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In my last blog, entitled " The Benefits of On-Demand Telecom Expense Management Software," you were left with the thought that, not only are there benefits, but also potential disadvantages of on-demand telecom expense management software. This blog will outline those drawbacks and how you can mitigate them.  Lack of security, disaster recovery and data ownership issues can be detrimental for businesses acquiring Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions of any kind. When selecting a SaaS telecom expense management provider, companies should insist on strong security protocols, disaster recovery infrastructure and ensure that the SaaS agreement includes a provision that states that the data remains the property of their organization. The data center that houses the hosted solution should be state-of-the-art, fully secure and SAS70 compliant. This will protect the confidentiality and integrity of your data and make sure that it is always accessible when you need it. Finally! There is a cost-effective solution to address the unanswered need in the mid-market for TEM solutions. SaaS technology providers allow for the processes, tools and training to gain greater control over business telecom expenses, and at a fraction of the cost of traditional telecom expense management solutions. During the due diligence process, mid-market companies need to make sure that the SaaS application is secure, fully protected and that the end user maintains ownership of the data. If all checks out, the answer is quite obvious to the question: "To SaaS or Not To SaaS?!" This is the last of my blog series on the topic of TEM SaaS Solutions. To read more about this topic, 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.
In recent times, the old problem of “too many Chiefs and no Indians” has become a rare problem indeed. While eliminating Chiefs sounds great to the San Diego Chargers, Chiefs are now greatly outnumbered and not enough of us in the world of Telecom Expense Management are hailing to the Chiefs still standing. We’re talking about Chief Operating Officers, Chief Financial Officers, or even non-chiefs who still need expense analysis capabilities that don’t drag them into telecom auditing details. These Chiefs want snap-shot views for macro-level telecom cost management, reducing telecom expenses, and generally getting a handle on telecom expense control.
Enter the management dashboard, a feature which should be an effective part of any telecom cost management software. A proper dashboard will keep live telecom trending information that is current and accurate. It provides a quick and easy-to-understand view of telecom expenses and how best efforts to reduce telecom expenses are actually working. Most of all, the dashboard should be readily available and easy to access with telecom expense trending information being available when and where needed.
With a proper dashboard, telecom expense management can be attacked from both a detail level as well as a management and any expense management solution will address this. Find the right Telecom Expense Management company and you too will find paradise by the dashboard light. –SAM
www.valicomcorp.com
A  ccording to Healthcare IT News - physician adoption of smartphones is experiencing exponential growth, as reported in " Point of Care Communications for Physicians," a new study from Spyglass Consulting Group. The report reveals 94 percent of physicians are using smartphones... This represents a 60 percent increase from 2006, based on Spyglass' findings in a similar study published that year. They are migrating to the new wireless devices to help them manage their data flow, connect with colleagues and improve patient care. It also allows them to better allocate their time, as they no longer have to check various avenues of communication - voice mails, email, SMS messages, text, etc - but can have it all delivered in one place. This means less opportunity for critical patient data too fall through the cracks, generating better, more efficient care.
For us, the possible recipient of this improved physician performance, this is great news. But for the IT and finance departments at your local healthcare clinic or hospital, it means one more line item in the budget to manage. And a pile of wireless devices and data plans to juggle. All of which costs money, often more money than it should... This is where efficient telecom expense control, wireless device management, and employee wireless policy solutions become critical. Implementing a telecom expense management (TEM) software platform to organize and audit those telecom costs can save up to 30% of annual wireless telecom budgets, freeing that money up to pay for other things. Like healthcare! Read the full article here. And feel free to download a copy of our Wireless Policy Template or check out a demo of our TEM software platform Clearview.
In an earlier blog dated July 9, 2010 entitled " Top Pressures For Controlling Telecom Costs", we left you with the question: "What are mid-sized organizations doing about controlling telecom expenses?" Well here is the answer: Not enough. Most mid-sized organizations have not deployed either internal or external telecom expense management (TEM) programs, usually because they do not have the trained staff to do it. Also, according to AOTMP , "there is a common perception of greater effort and cost than financial gain" causing "small and medium size businesses (SMB) to shy away from implementing a TEM program." So there is a disconnect between need and solution. In trying to drive home the point, AOTMP further reports 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. Technology assists in unifying a TEM program. This AOTMP research also reported the following top telecom priorities for SMBs.  So, what really are the TEM program keys to success for SMBs? You can find out by clicking on this link to register for Valicom's whitepaper entitled "Can TEM SaaS Solutions Lower Your Telecom Expenses For Mid-Market Companies?" OR go to this link to register to watch the stream of the webinar sponsored by Valicom about this topic.
