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In my last blog entitled "To SaaS or Not To SaaS...??," I provided just a few of the advantages of utilizing on-demand telecom expense management software. Those outlined were just the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few others.
 Software-as-a-Service, or SaaS, can be easy-to-learn and simple-to-use, while still possessing robust capabilities. Through online training and client support teams, the user can expand their use of the tool as their knowledge increases. Upgrades are installed automatically as they are rolled out, usually at no additional charge. SaaS telecom expense management solutions can scale up or down with the users’ volume requirements. And SaaS TEM technologies come at a much lower price point than more traditional TEM solutions. Thus SaaS is a low-cost way to access the low hanging fruit of expense reduction without the infrastructure, IT support, and high learning curve required with on-premise software.
There is also the issue of deployment time. According to recent analyst research, it can take anywhere from 8 – 10 months to implement traditional telecom expense management applications. This can be dramatically reduced to days or weeks with SaaS because of the ease of deploying a web-based solution vs. on-premise or outsourced options. Custom reporting can be easily configured and installed at any time, as the product is delivered online. In addition, SaaS tools can capture and analyze usage and fixed costs from billing and produce exceptions reports, outlining potential errors and other savings opportunities. Clearview, Valicom's self-service telecom expense management software, offers these benefits and many more!
While there are many benefits, there are some potential drawbacks of telecom expense management software-as-a-service. To learn about these disadvantages and how you can mitigate them, register for Valicom's whitepaper entitled "Can TEM SaaS Solutions Lower Your Telecom Expenses For Mid-Market Companies?" OR register to watch the streaming telecom expense management webinar sponsored by Valicom about this topic.
One of the simplest functions performed as part of the TEM process, is paying the vendors for services. Many companies, tempted by sending fewer checks, will combine the payments for multiple invoices on a single check, and provide a key to the vendor so that they can apply the payments to correct accounts.
Sound good, but unfortunately doesn't work well. For whatever reasons, the vendors have a very difficult time applying payments to multiple invoices from a single check. And this leads to a risk of disconnected service, as well as lots of time following up to get the payments corrected.
Much of this headache can be avoided by simply cutting one check per invoice. While this will cost a little more in postage and materials, the payback is much greater in time saved and reduced risk of disconnection.
Engaging a Valicom is an easy way to make this happen. As part of most of our TEM engagements, we handle all of the disbursements for our clients. And we always cut one check per invoice - ensuring the least risk and least chance of misapplied payments.
The research gurus at Gartner released a report today stating that the mass move of businessess to Windows 7 is going to mean a serious hit to IT budgets. The need to migrate from Microsoft Windows XP and Windows 2000 to Windows 7 in a tight time frame will create an extra budgetary and resource burden on companies from 2011 to 2012. “We estimate that large and midsize organizations worldwide will migrate approximately 250 million PCs to Windows 7, during the migration timeline..." said Charles S mulders, managing vice president at Gartner.
This spike in spending will come not only from expected software costs, but also from hardware upgrade costs and IT consulting expenses. And that money in your budget has to come from somewhere. Unless you have a giant pool of profits sitting around, which in this economy isn't likely, where is it going to come from? We have a suggestion. One of the best ways to make money appear out of nowhere is to NOT SPEND IT. Cut costs somewhere else, and re-allocate. It's magic, like pulling a rabbit out of your hat. And one ripe spot to cut business expenses is in telecom. If you can reduce telecom expenses through a telecom audit, or managing your wireless costs better, maybe find a few invoice errors that add up to savings.... then you can spend that money on some new PCs. Valicom can help you do that. We've been saving businessess money on telecom costs for almost twenty years. Want to know what we might be able to save you through strong telecom expense management? Just contact us for a free consultation and see if we can help fund your Windows 7 upgrade.
For many companies, the best approach for managing telecommunications expenses and reducing costs, is to outsource the whole process to an experienced TEM consulting firm. Often, in these engagements, the focus is primarily on auditing and cost reductions. And while these activities are certainly paramount to an TEM project, there is another equally important side to these engagements. Most TEM firms can achieve cost reductions and provide standard auditing services for their clients - they wouldn't be in business if they couldn't. But only a few, such as Valicom, bring a truly unique and personalized approach to the TEM engagement. Valicom's project teams pride themselves on learning your business and becoming a seamless extension to your staff. Having this kind of relationship with your TEM firm means that you will realize more savings and cost reductions, while incurring less disruption to your internal processes, and enjoying a more transparent project. So when it comes to selecting the right TEM firm to meet your needs - make sure you consider the culture aspect of the firms in question. Finding a TEM like Valicom can go a long way to establishing a foundation for success for years to come and providing a solid shared strategy for continued cost reductions and expense management.
