cover changes in the mobile environment in depth in our upcoming webinar, “TEM Trends for 2015: Opportunities, Tools and Trends“.
During our latest webinar ‘Unlock Savings: Finding Telecom Inefficiencies” we covered many opportunities for savings in your current organizational processes. From financial, technical, and operational — we emphasized balance in achieving savings.