Have you ever wondered what the most common mid-market approach is to managing telecom expenses today?
During a recent AberdeenGroup telecom expense management webinar sponsored by Valicom on the topic of SaaS TEM Solutions for the mid-market, there was an informal poll conducted with 75 mid-market attendees around the question “ What is your current approach to managing telecom expenses?” The results of the responses are shown in the graph below:
This poll indicated that the majority of attendees used an internal manual processing approach to telecom expense management. Contingency audits comprised the majority of outsourced services available to mid-market companies, and other telecom expense management solutions are virtually non-existent for medium-sized businesses.
Greater telecom expense complexities drive larger organizations to deploy homegrown applications and on-premise software; however they tend to be too complex and costly for mid-market companies. According to Hyoun Park, Research Analyst, Telecom and Unified Communications at AberdeenGroup: "AberdeenGroup research shows a large need with middle market organizations for on-demand telecom expense management solutions. This TEM technology brings the control and cost efficiencies of large enterprise expense management to mid-market corporations who have historically lacked the internal resources and expense volume to realize benefits."
To find out more about the benefits of TEM software SaaS solutions for the mid-market, click on this link to Valicom's whitepaper entitled "Can TEM SaaS Solutions Lower Telecom Expenses For Mid-Market Companies?" OR go to this link to download a streaming video of the webinar sponsored by Valicom about this topic.
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.
During a recent webinar, sponsored by Valicom, featuring AberdeenGroup research on the topic of SaaS TEM solutions for the mid-market, there was an informal poll conducted with 75 mid-market attendees responding to the question: “What are the top pressures your company is facing to control telecom costs?” The results are shown in the graph below:  As you can see, the majority of companies (72%) responded that organizational pressure to reduce operational (including telecom) costs, was the business driver to control telecom expenses. So the business need is there, but what are they doing about it? Find out what they are doing about it by clicking on this link to Valicom's whitepaper entitled "Can TEM SaaS Solutions Lower Telecom Expenses For Mid-Market Companies?" OR go to this link to download a streaming video of the webinar sponsored by Valicom about this topic.
Variable cellular costs can add up quickly. Most of the time you don't know they are going to happen until they hit your bottom line. Then, OUCH! you certainly feel it. If these costs aren't being watched and controlled it can happen month after month and really add up. Variable costs include text messaging, downloads, and - with most carriers new data plan changes - data overages. The traditional way to track and control these expenses would be to look through each carrier's invoices either by paging through paper or pulling reports from online billing access. It seems like the carriers make this hard to do, which may be strategic as they are big money makers. And since most businesses have more than one cellular carrier, pulling reports can become cumbersome. Valicom can help with this. As a part of our web-based Clearview software and bill payment services, we house all of this detailed billing information in one place for you. A one stop shop to look for the information you need to control your telecom expenses. This information can be viewed by user (shown below), or pulled via one easy-to-use report. Along with the usage information, the users monthly plans can be stored in the same tool.  There are even further uses for this information. Does your Department head have a question on how many minutes an employee is using? Would your IT team like to cancel unused aircards? This can all be done by using the information stored in the Clearview telecom expense management software tool. If you would like more information please contact us to schedule a customized demo of how Clearview can work for you.
The coming wave, and how it can totally blow your telecom expense budget....
A new IDC/Unisys report shows that managing the rise of consumer devices and apps in use in the workplace is taking many IT departments by surprise. At a time of slim budgets and tight staffing, the new wave of computers, smart phones, audio players, tablets, and eBooks is adding yet another layer of complexity to an already overburdened department. Many of the remote or roaming staff using these tools, referred to as "iWorkers" "don't often differentiate among activities, devices, and applications used for work and those used for personal pursuits,'' said John Gantz, IDC chief research officer, who authored the Unisys-sponsored report, "A Consumer Revolution in the Enterprise." "The pressure on IT organizations to integrate consumer-oriented devices and applications will only increase as younger workers, who have grown up in a world of texting, social networking, and smartphones, make their mark in the workplace," said Gantz. For example, IDC is projecting that the number of employees using smartphones at work will rise from 90 million at the end of 2009 to 160 million through 2014 in enterprises with 500 or more employees. And the number of smartphones apps will hit 500,000 this year, according to the IDC research. "We're not heading toward an age of total mobility. We're essentially there,'' said Alex Manfrediz, an IDC project manager on the study. "Having mobile devices and access to information anywhere, whether WiFi or not, that is fully expected." Manfrediz said the study confirmed a lot of blurring of the lines between personal and business activities, but understanding the scope was one of the more interesting findings. "Employees are telling us they're doing it significantly and employers are aware of it but feel there is a disconnect" between the level of control and employees wanting more and more access. *
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 The data in this new report only underscores the rapid ascension of telecom expense management as a key business cost reduction factor. All those people, using all those devices and data plans, are going to blow your budget. Big time. Unless you get on top of it NOW!