There are several models used by mid-market companies for telecom expense management. These models include manual processes performed internally, outsourced services, homegrown applications, on-demand software-as-a-solution (SaaS) solutions and on-premise vendor solutions.  Manual processing includes the use of spreadsheets and other labor-intensive processes to manage telecom expenses. Outsourced services involve a 3rd party that performs all or part of the end-to-end processing of telecom bills including processing and paying the invoices, auditing and analysis for savings opportunities, management of assets such as lines, circuits and devices, and providing deliverables and reports for informational purposes. Homegrown applications include the development of an internal database to assist organizations in managing their expenses. SaaS involves providing self-serve, web-based software and back-office services that enable corporate business analysts to perform telecom expense management in-house, implementing savings opportunities themselves. On-premise solutions involve licensed software that is loaded on a server at the customer’s premises for the purposes of managing telecom costs. So, what are the common approaches to managing telecom expenses today? To find out more, check out this link to my earlier blog on this topic entitled "Mid-Market Companies' Current Approach to Managing Telecom Expenses" or download Valicom's whitepaper entitled "Can TEM SaaS Solutions Lower Telecom Expense For Mid-Market Companies?" or register to stream a webinar sponsored by Valicom about this topic.
The market for Telecom Expense Management software is getting crowded. Not much more than five years ago, our challenge was mostly centered around educating organization that Telecom Expense Management companies existed and that there is an entire industry whose goal is to reduce business costs, perform telecom audits and provide telecom cost management software. Now, the word is out and the challenge has shifted to differentiating one expense management solution from another.
 The good news here is that the consumer has choices and is in a position to be a little picky. When it comes to this pickiness, the savvy buyer is wise to make sure that any telecom expense management software solution can serve as an audit workbench as well as an information repository. This is to say that any TEM software is going to give you reports, trending, and a way to organize your expenses at a glance. What can differentiate a select few from the many are additional tools to give you the power to perform telecom auditing, expense analysis, and other activities to reduce business costs.
Even if you use a third party telecom expense management firm to help you today, who knows what the future holds? Today you may outsource certain functions that tomorrow you may want to take in house. All things being equal, a true workbench that provides customizable audit screens, issue tracking and resolution, and tools for optimizing telecom expenses, in addition to access to information, could save a lot of time and money in the long haul. Let the telecom expense management workbench be your key to hammering the fat out of your telecom expenses. –SAM
www.valicomcorp.com
Recently, I have had the opportunity to talk with quite a few companies and their executives regarding their views on telecom expense management (TEM). Some have had previous experience with a TEM provider and others have not. The companies that have had previous experience communicated the following concerns: - The engagement was purely Contingency. This is a model where the company does not spend any money up-front. Instead, the TEM provider receives a percentage of the savings obtained.
- The Contingency approach can cause animosity between the company and the TEM provider. Sometimes large savings are discovered and there can be disagreements regarding who found the savings opportunity.
- TEM providers have not produced the expected results.
- The costs are too expensive.
- The software or tool is too complicated and require dedicated staff to stay current.
- Too many times vendors try to take a "one- size-fits-all" approach.
The challenge for companies that have had a bad past experience with telecom expense management, is to pursue an offering that can overcome the hurdles from the past and create a scope of work that will lead to a successful relationship for telecom expense control. Understanding the specific pain-points within the company, as it relates to telecom cost reduction, is still the key to the initial steps in a successful expense reduction analysis. Please consider reaching out to a representitive at Valicom for a " Clearview" of your company's telecom expense.
 Just as with medicine, companies often make the mistake of treating the symptoms, not the causes, when it comes to their telecommunications audit practices.
