|
|
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 an earlier blog dated July 20, 2010 entitled "What are Mid-Sized Organizations Doing About Controlling Telecom Expenses?," we left you with the question: "What are the keys to telecom expense management (TEM) program success for small to mid-size businesses (SMBs)?"  Well, according to the AOTMP report entitled "The Value of TEM to the SMB," the following are the keys to TEM success for SMBs: * "Focusing on program activities presenting the greatest opportunity for savings" * "Implementing TEM tools, such as TEM technology and supporting program initiatives.” These tools and technologies include licensed software, hosted solutions and SaaS options. * “Securing program support from skilled resources, which may include internal staff, consultants and/or third party subject matter experts, to drive program initiatives.” This report further drives home the significant economic benefit of implementing a TEM program for SMBs. AOTMP states that “SMBs with a TEM program save 22% more than companies who do not.” The majority of middle market companies spend anywhere from $150k to $5M in annual telecom expenses. 22% savings on these expenses would equate to $33,000 - $1,100,000 in annual savings for these companies. Now wouldn't you like to add those savings to YOUR bottom line?!! To read more about this topic, click 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. Enjoy!
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.
A recent issue of The Economist, the venerable British business publication, discussed the advancing threats from cyberwarfare. As if IT people don't have enough to worry about, it had some interesting statistics about infected computers out there on the international grid. Even here at home, with our higher security standards, millions of US machines are infected with something, creating mass sleeper botnets. Botnets that nasties from overseas can use to unleash chaos on our power grids, financial databases and just about anything we rely on that's delivered via the internet. Here's an interesting image that shows the distribution of infected machines. (see the whole earth map image in the article, I just included US & Europe)
 As the article says "The internet was designed for convenience and reliability, not security. Yet in wiring together the globe, it has merged the garden and the wilderness. No passport is required in cyberspace. And although police are constrained by national borders, criminals roam free... Enemy states are no longer on the other side of the ocean, but just behind the firewall. The ill-intentioned can mask their identity and location, impersonate others and con their way into the buildings that hold the digitised wealth of the electronic age: money, personal data and intellectual property."Most of this digital mayhem is wrought through malware. Lots and lots of malware. Something you need to keep OFF your employees computers, wireless and mobile devices, part of which means having a good wireless policy and a mobile management plan in place. Malware can infect a smartphone almost as easily as a dekstop PC. Here's an alarming graph of the growth of malware...  The article goes on to discuss how different governments, the US included, are amassing an army of cyberhackers to both defend our national IT infrastructure - and attack, should the need arise. I think it's an interesting discussion, because we all know that one of IT's main concerns has always been security. (and if it's not, it should be) And I feel that the services we deliver play a part in that. By implementing strong telecom expense control, it frees up IT resources for other areas, like security and business continuity. A solid telecom inventory management solution also helps keep track of everything you have, so you can identify unused or underused machines and phones, removing them from your hardware pool before they become a problem. And if you're not really sure whether you have a "tight ship" or not, maybe you need to reach out for some help. A telecom audit can usually identify 30% savings or more in your annual telecom budget. Renegotiate some contracts, get a good handle on your inventory, and then you'll really know what you have to secure. To read the rest of the Economist article, click here.
With the explosive growth of cloud computing, as we've discussed before in Cloud computing to grow at 5 times rate of traditional IT, there is also growing concern about the business practices of vendors offering such services.
Gartner recently released a list of what they feel are the "Seven Rights and Responsibilities for Cloud Computing Services". Items that cloud computing customers and vendors should agree upon. In my eye, they are sound, smart guidelines. Having worked with the financial industry for years, and being a stickler for security and good business continuity practices myself, I just see common sense here.
But it's a good list to put to any telecom expense management provider you may be working with. If your main focus is saving money through telecom expense analysis and tasks like mobile managment, you shouldn't have to spend time worrying about the security of your telecom asset and contract data. You want to ensure the solution you choose is housed in a tightly controlled, secure environment, and that you maintain ownership of your own data. Valicom understands all this, and addresses it in our security policies.
But if you want to run this by any other vendors you use, here is the list.
- The right to retain ownership, use and control one's own data
- The right to service-level agreements that address liabilities, remediation and business outcomes
- The right to notification and choice about changes that affect the service consumers' business processes
- The right to understand the technical limitations or requirements of the service up front
- The right to understand the legal requirements of jurisdictions in which the provider operates
- The right to know what security processes the provider follows
- The responsibility to understand and adhere to software license requirements
To read the full article, with details on the Seven Rights, visit the Gartner Newsroom.
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.