It's time to implement telecom expense control NOW as part of a mobile phone management plan, including a good wireless policy. Adopting a rapidly deployable, web-based tool like Clearview, which has little to no impact on IT resources, can help save the day. Read more and check out a demo of Clearview.
* Read more on this article here...
Telecom Expense Management discussions inevitably breed discussions about expense analysis, telecom stats, telecom technology and a lot of other geek talk. But for the more ecologically conscious, another angle exists. Consider filing your telecom expense control program under the heading of “Green Initiatives”. How can this be, you ask? Well, any good telecom invoice management process, be it performed internally or outsourced to a telecom expense management service provider, should include a decided effort to convert as many paper invoices as possible into electronic format. This is easier to do than you think and yields tons of benefits.
Electronic invoices get processed quicker. This means more chance to catch errors before they become overcharges. It also means fewer late fees and less risk of human error. All of these things clearly will reduce telecom expenses on their own, but there’s more. A recent study by one of our nation’s leading universities has created a formula for measuring the environmental impact of paper invoice processing. Considering factors such as labor, waste, pollution, and other negative factors involved in processing paper, they concluded that there is an environmental cost of $1.14 per page that comes with paper invoices. Think about how thick some of your telecom invoices are and then start doing the math. Just make you’re sitting down when you do it. There are so many reason to get control of your telecom expenses, but if you can reduce expenses and do the right thing by the environment in the process, why not do it? Turn your company into a lean, green machine and give us a shout if you need help. - SAM
Sometimes the critical success factor in telecom cost reduction efforts may all come down to the approach or the "framework" used to guide the process. How does your company stack up? Do you have the focus required to target your specific objective? Telecom cost management is not necessarily as easy as it sounds. This process requires a vast amount of industry experience and knowledge.  During a recent webinar, where Aberdeen shared information specific to the TEM industry, they reviewed their methodology for identifying " Best in class", Industry average and Laggards. They refer to their framework as P.A.C.E. Which category do you want to be classified in? Who sets out to be average?
P.A.C.E. stands for:
Pressures: top-down desire to reduction telecom costs Actions:what action are you taking to realize the reduction and control? Capabilities: - Process
- Organizational
- Knowledge Management
- Performance Management
Enablers: 
How much money can your organization stack up using the best in class methodology? Identifying the "action" to be taken, then "acting" on it is the key. Don't miss the opportunity to reduce telecom expenses before the fiscal year end. there is still plenty of time if you take action now! Knowledge is power...
A couple of weeks ago, I attended an Accelerate Madison event entitled "Cloud Computing 101." One of the speakers, Todd Loeppke of Savvis, Inc., a global IT utility services provider, did a nice job of outlining the various different cloud delivery models, cloud advantages, challenges for clients, top cloud applications and cloud service providers.
 The top cloud applications included collaboration apps, web apps, data backup, business apps, personal apps, storage on demand, IT management, server on-demand, analytics, appdev and technical apps. What might drive organizations to the cloud? According to Savvis' research, the following were the top 3 reasons:
1). The ability to scale up and down resources to manage demand: 36%
2). Lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for infrastructure: 33%
3). Improved reliability: 25%
The cloud delivery models that were outlined included Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and any combination of these models. The top SaaS applications were web-conferencing and CRM. Once again, there was no mention of telecom expense management, as a SaaS application.
Based on Valicom's market research and the interest we are receiving from small, middle market and larger clients, there is a significant need for on-demand, self-service telecom expense management solutions.
Additionally, best practices training and education in conjunction with access to a telecom expense management SaaS application can significantly impact client's cost efficiencies and hard dollar telecom savings results.
