Schedule a demo today!
Centralizing the management of telecom
spend and utilizing electronic billing
data are distinguishing factors of a
successful telecom expense management
solution. The findings from a 2008
Telecom Expense Management Benchmark
Survey, conducted by Edge Research,
revealed that successful companies using
TEM adhere to the most fundamental
aspect: centralization.
“In our experience – as well as many of the analysts – one of the key ingredients to a successful TEM solution is the centralized management of the total enterprises telecom spend,” said Troy McCracken, CEO of Cincinnati-based Spectrum. “Meaning, an organization should have one central repository to receive, allocate, and process telecom invoices. Ask any consultant, or expert in our field, and they all agree that telecom is a very unique industry.”
Without centralization, a supplier can consistently charge incorrectly and if you dispute or refuse to pay, even if the supplier is wrong, it has the ability to negatively impact a company by disconnecting the entire telecommunications network while billing issues are being resolved, McCracken added.
Achieving centralized management of telecom spend is a key prerequisite that enables companies to know their total network costs and therefore adopt and follow industry best practices, according to the findings from Edge Research. This is supported by the fact that, among companies that know their total network costs, 81 percent indicated that they centrally manage telecom spend. Among those satisfied with their organization’s TEM solution, 88 percent centrally manage telecom spend. This high satisfaction rate can be attributed to the fact that the vast majority of these companies have indicated that they have attained TEM savings of greater than $1 million, analysts said.
To achieve centralization, the data also suggests a strong correlation with electronic invoice data adoption. Among those companies that receive the majority of their bills electronically, 83 percent are able to centralize telecom spend and are more satisfied with their overall TEM solution, according to the report.
In a recent interview with TMCnet, McCracken explained that Spectrum was recently approached by a Fortune 500 company in which its processing of telecom invoices was completed in several different payment centers. This company also had over 1,000 locations and over 40 percent of their invoices were paper.
“Due to the enormous amount of invoices they received on a daily basis and their inability to dedicate resources to this expense, their locations were constantly being shut off for non-pay,” McCracken said. “Our specialized analysis of their telecom environment quickly found that many of the incorrect charges that were being disputed were for non-active lines that the carriers never stopped billing for.”
The company is now considering Spectrum’s recommendation of centralization due to their interruption in service as a result of not being able to manage the de-centralized processing of invoices, McCracken said.
Companies with centralized telecommunications management report significantly greater levels of satisfaction, and more specifically, businesses that merge need a unified, centralized system, telecom lifecycle management experts said.
“In our experience – as well as many of the analysts – one of the key ingredients to a successful TEM solution is the centralized management of the total enterprises telecom spend,” said Troy McCracken, CEO of Cincinnati-based Spectrum. “Meaning, an organization should have one central repository to receive, allocate, and process telecom invoices. Ask any consultant, or expert in our field, and they all agree that telecom is a very unique industry.”
Without centralization, a supplier can consistently charge incorrectly and if you dispute or refuse to pay, even if the supplier is wrong, it has the ability to negatively impact a company by disconnecting the entire telecommunications network while billing issues are being resolved, McCracken added.
Achieving centralized management of telecom spend is a key prerequisite that enables companies to know their total network costs and therefore adopt and follow industry best practices, according to the findings from Edge Research. This is supported by the fact that, among companies that know their total network costs, 81 percent indicated that they centrally manage telecom spend. Among those satisfied with their organization’s TEM solution, 88 percent centrally manage telecom spend. This high satisfaction rate can be attributed to the fact that the vast majority of these companies have indicated that they have attained TEM savings of greater than $1 million, analysts said.
To achieve centralization, the data also suggests a strong correlation with electronic invoice data adoption. Among those companies that receive the majority of their bills electronically, 83 percent are able to centralize telecom spend and are more satisfied with their overall TEM solution, according to the report.
In a recent interview with TMCnet, McCracken explained that Spectrum was recently approached by a Fortune 500 company in which its processing of telecom invoices was completed in several different payment centers. This company also had over 1,000 locations and over 40 percent of their invoices were paper.
“Due to the enormous amount of invoices they received on a daily basis and their inability to dedicate resources to this expense, their locations were constantly being shut off for non-pay,” McCracken said. “Our specialized analysis of their telecom environment quickly found that many of the incorrect charges that were being disputed were for non-active lines that the carriers never stopped billing for.”
The company is now considering Spectrum’s recommendation of centralization due to their interruption in service as a result of not being able to manage the de-centralized processing of invoices, McCracken said.
Companies with centralized telecommunications management report significantly greater levels of satisfaction, and more specifically, businesses that merge need a unified, centralized system, telecom lifecycle management experts said.
