A few days ago President Barack Obama said that the beginning of the end of the recession has started. In a speech  later, he said that though the end (of the recession) is near, it will take many months before it’s absolutely over. One good thing that this recession did was show us innovative ways to cut costs. Among other things, organizations using telecom services extensively suddenly became aware of analyzing their telecom costs. I hope that this trend continues beyond the economically difficult times.

Let’s look at what you can do to reduce the telecom costs of your organization.

• Get the right telecom service. You should not go for a telecom vendor because your friend said so or because you happened to see its ad before others. First, look at what your business’ needs are, and then, look at different vendors and their services plans to see which one suits your needs the best.
• Monitor the usage. You should know that your business is using the telecom services judiciously. Find out if the services are being over-used or misused. If the services are legitimately being over-used, you should look for another plan.
• Check the bills. Make sure you have a dedicated team to check the bills for errors. Also, make sure that you are not paying for services that you never use.
• Review the service regularly. Your telecom needs may change after some time, making your current service non-advantageous. You should keep analyzing your business’ telecom needs from time to time, and see if the service still suits you.

The reduction of telecom costs falls in the purview of Telecom Expense Management (TEM). You can look at outsourcing the expense management to professionals, freeing up your own people for other important work.

If telecom services are critical to your business, you definitely understand the concept of telecom auditing. And in the same context, you must have heard of Telecom Expense Management (TEM). If you are one of those who wonder if TEM is any better than internal telecom audit, you will be surprised to know the results. Let’s look at some of the business benefits of TEM.

• It helps you recover the money that you have lost because of errors in the earlier cycles of accounting and billing.
• One of the biggest advantages TEM brings to a business is automation. It automates invoice processing, among other things.
• TEM analyzes the current telecom needs and recommends the telecom services and plans that align with the needs.
• Based on the analysis of the current usage, TEM projects the future telecom needs of a business.
• It releases the resources engaged in managing the telecom services for other priority work, helping you optimize your organization’s utilization.
• TEM helps track down the instances of misuse, overuse, and abuse of telecom services. It helps to streamline the usage of the telecom services.
• It tracks down slamming or any other kind of wrongful billing (billing for services you don’t use).
• Apart from recovering costs, TEM introduces measures to manage expenses efficiently, thereby saving you more money.

Wondering how much it would cost to deploy TEM in your business? Well, go for a telecom management company that works on a contingency basis. That way, you will pay only a part of the savings the company helps you realize.

Why should I pay for saving money? Wouldn’t it bring me to square one? This is probably what the average business says when asked to deploy a Telecom Expense Management (TEM) team to reduce its telecom expenses. They are right to an extent. They are however wrong in comparing TEM to yet another money-saving tactic for which you spend a fortune. TEM responds to the concern with the following:

• You pay only when you realize actual savings.
• You pay only a little as compared to the savings you make.

TEM is not just about reducing your expenses but helping you reap optimum benefits of your telecom services. The essential elements of TEM are:

• Invoice Management
• Inventory Management
• Analysis and reporting
• Usage Management
• Order Management

Let’s look at how these elements help you.

• It helps you recover the money lost because of errors in accounting and billing.
• It tracks down slamming or any other kind of wrongful billing (billing for services you don’t use).
• It releases the resources engaged in managing the telecom services for other priority work, helping you optimize your organization’s utilization.
• It tracks the misuse, overuse, and abuse of the telecom services.
• It automates invoice processing.
• It introduces measures to manage expenses efficiently, thereby saving you more money.
• It reviews the telecom contract periodically and recommends changes based on the telecom needs of the business.
• It analyzes the current telecom needs and usage and projects the future needs.
• It recommends the best telecom service/plan, in view of the current and the projected needs.

Telecom expenses are the least analyzed expenses in a business. With TEM, the expenses are not only reduced but also structured so that businesses pay only for what they use.