Clearview, Valicom's telecom cost management software, is a SaaS TEM application that answers this marketplace demand. It is a middle ground for those who are not looking to outsource telecom expense management and have a need to enable internal analysts by automating their TEM processes to maximize telecom expense control. To check out how Clearview can benefit your organization, go to www.valicomcorp.com and view our free demo. It will be worth a few minutes of your time, I promise!
I had the privilege of meeting with a Telecom team and their Manager recently. I had been asked by them to come and demo our new Telecom cost management software tool, Clearview-as-a-Service (CaaS).
The team was a really solid group. They ticked off some impressive stats, achievements and successfully completed projects. I was impressed.
During the demo, I began to talk about the bible of all things Telecom - the Customer Service Record (CSR) and how the information pulled from the CSR was absolutely accurate, stored and reported on. I noticed a few of the analysts squirm, but kept going. At one point, the group's manager blurted out "Geez, I don't think we've ordered CSRs in years. We know we should, but just calling the vendors to order them is a huge ordeal. When the CSRs finally roll in, we need someone to translate the data and enter it into our spreadsheets - with the volume of lines we have, it could take one of my people over a month, working full-time to read and enter the data. I don't have that bandwidth or that kind of time."
I like that he was being honest. He understood the value of the CSR - the need to have exact circuit/line numbers, locations, amounts, quantities and on and on - but acknowledged that the job was just too big to accomplish with his current team. In this economy, he certainly was not going to get the approval to hire on more staff, either.
All this CSR information, just sitting out there waiting to be analyzed - and it hadn't been tackled in years.
I wish you could have seen his smile when I told him that we would order all the CSR's, and dump all of their data into our auditing tool for them. Hello accurate inventory! Hello ability to deep dive audit! They took a huge step toward telecom expense control and cost reduction.
I just love a happy ending.... In just 60 days with us, they are going to begin to see a difference. Honesty is definitely the best policy.
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!
Within the Telecom expense management (TEM) industry, there are many claims around cost telecom expense control, strategic cost reduction and wireless optimization; all leading to reduce telecom expenses via an effective TEM tool and proper attention to the management of this important business function. I recently read an article published by Avaya Communications (Carolmm), endorsing the need for seeking out a reputable TEM solutions provider. " My point is, you must get control of your telecom expenses in order to avoid a tremendous amount of waste. You might have people on staff that could help, but unless they are trained, and have the skills and tools, they will be fighting a monster in the dark. The best option is to have a professional Telecom Expense Management team be responsible for the task of wrestling your telecom system into submission." I am including the full article for your reference. They have laid out important questions you should be asking yourself for your organization. Your time is worth the quick read. Ask Yourself These Questions About Your Company's Telecom Expenses J. Jeffrey Poirior
Over the last decade, most organizations have reclassified their internal telecom expense management as an IT function and handed the responsibility to an already overburdened IT staff that is generally not knowledgeable about telecom services. In addition, a well-managed internal telecom expense function involves a cooperative effort between the IT/Telecom staff and the Accounts Payable staff. This also requires streamlined, well-defined and automated processes. With the complexities of telecom services including tens, hundreds or thousands of monthly invoices, circuits or devices, using spreadsheets and other manual processes for managing telecom expenses has added to the challenges of in-house telecom expense management for most businesses today. This underscores the need for the automation of TEM processes whether in-sourced or outsourced. According to Gartner, “at the heart of any TEM offering is an automated software platform used by the business or by an external service provider managing a company’s telecom invoices and assets.”
There are also many market pressures that are driving the need for TEM investments for enterprises today. According to Aberdeen, these include “financial regulations (SOX compliance), implementation of new technology, globalization, carrier consolidation and security concerns (wireless e-mail/PDAs with sensitive data that is not centrally managed).” In addition, the economic climate is driving the need for cost reduction in areas that were otherwise ignored in past years. Because of these reasons, it is difficult for corporations to get their arms around their telecom expenses. According to Aberdeen, “most firms manage less than 67% of their telecom expenses.”
Clearview, Valicom's telecom cost management software, is designed to address today's market pressures and client's needs for TEM automation. The system workflow is built to incorporate best practices and tools for greater operational efficiencies, telecom expense control and strategic cost reduction. Contact us today for a free Clearview demonstration!!
Too often, we have a tendancy to get caught up in the challenges and pressures of running the business, information technology (IT) and telecom, to the point where the organization can make things more complex than they might have to be regarding expenses.  How well is your company performing strategic cost reduction and expense analysis? Do you have total control of your telecom expenses?