 In the telecom world, since divestiture in the early 80s, there has been a proliferation of new choices, plans, suppliers and technologies. During this period, the internet, wireless services and wide area network technologies have transformed the industry. The internet was born in the 90s and has grown to unprecedented levels. The demand for cellular technology has skyrocketed, taking market share from traditional land line phones and bringing a plethora of voice, data and internet applications to individuals and businesses anytime, anywhere. Wide area data network technologies, such as frame relay and MPLS, have allowed for enormous amounts of data to be shared between corporate locations across the globe. All of this growth and opportunity in the telecom industry has left midmarket businesses ($10M to $500M in revenues) in a state of confusion, and with an unanswered need for greater control over their telecom expenses.Click here to read more about this topic from Valicom's whitepaper entitled "Can TEM SaaS Solutions Lower Telecom Expenses For Mid-Market Companies?"
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. *
***************************************
 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...
As Nancy's previous post " Making Sense of Cloud Computing" also addresses, companies are racing to deploy more and more services via on-demand, remotely hosted applications. And it shows no sign of slowing down. The research firm IDC posted a report today noting that public IT cloud services will grow at more than five times the rate of traditional IT products between now and 2014. Click here to read the article "...cloud computing is critically important for two key reasons - market growth and leadership disruption. The cloud model will propel IT market growth and expansion for the next 20 years and will help the industry to more rapidly develop and distribute a new generation of killer apps, and to more successfully penetrate small and medium-sized businesses." That need within small to mid-sized business for telecom expense control led us to partner recently with Aberdeen Group on a webinar about using SaaS. " Can Saas Solutions Lower Your Telecom, Network and Mobility Expenses?" is now available streaming online.
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!
Can SaaS Solutions Lower Your Telecom, Network, and Mobility Expenses? Join Valicom and Aberdeen for this free webinar to find out!  STREAM ONLINE TODAY Over the past year, Aberdeen Group research has shown that as telecom, network, and mobility demands have become more complicated, the urgent requirement to manage and control expenses is no longer just a Fortune 500 problem. Mid-Market sized organizations have their own unique needs for agile and service-based telecom expense solutions that match their own operational flexibility and challenges. For instance, a typical company with $250 million in annual revenue with an effective Telecom Expense Management solution can achieve savings of $100,000 and a Full-Time Equivalent in support of telecom inventory, tech support, bill management, disputes, and contract management by moving from a low maturity solution to Aberdeen-defined Best-in-Class practices. Presenters:
Hyoun Park, Research Analyst, Telecom and Unified Communications
 Hyoun Park is the Research Analyst for Telecom Lifecycle Management at Aberdeen. In this role, he has benchmarked the behaviors of over a thousand organizations in Telecom Lifecycle Management and has provided strategic guidance to numerous Telecom Expense Management organizations and customers. This research practice focuses on the strategic planning, procurement, management, and enterprise usage of network, landline voice, mobility, and unified communications and includes aspects of the following topics: call accounting, business process alignment to telecom technologies, telecom procurement, telecom contract negotiation and filing, telecom and utility spend management, invoice processing, financial reporting, network management, and asset/service inventories. Nancy Peckham, CEO, Valicom  Nancy began her career in telecommunications in 1983 as an account executive with Republic Telecom, a regional long distance carrier. She was named district sales manager for the Wisconsin region in 1987 when Republic Telecom was acquired by Mid American Communications. She recognized a need for independent, objective telecommunications consulting which led her founding Valicom. Since its launch in 1991, Valicom has been a leader in providing telecom expense management solutions and serves enterprise and mid-market clients in a variety of industries and verticals across the U.S.
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.
Maybe the real estate market in your area is still in the tank but the fundamental rule of the game still applies: location, location, location. For businesses looking to reduce telecom expenses, location is also a significant consideration, except instead of three locations, we may be talking about hundreds. Any one location might perform its own telecom vendor management, invoice auditing, and telecom service procurement.. Or maybe they are not performing telecom expense control at all. Likely though, the telecom expense management activities in a multi-location facility are not standardized. As a result, your organization has no true enterprise-level telecom expense control going on. In short, you don’t know what you don’t know.
 What you need are answers. But how? Because of your distributed environment, you have no solid telecom stats. You aren’t even sure if you can get a hold of all of your telecom invoices to do a proper expense analysis. Basically, your telecom inventory is wildly inaccurate, if you have one at all, and you don’t know how to even start the process. To rectify this situation, you need to start gathering data. This means an accurate telecom inventory of everything you’ve got including landlines, data circuits, wireless devices, and all other telecom services for which you are billed. Once you’ve got the data, you need somewhere to put it and this means some sort of telecom expense management tool. Now that you’ve got data for all of your locations in one place, life starts getting a lot easier. You’ll have easy answers to telecom expense questions. Paying telecom invoices will become a snap, and the hassles and risks related to erroneous telecom invoicing are greatly reduced. But maybe the best part of all of this is that the increased enterprise visibility you’ll have will facilitate the establishment of organizational policy regarding telecom purchases and telecom equipment standards. You’ll turn chaos into order and will finally be able to say that you don’t need to know what you don’t know because you know you already know. You know? -SAM www.valicomcorp.com
|