When approaching a telecommunications audit project, it’s important to first identify all of the potential ways that the telecommunications spend could be made more efficient, and cost effective. This could be compared to a basic physical performed by your family doctor. The purpose is to get a baseline understanding of the overall health of the telecommunications spend and to identify broad areas that require additional focus and improvement. During the next phase however, it’s critical to not just try to recoup savings and credits, but to also make adjustments to both how the company’s telecommunications technologies are implemented and billed, but also to how the company itself manages those assets and invoices. The message here is that a preventative approach is ideal for both an individual’s physical health, as well as achieving a prolonged and sustained cost reduction model for a company’s telecommunications expenses. By identifying the causes of errant costs and misguided uses of technology, a company can move forward with a stronger sense of what needs to be done to stay on top of keeping the company’s telecommunications expenses as low as possible.
Spring is in the air, the courses are opening, and I cannot WAIT to get back to playing the game of golf that I love so very much. The only thing I dread? My putting. It's horrible. Seems like no matter how much I practice, I pull it left or right. I have this awful, sinking feeling when I pull my putter and prepare to hit. It never fails, I three-putt almost every hole. What this means to my game, is that I consistently score in the low 100's. But if I could control my putting by two-putting every hole, my score could easily be in the 80's! Oh the bragging rights I would have! My big plan to achieve two-putt status this summer? Prescription sunglasses. I have astigmatism and if I purchase some cool Ray Ban aviators - I've got it all under control. (By the way, this is also John Daley's putting fix, so I have to be on the right track here.)  I only bring this up because I had a conversation with one of my telecom business clients the other day. The conversation went something like this: Me: Mr. Client, did you know that by going after XXX billing error, you'll save $$ a month? Mr. Client: Sandy, it's not worth having someone on my team chase these dollars. The amount in question isn't enough to bother with..... Me: Actually, if you if annualize these dollars over the life of the billing contract, your savings amounts to over $15k. And we've already started working on the corrections - no involvement from your team is needed. Mr. Client: That's fantastic, you just gave me more budgeting power for the Gateway Servers we're buying! The outcome is real and this client's business cost's were reduced with little to no effort on their part. So you see, it's well worth turning over rocks, finding the nickels, and shaving off every single stroke. They all absolutely DO add up. What is your Telecom Expense Fix this summer? I recommend a good Telecom Expense Management Company to help you achieve your goals. See you on the course!
The current telecom expense management (TEM) competitive landscape is made up of TEM solution providers focused on the upper end of the market (companies with over 5,000 employees). According to “The Value of TEM to the Small to Mid-Size Business (SMB)” authored by AOTMP, “there is a common perception of greater effort and cost than financial gain” causing “small and medium size businesses to shy away from implementing a TEM program.” They further report that, “the keys to a productive and financially beneficial TEM program are establishing an inventory of telecom services, features, configurations, charges and service providers, and maintaining invoice accuracy.” This report also stated that, “technology assists in unifying a TEM program. SMB companies can simplify work flow, eliminate duplicate tasks and relate TEM information into usable views via technology.”
Interested in strategic cost reduction?
The research conducted by AOTMP also reported the following top telecom priorities for SMBs:
* Reduce telecom cost (62%)
* Learn/implement best practices (57%)
* Establish greater control over wireless costs (49%)
* Centralize telecom environment control (48%)
* Secure support for increasing staff to manage telecom (24%)
* Increase budget for more technology solutions (18%)
They further report “savings for SMBs with a TEM program with a focus on the TEM program savings activities are positioned to gain 22% greater savings as opposed to those without a TEM program.”
Today there is an answer to address the TEM needs, or Telecom Expense Control of SMBcompanies! Clearview-as-a-Service (CaaS), Valicom's telecom cost management software brings the power and control of large enterprise expense management to SMBs, who have historically lacked the internal resources and expense volume to realize benefits. Valicom’s CaaS offering is an easy-to-use, fully integrated, on-demand expense management system that provides real-time visibility into telecom expenses, pinpoints areas of corporate cost savings, while requiring minimal time and resources to implement. Designed to incorporate industry best practices and automated expense analysis functions, CaaS helps clients maximize company cost reduction, create greater operational efficiencies and reduce their dependence on suppliers, all while gaining the ability to reduce telecom expenses. Check us out at www.valicomcorp.comto learn more about CaaS and how your company can benefit from this innovative TEM solution!
- Sitting at a stop sign on my way to work the other morning, I quick grabbed my Blackberry and opened a new email.