The Free Dictionary by Farlex:
control [kənˈtrəʊl] vb -trols, -trolling, -trolled (tr) 1. to command, direct, or rule to control a country 2. to check, limit, curb, or regulate; restrain to control one's emotions to control a fire 3. to regulate or operate (a machine) 4. to verify (a scientific experiment) by conducting a parallel experiment in which the variable being investigated is held constant or is compared with a standard 5. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Accounting & Book-keeping) a. to regulate (financial affairs) b. to examine and verify (financial accounts) 6. (Law) to restrict or regulate the authorized supply of (certain substances, such as drugs)
Sometimes seeing a reminder of a definition like this one for "Control" can help us to refocus on what is important and lead us to make sure that we do have telecom expense control. Does your organization have the proper controls and tools in place to manage this important function?
Valicom is ready and waiting to help you gain control and reduce your telecom expenses now! Through the depth of our services, we are uniquely positioned to provide you with the options and tools to manage and control you telecom expenses. - If you want to totally outsource your telecom expense management, Valicom has the experience and expertise to serve you
- If you are more comfortable outsourcing a portion of the telecom expense management activities; such as auditing, optimization, etc. Valicom has the experience and knowledge to serve you.
- If you feel you have control over this function and only need a tool to enable automation to streamline this important function and associated activites, then Valicom has the experience and knowledge and now the tool to serve you.
The choice is yours... but, make the choice to begin reducing telecom expenses now. The expense management solution you and your company selects will enable you to gain control. Decide to start or enhance your control today.
During my 25 years of experience in running IT and telecommunication in manufacturing, complex services, consulting and government, most of the companies when asked did not know how much they spent annually on telecommunication services. This includes wireless devices, wired devices, data and voice circuits and their total telecommunication related inventory. Knowing the answer to that question is the first step in achieving true bottom-line business cost reduction. When a company is not aware of their telecom spend or is not organized in a way to make this possible then strategic cost reduction is not easily achieved. The key to any process improvement or strategic telecom cost reduction initiative is to understand all the components that make up the telecom expense control. Then you focus on the components that consume the most resources or expenses and generate options that lead to a reduction in annual telecom expenses and improvement in telecom services. This should not be a difficult process with the right telecom expense management system. Does your company have an automated tool that provides expense analysis? Contact Valicom today for more information!
Telecom expense control - starts with the basics. Do you know the cost of processing only one invoice within your organization? What if you could offload the direct labor involved in processing telecommunication invoices, while reducing strategic business costs at the same time? If this is of interest to you, then you need to contact Valicom today for their best-in-class telecom expense control . Manual Processing: Costly and Time Consuming BNET
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3947/is_200404/ai_n9370347/ "Combining powerful character recognition technologies and business specific work flow, automatic invoice processing provides significant productivity gains and a fast ROI. The potential market for automatic invoice processing is a quite important one: only 4% of invoices are processed through EDI, (electronic data interchange) which means that 96% of all invoices are still received as paper documents. Furthermore, it takes more than 17 seconds to manually enter an invoice (assuming that only a few fields need to be indexed) and this is without counting the usual manual handling time per invoice. Keying in information from paper invoices is still the most time consuming and costly activity, yet it is probably the least value-added task in accounting departments.
 In fact, each supplier invoice can cost between $3 and $15 to the company; total cost of invoice processing including sorting documents, keying in data and archiving the invoice. Of course, the cost is much higher when a problem occurs: disagreement on the invoice amount, problems with the items listed, etc. One out of five invoices encounters such a problem and companies have to deal with this problem although many have not implemented predefined processes for problem invoices."
Start with addressing the simple processes; streamlining the operations associated with processing an invoice. Do it today!
How big does your organization need to be to benfit from Telecom Expense control? What tool do you utilize to manage this function? Are you using a spreadsheet? How about telecom cost management software? Typically, there are plenty of soultions out there from pure outsourcing to expensive telecom expense management ( TEM) software that requires a ton of care and feeding.  The fact is with the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology, your options to benefit from TEM software at a fraction of the price of outsourcing, is now available and ready for you to reduce telecom expenses for both wireless and wired. Should you be concerned with Telecom expense management? If an average reduction in annual telecom spend of 30% is important to you, then you should be concerned.  Valicom now offers their Clearview-as-a-Serivce (CaaS) SaaS solution to most companies, regardless of the size of their annual spend. Consider a demonstration of CaaS today to see how you are able to reduce telecom expenses!
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