The term ‘management’ promises to deliver expected results. It is about overseeing something to make sure it meets desired goals. Advocates of Telecom Expense Management (TEM), therefore, argue that TEM is always better than simple telecom auditing.

In one of our earlier posts, we discussed the perceived differences between TEM and telecom auditing. So, is one better than the other? Experts say that since the purpose of both is cost reduction, it is unfair to say that one is better.

TEM offers a complete expense management solution that not only helps reduce costs and tracks the problem areas, it sees to it that future costs are reduced and expenses kept to the minimum. Telecom auditing, typically, looks at cutting down the current costs; it may not strategize for the future.

Apart from managing expenses, TEM offers management in the following areas:

• Invoicing
• Inventory
• Usage
• Order
• Analysis and reporting

Let’s look at what auditing has to offer:

• Analysis of current services
• Error detection
• Cost recovery
• Plan review
• Usage review

Auditing is enough for a business that is looking at tracking errors and reducing its telecom cost. Also, auditing is done more for the present. TEM, on the other hand, helps make telecom decisions for the future. Auditing is more about finding the problems and letting the business take action. TEM is about finding problems as well as resolving them.

TEM and telecom auditing has overlapping features. A business can go for either of the solutions depending on its need.

Come back tomorrow for some more interesting analysis from the world of telecommunications.

There is some kind of management for everything in a business. However, much of the time, the management is non-structured and impromptu, and more often that not, such management fails to align with the needs of the business.

The costs and expenses of the telecom network in an organization is one of the most neglected in terms of management. The telecom vendor provides services; the business uses the services and then pays for the telecom service. What is there to manage in all this? What triggers the need for telecom expense management (TEM) anyway?

Well, management in business boils down to making money and savings costs. If you think that telecom management will not reap any benefit in terms of money, you could not be more mistaken. In today’s post, we will discuss problems that are likely to occur in the absence of proper TEM.

Billing and accounting errors: Believe it or not, most businesses incur heavy losses because of billing and accounting errors. Some of these errors may appear insignificant at the first glance, but when repeated over a long time, they cost a business dearly.

Wrongful billing: This is a slightly different kind of billing error. It does not relate to your billing but instead refers to you being billed for a service that someone else is using or a service that you canceled months or years ago. This is typically caused due to an error in communication between the telecom vendor and the business using the service.

Misuse, abuse, and over-use of telecom services: Without proper telecom expense management, a business cannot find the offenders who misuse and abuse the services of the telecom network. Then there are others who over-use the services. Apart from performing a thorough auditing, telecom management introduces usage management, regulating the use of the telecom services.

Slamming: At times, phone vendors introduce additional services and surcharges that were not a part of the original contract, resulting in an increase in the telecom expenses of a business.

The above-mentioned factors, when controlled, can save a business a considerable amount of money. Professional TEM is a good idea considering a telecom management company has experts to handle the telecom network. Moreover, since most companies that offer TEM charge on a contingency basis, businesses need not worry about their payment.

Auditing has been a universally accepted concept for every aspect of business. The auditing of the telecommunication services soon became an integral part of every business thriving on telecom. While everyone was aware of what telecom auditing referred to, another powerful term came into the telecom circles – Telecom Expense Management , or TEM. Soon enough, telecom auditing and TEM became interchangeable. However, critics of the new-age solution, TEM, are of the view that TEM cannot replace telecom auditing. Does that mean there is a difference between the two? In today’s post, we will discuss the perceptive differences between them.

Internal auditing Vs Outsourced solution

Telecom auditors working within organizations perceive auditing as an internal activity while TEM is considered an outsourced solution. Being an external solution, it has threatened the internal resources working on the telecom audit.

Man Vs Machine

Another aspect of comparison between the two terms has been manual auditing versus the software-driven auditing. TEM employs software solutions to automate the management of telecom expenses in an organization. It is said that software auditing brings 100 percent accuracy in the results. The advocates of TEM argue that manual auditing remains an integral part of the expense management solution.

