Does my business really need a telecom audit?
Audits and Inventories
We’ve seen a big uptick in interest in audits and inventories in the last year, and we predict that interest will continue into 2015. It’s detailed and tedious work, that you can do internally – but you may not have the time, resources or expertise to be doing it to the full capacity. Because to the untrained eye, finding billing errors in mounds of invoices…. Is like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you are taking the time to comb through your invoices line by line, and you are not seeing the errors, you are wasting a lot of time and effort. If you’re not finding these errors, you’re never going to reach the level of optimization you seek.
Types of Audits
Contingency / One Time – Offered by many consultants and TEM firms. It’s a one-time situation for a telecom expert to come in house for a short term contract. They make recommendations for lines to be disconnected and credits to be requested, and then they are gone.
On-Going – Valicom’s wheelhouse. We always recommend on-going audits. This allows us to have the biggest impact on your telecom spending. Why? Essentially we are doing audits continuously, monitoring usage for a higher level of control and optimization.
Types of Inventory
Physical Inventory – When a technician is sent out to your various locations to plug into your demarcation point. This technician goes line by line to determine which lines are active and which are no longer being used.
Invoice Inventory – An inventory built through your invoices and contracts. Your auditor combs through your invoices and contract line by line to determine what accounts are active, and which should be disconnected or credited – based on usage and agreements.
We use our web-based TEM tool, Clearview, to perform our on-going audits. Clearview allows us to keep a finger on the pulse of your telecom environment and make recommendations for optimization. Clearview is easy to learn and use internally, and you can assign user permissions based on roles. For example – IT Director has editing permissions, while the Telecom Manager only has viewing and reporting permissions.
The time involvement, cost, and savings associated with a full audit and inventory is case-by-case. We can make some predictions, but your results will really depend on the complexity of your environment, and the last time an audit was performed. If you are thinking it’s time to review your environment, we’d be happy to take a look and help you get on the right track to optimization.