The email was from a client from a large Broadcasting company. She simply asked for a copy of an invoice to be emailed back to her. Most respondents of the email might simply honor the request and send the invoice back to the requestor. End of story. Everybody's happy. Not me. The request nagged by brain for the rest of the way to work. WHY did she want a copy of the invoice? I felt like I was missing something; a bigger opportunity to help. I called my client when I arrived at work and sure enough - there was a great deal more to the story. What she really needed was some reporting. In great detail, she explained the project she had been given a week to finish. I could tell she dreaded the data compilation that was going to take her and her co-worker hours to put together. These are the phone conversations I have several times a day. I'm always thrilled when I am giving the opportunity to really get to the heart of a client's issue and provide a same-day solution. Enter Valicom's Clearview Telecom auditing software! I was able to log in quickly, and within minutes - pull the data she needed to finish her project. The best part was her response when she recieved the reporting from me. "Oh my gosh, you just saved us at least five hours of digging!" By the way, not only did we save our client's valuable time - but we also helped with Telecom Cost Management as the reporting allowed the company to make some very informed business decisions as it related to their cellular expense. It was my pleasure.
Benchmarking is an extremely helpful process for companies as they prepare for a Telecom Request For Proposal (RFP). However, many organizations don’t take advantage of it?
Benchmarking is well worth the effort and cost to obtain assistance from a Telecom Expense Managerment or IT/Telecom Consultant to provide benchmarking on your existing telecommunications services. Not only can it provide you with a clear picture of where your services can be from a pricing standpoint, but also help you make RFP savings estimates by service type. This can further allow you to provide direction of where to apply the most effort during the RFP and telecom contract negotiations to maximize strategic cost reductions. It’s always good practice to have goals for how you would like your pricing and contracts to look when the RFP efforts are completed. Here are some tips on what to expect from the benchmarking of specific services. Local Services: These LEC services, including POTS, PBX Trunks, DID Trunks, Centrex, PRI T-1, Point to Point T-1, Analog circuit, etc., are all benchmark dependant on location. With the local POTS, Trunks, and PRI’s you’ll be able to have a nice range within each state of what the pricing would look like on the low and high ends. Keep in mind that some circuits such as Point to Point T-1’s often have too many variables to get that detailed, such as, the specific end point addresses, mileage between them, and distance from the LEC Central Office. Long Distance: The pricing here is more of a commodity, and typically will have a fairly close range of what can be expected based on your volume. It's especially important to have solid benchmarking on the International and Instate rates, as that is where the vendors often have the most variance in pricing. Data/Internet: This benchmarking effort is largely based on location and discounts provided. There’s typically a fairly large range here depending on service, size, and other specific variables. Wireless: Benchmarking of Wireless services such as, Cellular, Data Devices, Aircards, and Telemetry, is typically based off of a few metrics. Cost per minute, cost per KB/MB, and cost per device. Benchmarking here can be very accurate based on device quantity and discounting structure. I encourage you to take advantage of the valuable tool of benchmarking when you are planning you’re next RFP.
Let the experts at Valicom take your business cost reduction to the next level! Mike Krogman
Project Manager
Mind your features! Opening my personal cellular bill recently resulted in unexpected and unpleasant surprises. You see, I have twin 17-year-old daughters whom, like their mother, love technology…especially their new smart phones with all the bells and whistles. I did not caution them about price point cons for the games, ring tones, data downloads, music, wallpaper, etc. Big mistake. Even worse, I underestimated the amount of texting two teenage girls could amass in one month. Astounding and expensive. I should have told them to mind their features!
You probably see where I'm going with this. You may be responsible for 300 or 1000 cell phones and need to manage texting overages, cute puppy wallpapers purchased, and AC/DC ring tones blissfully downloaded. But, do you really have the time? I’m betting you don’t, so the potential savings go right down the drain each month. Of course, you have company policies in place that spell out allowed features but many employees can't resist the temptation of the VZ Navigator download or they simply either don't understand or choose to ignore their own corporate cell phone plan’s accepted features and limitations. Who has the time to peruse a 500-page cell phone invoice? Who has the time to follow-up on every identified issue from one month to the next?
Here are a few tips for business wireless cost-reduction strategies: - Start by monitoring the monthly invoice dollar amounts. Huge overages should catch your attention but what about the more subtle increases? Trust me, they add up quickly and can ruin your projected annual budget.
- Make the simple change to electronic billing to take advantage of the robust reporting capabilities most carriers offer on-line. Set up your account and navigate your way through the vendor's on-line portal and you'll find a wealth of information at your fingertips: equipment charges, overages, plan information, everything you'll need to effectively audit your invoices.