The terms may have slightly different definitions but the goals of TEM and telecom auditing are the same. The internal auditing team can work hand in hand with the company handing over the TEM solution. TEM gives importance to both manual and software auditing.

The argument between internal auditors and telecom companies will not last long as businesses are gradually realizing the importance of managing their telecom expenses with the help of emerging tools and technologies.

Keep watching this space for more information from the world of telecommunications.

One of the biggest components of telecom management is Telecom Expense Management (TEM). TEM is essentially about an effective auditing that helps recover and save telecom costs.

Businesses using telecom services typically look at the cost of the telecom plans and make payments in time, without analyzing the vendor-generated invoices. More often than not, businesses consider invoices accurate and do not review them. They don’t have a telecom audit team dedicated to finding the problems with telecom expenses. At most, organizations review the telecom contracts before signing them.

Businesses risk losing a considerable amount of money if billing errors are not tracked. In today’s post, we will look at five common billing errors that a TEM system can identify and stop.

Miscalculations

Miscalculations are the simplest type of billing error. A miscalculation can be triggered by a human error or a mistake made by the machine making the calculations. These errors can be identified easily, but if the invoices are not checked before payments, a business stands to lose a lot of money.

Duplicate bills

At times, the telecom vendors make duplicate claims. If businesses do not watch the invoices closely, they will keep losing money.

Mismatch between contract rates and invoiced rates

This may be a mistake but an odd invoice can arrive with telecom rates you never agreed to. The rates in your telecom contract and the ones in your invoice may not match at times, causing you to pay more to your telecom service company. What’s worse is that such an invoice can start repeating itself, causing the business to lose money consistently.

Unnecessary surcharges

Sometimes, telecom vendors charge for services that are hardly being used by a business. There are additional surcharges that can be avoided if the business reviews its invoices.

Slamming

Slamming refers to the uninformed changes made to the telecom services. This is actually a malpractice where the client is not aware of a change in its telecom plan. Businesses end up paying for much more than they need.

The absence of a proper telecom audit can make businesses pay heavily. TEM is crucial to businesses using telecom services if they want to reap maximum benefits of the services.

When it comes to telecom expenses, why should you turn your company’s financials over to a third party? The answer is simple: because the experts can manage your telecom expenses effectively, helping you recover costs.

Companies often think that they do not need an external team to manage their finances. Most companies rely on internal auditors. While internal auditing is not a bad decision, bringing in a dedicated telecom expense management team not only helps recover costs but also helps release internal resources, benefiting the organization in more ways than one.

Before looking at how telecom expense management companies can help your organization, let’s understand the basics.

What is Telecom Expense Management?

Telecom Expense Management, or TEM, is the management of telecommunication audits and analysis and associated expenses. The telecommunication services consist of voice, data, and wireless communication.

Why does a company need TEM?

First, it helps to understand what goes wrong with the internal telecom service management of companies in today’s business climate. In today’s technology-driven culture, companies expand their telecom services rapidly, requiring dedicated attention. Typically, companies fail to review their telecom bills.

At times, companies do not even review their telecom plans and contracts. Most companies fail to compare different telecom plans, renewing their telecom contracts almost blindly. By ignoring the need for a dedicated telecom expense management team, companies incur unnecessary costs in two ways:

• Billing errors are ignored, making companies suffer a big loss over a period of time.
• By sticking to one plan for a long time, companies may lose out on newer plans that are more economical.

Outsourcing your telecom expense management helps to streamline your telecom expenses. It helps find the errors, not just in the billing cycle but also in the implementation of services, helping organizations recover substantial costs. One of the best features of a telecom expense management company is that it typically works on a contingency basis, recovering fees from the costs it recovers for the client company.

TEM is gradually emerging as an important part of an organization’s telecom suite. Outsourcing this function to a dedicated professional team with a background in Telecom expense management can save your organization thousands of dollars a year just by cutting unnecessary costs.