Telecom Expense Management

Customizing a Telecom Usage Policy

By Timothy C. Colwell, AOTMP Vice President of Knowledge Operations, www.aotmp.com

 

When cost containment, cost control and cost avoidance are central to a telecom usage policy initiative, restrictions on certain types of telecom usage will be levied.  A wholesale limit on telecom features and pay-per-use services introducing cost is not recommended, however, as those features and services may offer value required by users.  Matching user needs against usage policy initiatives not only creates organizational support, but also increases usage acceptance of a usage policy; usage acceptance leads directly to a higher degree of compliance.

 

Interviewing business unit managers and users provides an understanding of why and how pay-per-use features are used.  Decisions can be made about the necessity and legitimacy of the use of these features.  If feature use serves a legitimate business purpose, inclusion of feature use protocols can be defined in a telecom usage policy.  Additionally, when cost control is a primary driver for telecom usage policy creation, decisions about feature alternatives can be explored.  In a case where directory assistance is a necessary feature for users, and the volume of usage is higher than desired, a directory assistance service provider offering volume discounts may provide the service-to-cost benefit sought, rather than allowing pay-per-use instances of directory assistance.  Should this scenario arise, the purpose of the telecom usage policy would be to direct users towards the preferred provider or preferred method of directory assistance usage instead of prohibiting directory assistance use altogether.

 

Consider all aspects of a telecom usage policy when defining business needs.  A telecom usage policy is only useful for controlling cost if it is defined to meeting organizational needs and remedy for out-of-scope behavior is established.  Policy definition needs to address performance monitoring, too.  A policy can only be enforced if measures for tracking in- and out-of-scope activities exist.

 

A telecom usage policy can be a valuable tool for cost containment, cost control and cost avoidance.  Value of the policy increases when understanding of specific objectives, learning how and why services are used, and relating service usage against business needs occurs.  When these considerations are incorporated into definition of your telecom usage policy, policy benefits increase overall.

 

Veramark Technologies is a leading provider of Telecom Expense Management solutions.

Don't Overlook Labor Savings of Telecom Expense Management

When projecting the value of an enterprise solution, it’s important to consider the return on your investment. But all too often, we focus on the easy-to-calculate hard dollar returns only. In many cases, and especially for BPO solutions, the greatest savings come from productivity improvements.

For example, telecom expense management (TEM) BPO solutions will save measurable dollar amounts through invoice validation, recovery of overcharges, and avoidance of late payment penalties. It’s more difficult to measure the value of workflow automation for ordering and provisioning, MACD, help desk, and other TEM-related business processes. One way to estimate the value of process automation is to consider the dollar savings in terms of reduced full-time equivalent (FTE) labor requirements.

Labor is the single greatest expense for most organizations. Workflow automation can have a huge impact on the bottom line by reducing business process FTE requirements. For example, centralized ordering and provisioning (O&P) is a key TEM activity that offers benefits in terms of contract compliance, reduction of off-contract spend, and inventory management. These benefits are realized even if employees are calling the IT department to place each order. However, an automated O&P system, complete with self-serve online catalog and workflow, can multiply process benefits by reducing calls to IT and FTE requirements. Reduction of a single FTE can save over 100K annually.

There are multiple ways to estimate the FTE savings that an automated O&P system would generate for your organization. If you keep logs of IT service requests, you can estimate the number of calls and hours of IT labor that self-serve workflow automation would eliminate. Alternatively, you can estimate savings based on anticipated demand, number of employees and annual turnover, and planned technology refresh and budget. Similar methods can be used to determine the FTE savings of other TEM workflow solutions.

Reduced FTE demands for TEM process management means greater FTE availability for other business-critical activities, such as customer support services and strategic IT planning.