- Another solution begins with your Carrier Account Manager(s). Request quarterly reporting from them and set up your own parameters so you can get the custom reporting you need. This is a time efficient way to monitor all cellular usage from your carrier.
- Another suggestion, and my personal favorite, is to hire your own telecom expense management firm. They are trained professionals who take care of all the heavy lifting, follow-up, and nagging telecom annoyances you don't have time to take care of yourself. Find a telecom expense management firm who will work with you for a productive partnership and flexible fit.
Just a few easy ways to manage your business cellular expenses, saving you from the dreaded unpleasant surprise of overages, add-on’s, and everything in between.
I have been reading the AOTMP telecom expense management (TEM) discussions on LinkedIn and I find it astounding that, after interviewing hundreds of enterprises, AOTMP found that corporations with over $1B in annual revenue experienced an average implementation time for wireless mobility management (WMM)/TEM technology of 10.5 months and companies with less than $50M in annual revenues experienced an average conversion time of 8 months. I'm assuming that enterprises between $50M and $1B in revenues experienced an average implementation time somewhere between the 8 and 10.5 month range.  From this data, I wonder what the level of support or assistance from the TEM/WMM suppliers has been in the implementation phase for the transition to take this long! Granted, many client environment's are complex and the process of gathering invoices, cost allocation codes, customer service records (CSRs), contracts etc. can be a daunting task; however, with the support and project management of an experienced TEM/WMM supplier team, the transition should take no more than 3 - 4 months even for companies with over $1B in revenues. Valicom has been implementing TEM/WMM solutions for the past 20 years and the average time it has taken for our most complex business process outsourcing solution for companies with over $1B in revenues is 3 months. With our Clearview-as-a-Service (CaaS) solution, implementation can occur in as little as one month depending on client size and the volume of invoices, circuits and wireless devices they may have. Time is money and the focus is to properly manage the function and reduce business costs. With many clients, one of the main benefits of a telecom expense management solution is company cost savings through reduced telecom expenses. Operational efficiencies can also be achieved by utilizing best practices and automated telecom cost management software, once fully implemented. With conversion times as high as 10.5 months, I can only imagine that the return on investment (ROI) is quite long when using other TEM/WMM suppliers based on the AOTMP research statistics. Over the past 20 years, Valicom has achieved an average telecom cost savings track record of 30.4% savings on our client's telecom expenses and in most cases a return on investment is realized in the first year of the engagement. With our Clearview-as-a-Service telecom cost management software at a lower price point than business process outsourced services, and an almost immediate time to savings, the return on investment is generally much quicker. If you would like to experience the quick implementation first-hand, try our free 30 day CaaS trial. I guarantee you will be impressed! Valicom is the key to achieve true strategic cost reduction. Contact us today!
Remember when “the dog ate my homework” actually got you an extension from the teacher? Back in the day, I think my wife got out of a speeding ticket with a half-hearted rendition of “the sun was in my eyes”. Those were the days when “stuck in traffic” trumped a hard deadline. Gee our old LaSalle ran great. For better or worse, the Era of Excuse has yielded to the Days of Documentation and nowhere is this more apparent than in the telecom industry. What I’m speaking of here are situations where you have a dispute with your telecom carrier as a result of your telecom auditing activities identifying an over-billing. Whereas disputes may have been resolved with a wink and a nod in the past, today telecom carriers demand extensive documentation in order to recover monies lost to telecom billing errors.
