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The results of an industry survey
released this week – revealing that
while telecom expense management remains
a top priority for organizations, chief
information officers and chief financial
officers are also challenged to achieve
new levels of visibility, inventory,
auditing and service management – is
based on one TEM company’s customer
base, all of which manage multi-million
dollar budgets using automated
telecommunication expense management
solutions.
Yet, a telecom lifecycle management provider is questioning the significance of the report. “Knowing that very few companies have over 100 customers in the TEM space, how accurate is the survey based on the overall market if the survey was conducted on a sampling of 25 to 50 customers,” said Troy McCracken, CEO of Spectrum.
“On the other hand, I agree that one of the most requested goals is to see the actual ROI. More and more, CIOs and CFOs are asking for a ‘hard dollar’ savings versus a ‘soft dollar’ or resource savings. Prior to 2009, CIOs and CFOs could see the benefit of re-allocating the resources in AP and IT to other more important projects,” he said. “In today’s environment, re-allocation is less and less attractive as their main initiative is to reduce overall cost.”
According to the Telesoft report, 69 percent of respondents compare expenses to budget by business unit as a key performance indicator for monitoring the performance of their TEM solution. The second most commonly cited key performance indicator, at 58 percent, is the actual cost reduction savings. Increased operational efficiencies and improved management was the third most cited KPI of success of TEM programs.
“It’s interesting that 69 percent of respondents compare expenses to budget by business unit as a key performance indicator for monitoring the performance of their TEM solution, and only 58 percent found the actual cost reduction savings,” McCracken said. “It would seem that in reality these numbers would be reversed as most companies would be more interested in the actual ROI. If you don’t achieve the ROI but are able to allocate to proper business units then would the TEM solution be considered successful?”
The survey also revealed that 35 percent of respondents plan to reduce spending on telecom and infrastructure services, while only 16 percent will increase spending in these areas. The other respondents have either not determined a 2010 budget or plan to spend the same as they did in 2009.
According to Gartner, 80 percent of enterprises will overspend on their wireless service costs by an average of 15 percent through 2014, so it would appear that on the whole, companies are not adequately managing their wireless expenses.
Yet, a telecom lifecycle management provider is questioning the significance of the report. “Knowing that very few companies have over 100 customers in the TEM space, how accurate is the survey based on the overall market if the survey was conducted on a sampling of 25 to 50 customers,” said Troy McCracken, CEO of Spectrum.
“On the other hand, I agree that one of the most requested goals is to see the actual ROI. More and more, CIOs and CFOs are asking for a ‘hard dollar’ savings versus a ‘soft dollar’ or resource savings. Prior to 2009, CIOs and CFOs could see the benefit of re-allocating the resources in AP and IT to other more important projects,” he said. “In today’s environment, re-allocation is less and less attractive as their main initiative is to reduce overall cost.”
According to the Telesoft report, 69 percent of respondents compare expenses to budget by business unit as a key performance indicator for monitoring the performance of their TEM solution. The second most commonly cited key performance indicator, at 58 percent, is the actual cost reduction savings. Increased operational efficiencies and improved management was the third most cited KPI of success of TEM programs.
“It’s interesting that 69 percent of respondents compare expenses to budget by business unit as a key performance indicator for monitoring the performance of their TEM solution, and only 58 percent found the actual cost reduction savings,” McCracken said. “It would seem that in reality these numbers would be reversed as most companies would be more interested in the actual ROI. If you don’t achieve the ROI but are able to allocate to proper business units then would the TEM solution be considered successful?”
The survey also revealed that 35 percent of respondents plan to reduce spending on telecom and infrastructure services, while only 16 percent will increase spending in these areas. The other respondents have either not determined a 2010 budget or plan to spend the same as they did in 2009.
According to Gartner, 80 percent of enterprises will overspend on their wireless service costs by an average of 15 percent through 2014, so it would appear that on the whole, companies are not adequately managing their wireless expenses.
