Telecom Expense Management for Wireless
Telecom expense management services (TEM) enable enterprises’ IT, procurement and finance departments to order, provision, support and manage costs of corporate telecommunications, associated IT services and their inventories. TEM services can include not only telecom expense management, but also mobility expense management (wireless, IoT devices), and cloud expense management (UCaaS, SaaS, etc.) TEM involves the analysis of telecom service orders, inventory, bills and disputes, in order to reduce telecom spend. It includes bill auditing and consolidation, for increased visibility (typically in a portal) and contract negotiations. Clients who implement TEM solutions usually save 20-35% annually. Additionally, TEM providers use business intelligence, BI, to provide detailed reporting and analytics to help C-level executives with decision making.
TEM services can be procured by vendors in an a la carte option because there are several different facets that companies can choose to outsource to the vendor, such as: auditing, inventory creation, project management, trouble ticket management, and escalation management. Most companies explore using TEM services because they are in a cost savings mode. Almost always, there are ways to save money on technology expenses, and TEM providers can help identify these through the tools and skill sets they have.
What customers are a good fit for TEM Services and why do they use it? Customers across any vertical can benefit from using TEM services. Typically, the sweet spot for most of the TEM providers are businesses that have multiple locations, regional or global, lots of corporate mobile devices, are managing many carriers and ISPs, have a high cloud and telecom spend, and are looking for optimization across the board. Customers that are looking beyond just cost savings measures, but also into offloading the management of communications related and cloud-based services can greatly benefit from the use of the TEM. This would be referred to as soft-dollar savings because you’re saving your employees time, so they can be more productive on other business driving projects rather than worrying about calling Verizon to talk about new rate plans, for example.
Cost management for cloud, telecom, and mobility are becoming increasingly challenging to deal with, especially when there are 20-50 different vendors an IT team is trying to manage. Being able to outsource this to a company that can provide visibility by creating a single pane of glass customer portal, can save significant time and headaches. To summarize the benefits of TEM services, customers look for the following: improved business process outcomes, better visibility and control of assets, ensuring asset performance, and naturally reduced cost for all communications services.
How do you find the best TEM provider? There are many TEM providers out there, but it is important to understand the differences between them, their strengths and weaknesses, and the ROI you will receive as the customer. Conectrix represents over 10 of the top TEM providers that have already been vetted and interviewed by our engineering and distribution team. We provide high level proprietary software that helps determine which vendors are the best potential fit for our customers based on their unique needs and requirements. Here are some sample questions that can help get the ball rolling on narrowing down TEM provider options: why are you looking into TEM services? What TEM services are you interested in? What cost reduction services are you interested in? What are you desired features and benefits?
Please contact us and we will be glad to take you through our TEM Dynamic Matrix to provide you all the due diligence needed to make an informed decision about TEM Services.