 As you’re probably aware, there’s a recession going on. Companies are looking for any means of recovering and saving money and this includes telecom expense control and telecom expense recovery. But carriers are fighting back in a couple of ways. For example, carrier contracts now make attempts at limiting the amount of money they will refund to the customer even in situations where the carrier is clearly responsible for an over-billing. The lawfulness of such contract language is itself an area of controversy but we’re finding that it’s holding up more often than it should. More commonly though, carriers are insisting that customers present proof of billing errors with historical documentation that is far beyond the degree normally being created and kept. What’s required to maximize cost savings for your business are process and tools. On the process side, your people need to get in the habit of documenting every bit of correspondence with carriers. This includes letters written, emails sent, voice messages left and received, and notes from meetings held. Ideally you’ve got a software tool that helps you keep this all together. Carrier disputes should be opened as issues in your telecom cost management software. These issues should be associated with the inventory items and accounts affected and assigned to resources responsible for following through. All records of correspondence should ideally be attached to these issues such that all information is in one place and easy to find. Do this and two things will happen. First, you’ll maximize your chances of recovering all due monies. Second, you’ll find fewer disputes cropping up in the first place as a result of your more diligent cost reduction techniques. So maximize your return, reduce your telecom expenses and beat the recession. Maybe we actually don’t need a man like Herbert Hoover again. www.valicomcorp.com -SAM
Change, by many definitions can be summarized to mean; the act or process to alter or modify. Barriers to change; change can be viewed as disruptive; change can be stressful. Change takes people out of their comfort zone. People want to know "what is in it for my, how will I be affected by the change? Management's role is to navigate the organization through any change. Valicom has taken a disruptive approach to providing Telecom Expense Management solutions to the middle market. Why should we change? Valicom wants to provide the middle market with cost effective software solutions to reduce telecom expenses and provide genuine telecom expense control. By providing clients with an on-demand software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution where clients get the training, knowledge and automation tool to take control of their expenses. What's in it for me? Well, that's easy, a centralized, feature-rich software tool that enables clients to obtain rapid control and reduction of business expenses with minimal effort. All of you Customer Service Records (CSRs), Invoices and costs in one place. Valicom is a 100% woman-owned business, with 20 years of experience and a history of saving its clients an average of 30%. This equates to a company cost savings to the bottom line. If your company spends $500k in annual telecom spend, this means you have the potential to reduce telecom expenses by $150,000. If your annual telecom spend is $1M, a 30% reduction equates to $300,000. Does this provide you with enough incentive to consider altering, or modifying your current approach? Valicom believes that it does! ; ) I thought you would like that to Are you up for the challenge? Consider taking the challenge and invest 30 minutes of your time to contact Valicom to see how we can help you obtain control, visibility and true management of your telecom costs. what has your organization got to loose? Contact Valicom and find out how your initiative can change the "norm" at your company and reduce business costs immediately!
If you love an awesome business success story or want to learn about how Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Cloud Computing were born, " Behind The Cloud," by Marc Bienoff, CEO of Salesforce.com, is a must read! Benioff provides 111 plays for companies to practice to build and grow a successful SaaS business. Many of Benioff's experiences in growing Salesforce.com parallel the philosophies and strategies of Valicom as we launch Clearview-as-a-Service, our telecom cost management software.  Benioff realized his vision of getting mass market acceptance to replace costly, hard to implement and maintain, licensed software with a reduced cost, easy to implement, internet-based model. Valicom's vision is to enable business users to perform their own telecom expense management for greater operational efficiencies and maximum company cost savings. Additionally, Valicom is creating transparency with telecom suppliers in the marketplace and bringing greater visibility to clients' telecom expenses. Companies benefit through greater telecom expense control and making more informed business decisions. One play, that was inspiring to me, describes how Salesforce.com grew their sales by making sure that their product was developed to bring a high level of satisfaction to their clients. They would then host events, providing a forum for customers to talk to prospects about the benefits of the Salesforce.com platform. They had an incredible number of sales that resulted from these events. Viral marketing, using pre-existing social networks to create brand awareness, is a sound strategy for growing telecom expense management solutions as well. I won't spoil the rest for you. You will want to devour and savor every play from #1 to #111. To find out more about "Behind The Cloud" or to purchase the book, just follow this link: http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Cloud-Salesforce-com-Billion-Dollar-Company/dp/0470521163/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269378141&sr=1-1Enjoy!!
Quick: what was the most oddly compelling sport in the recent winter Olympics? Those of you who answered Ice Dancing Compulsories, please stop reading and report immediately to the nearest Department of Motor Vehicles for your day of fun and adventure. No, the sport I am looking for here is curling. You know, the ice sport that you compared to shuffleboard until the light bulb finally came on.
