Keeping track of your contracts is another imperative step to a good telecom expense management program. Granted, you may wonder why you care…. So we’ll tell you.
Telecom Tactic #6: Contract Management
Who Needs Telecom Expense Management?
To conduct business today, we know you need tools and you need technology. This means telephones, mobile phones, pagers, expensive high-speed internet connections, laptops with wireless capabilties, the list goes on and on. And, over time, the list not only gets longer as new gadgets hit the market, but the number of people within your organization who needs these things goes up. All of that leads to complexity, and complexity can lead to errors.
What is Telecom Expense Management Anyway?
Essentially, it is an all encompassing term that refers to the overall monitoring and handling of wireless, voice, and data assets for your company. This is a process you can do yourself, via a web-based platform like Clearview, or you can partner with a firm like Valicom to do these services for you. Whoever does it, in plain language, it means gathering all of your telecom bills and looking for overcharges through a telecom audit, searching for contract violations, finding ways to save money, and negotiating directly with vendors to get a better deal.
Check, then recheck, the long distance PIC for new service
One of the most common mistakes made while ordering new service, is to neglect to request that the long distance usage for the new service be billed to your corporate long distance service. The second common mistake, is that once requested, nothing is done to make sure the carrier actually does it.
TEM Portfolio Expansion For Telecom Consultants
This is a follow-up to my previous blog entitled “Telecom Auditing and TEM Software Tools” and the second in a series of blogs that outline the results of Valicom’s telecom consultant survey that was sent out to a nationwide group of independent telecom consultants in August, 2010 on this subject.
Document invoice processing procedures for consistent results
A simple, yet important part of any good TEM project, is to maintain detailed instructions and documentation to go with your telecom invoice processing efforts. Some invoices are more complex than others, and will require significant documentation, while some or so simple that they won’t require any documentation at all.
Track your telecom issues, recover more telecom savings
An integral component to any telecom audit is the tracking and validation of savings issues. As those involved perform the various pieces of the audit, it is vital that there is a centralized issue tracking mechanism in place.
Super Wi-Fi may soon be a reality
Working in the Telecom Expense Management world, it’s clear that data communications, and particularly wireless data communications, have been and will continue to be the dominant driver behind new technologies and new methods of sharing and working with information.
What Are The Keys To TEM Program Success For Small to Mid-Size Businesses?
In an earlier blog dated July 20, 2010 entitled “What are Mid-Sized Organizations Doing About Controlling Telecom Expenses?,” we left you with the question: “What are the keys to telecom expense management (TEM) program success for small to mid-size businesses (SMBs)?”