While I am among only 20,000 active curlers in the United States, literally millions became hooked on the sport while watching on TV. This phenomenon was certainly not due to the disappointing performance of our U.S. teams. Instead, I believe it can be attributed to the strategic nature of curling. While curling teams compete to eventually position their rocks near the center of the target area, actually accomplishing this goal is difficult and requires a very sound strategic plan. By now you know that it wouldn’t be my blog without an abstract telecom expense management analogy and you’ll be either delighted or disgusted to know that this occasion is no different. Your Honor, should it please the court, I submit that the strategic thinking involved telecom contract negotiation is very comparable to the strategy required to win a game of curling (pause here to allow for the obligatory court room gasp).  The point here is that to impact maximum cost savings for your business and reduce telecom expenses across the board, there needs to be a systematic approach to telecom contract negotiation. Certain activities need to take place and those activities need to happen in the proper sequence. So let’s say you’ve got some contracts that are up for renewal. Here’s a look at a solid plan that will effect significant reduction of telecom expenses:
- Get an accurate inventory of your environment. What circuits, lines, plans, etc do you currently have in your shop? Calculate voice and data capacity based on this result.
- Determine your long term technology strategy. Are you looking to move to Voice-Over-IP? Are you going to leverage MPLS to create a WAN for your organization? These types of questions will impact your telecom contract negotiation strategy.
- Analyze your usage. Do this both in terms of “average” and “peak” usage. Compare the results to the findings in step #1 to see if you are currently under or over provisioned.
- Complete a telecom audit of your environment to ensure that you’re currently paying what you should be paying. If you are paying for unused or erroneous services, this is likely to continue to be the case with any new contract you sign.
- Document required services. What do you really need? This will often be different than what you currently have. The results of all of the above steps will play into this.
- Perform market benchmarking study to figure out what you should be paying. You’ll want to understand the best pricing carriers can offer in your area for the services you are attempting to procure. Telecom Expense Management companies can be of assistance here by bringing this type of benchmarking data to bear.
- Develop a contract strategy. What terms and conditions are important to you? Consider not only pricing but exit clauses and flexibility based on your anticipated business needs.
- Put the contract out for bid. Create a competitive situation with multiple vendors whether or not you actually would consider changing. Create a comprehensive Request For Proposal (RFP) with an effective decision matrix that will enable a direct comparison between vendor proposals that are based on the requirements of your business.
- Evaluate the results and sign the new contracts.
When performing these tasks, take care to do these things the right way. This may mean getting help from someone specializing in telecom audit and telecom expense management. Keep in mind that the contracts you sign will be ones you’ll live with for three years or more. A little bit of strategy truly can make a difference of Olympic proportions. Good curling. www.valicomcorp.com -SAM
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), according to Wikipedia, is a model of software deployment over the internet. With SaaS, a provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand, either through a time subscription or a “pay-as-you-go” model. Also known as “software on demand,” the SaaS model allows vendors to develop, host and operate software for customer use. Rather than purchase the hardware and software to run an application, customers need only a computer or a server to download the application and internet access to run the software. The software can be licensed for a single user or for a group of users. Valicom's Clearview SaaS application is exactly what your company needs to gain control of your Telecom Expense Management. Clearview-as-a-Service or CaaS, was designed to produce company cost savings. CaaS, telecom cost management software, is intended to enable companies to eliminate the use of cumbersome spreadsheets that require manual intervention that do not provide the visibility and validation of critical data needed to perform telecom auditing. CaaS places powerful automation in your hands to use when you want it. CaaS is a tool to enable rapid expense analysis that reduce telecom expenses. Check out what Microsoft has to say about growing SaaS opportunities among SMBs. Now you can test-drive CaaS. Contact us to start your 30-day free trial. 
Many corporate enterprises have expanded their geographic presence through organic growth and mergers and acquisitions. Telecom expense control and reducing business costs become rather difficult as the proliferation of services and invoices abound across various regions. Telecom audits become challenging with a myriad of different vendors and services between locations. Centralization of telecom expenses coupled with the utilization of effective telecom cost management software is the key to greater control and telecom cost reduction. By consolidating vendors, there is greater volume to leverage rates and perform effective telecom contract negotiations. In addition, telecom auditing becomes more manageable with fewer invoices.
Valicom's Clearview® solution can assist in providing your company with centralization and telecom cost savings. This software as a solution takes all of your telecom invoices and inventories and populates all of the critical information in one central repository with detailed financial, asset, and issues reporting available on-demand. Invoices, vendors, and services are consolidated to simplify your telecom expense management functions. Telecom contract negotiations are also performed to ensure the best rates, terms, and conditions achievable with your suppliers. You can experience this first-hand by trying Clearview® free for 30 days. Through this trial, you can see how this solution will assist you in centralizing your services, reducing telecom expenses, and providing greater telecom expense control.
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