Telecom Expense Management

How to Find Hidden Savings in Your Telecom Budget

So you suspect that there are potential savings lurking deep within your company’s telecom budget. You’re probably right, but do you know where to look? Here are four methodical steps you can take to locate and realize potential savings.

Inventory
Accurate telecom inventories are the building blocks of telecom expense management. Most businesses have partial telecom inventories but few have complete records. It’s a three-step process:

1. Gather complete data for each contract: vendor, start/end dates, commitments, rate review dates, key terms and conditions.
2. Determine your existing service requirements for long distance, local, wireline, wireless, data plans, etc. Try breaking it down by location and service type – you may find that you have higher volumes in some areas that qualify you for better rates.
3. Get an inventory of all your telecom hardware that shows the vendor, contract number, lease/purchase, model/serial numbers, location/user, and maintenance options for each piece of gear. When we do this for clients, we often find that maintenance contracts are still being paid for equipment that is no longer in use.

Audit
Now that you know exactly what you have, perform a baseline audit. Make sure that the charges on your telecom invoices are accurate – check your rates and discounts, look for disconnected services and closed sites.  Watch out for third party charges for services you didn’t order and don’t need. Going forward, consider auditing your invoices on a monthly basis, looking at trending, new or different charges, and unallocated expenses. Also, consider a vendor audit to review how contracts are applied across multiple invoices.

Optimize
Now that your inventory is accurate and you have a good baseline audit – optimize. Make sure you have the right number of lines and trunks for your local service needs; you might find savings by eliminating excess capacity. Make sure your access networks are correctly sized and that all your communications ports are being properly utilized.  Examine wireless usage profiles and data/text plans, and make sure your “power” users are not going over their monthly limits.

Negotiate
Now that you know exactly what you have and what you need, you’re in a strong negotiating position when your contract is up for renewal. Don’t accept a generic price quote that fails to address your specific requirements. Consider increasing your contract length in exchange for better rates. You may be able to save money by modifying your terms and conditions. Contract negotiation offers the single biggest opportunity to reduce your company’s future telecom costs.

LEARN MORE
Read our white paper, “The Low Risk Approach to Telecom Expense Management”.

Four Reasons to Explore SIP Trunking

Are your business telecom services delivered by thick bundles of multi-colored wires? If that’s the case, your telecom delivery system employs a Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) trunk. Many businesses are investigating a newer telecom technology, a Session Initiated Protocol (SIP) trunk.  SIP trunking enables youto replace most of that complicated wiring with a vastly simplified setup that improves your internal and external communications.

There are four main reasons to consider SIP trunking:

Maximize Existing Bandwidth
It seems like you can never have too much bandwidth, especially for complex business applications such as video conferencing. A SIP trunk applies call signaling and control features to VoIP setups and delivers multiple services over the same T1 line. With voice, video and data communications all coming through the same pipeline, SIP will give you more bang for your bandwidth buck – and you can dynamically adjust the flow to fully utilize your existing bandwidth.

Ease of Expansion
With TDM trunking, expanding your business usually calls for new telecom hardware. With SIP trunking, you simply upgrade your bandwidth subscription through a web interface or phone call. You can be ready to go in as little as 24 hours – no more waiting while new hardware is ordered, delivered, and installed. A SIP trunk also simplifies the task of expanding your network to include small remote offices and home workers.

Lower Operating Costs
SIP trunking encourages non-traditional carriers to compete for your telecom services. In addition to the large telecommunications companies who own the infrastructure, smaller carriers who want to expand their coverage will be very interested in your business. It gives them a way to leverage SIP services they already provide. You can pick and choose from a wide range of options to get the best deal.

Improved System Availability
SIP trunking also facilitates system redundancy and smooth failover. If one soft switch becomes unavailable, you can choose from a list of alternative soft switches out in the cloud. In other words, you’re not out of luck if the telephone pole goes down outside your office. SIP application servers are built to enterprise class technology standards, and most have convenient web interfaces for ease of use.

No new technology is without risk – we explored some of the risks of SIP trunking in an earlier blog post. But if bandwidth utilization, ease of expansion, lower operating costs, and system availability are high on your list of priorities, SIP trunking is worth a close look.

LEARN MORE
Watch our on-demand Webinar “SIP Trunking: Real-world Lessons Learned”.

How Important is Software as Part of a TEM Solution?

Software is a fundamental building block of any telecom expense management (TEM) solution. Whether you’re considering a premise-based installation, a SaaS solution, or a full BPO contract, the success of your TEM initiative will depend heavily on the software tools that are utilized. So regardless of the type of solution you’re considering, make sure that the tools have the flexibility to accommodate your present and future business requirements, and that your vendor can customize workflows to meet them.

Details In = Details Out
Make sure the software offers the ability to truly allocate costs at the level you require. Can it handle complex GL coding? Does it have the ability to map from the invoice details to the output required for your reporting and AP feed? Off-the-shelf solutions may not meet these requirements. The key is to have this kind of functionality proven to you beforehand.

If you’re considering a SaaS or BPO solution, our advice is to really test the level of invoice detail that your vendor can read into the application. The ability to read call detail records (CDRs) should be an absolute given. Beyond that, data such as network USOCs, service descriptions, circuit identifiers, and location information – as well as wireless plans, features, and usage levels – are all critical data points. Without visibility into these invoice details, it will be difficult to realize the full savings potential that a TEM initiative offers.

Flexible Process Workflow Development
Workflow support is another area of concern. We often work with companies that have implemented an off-the-shelf solution, only to find that the embedded workflows are not flexible enough to handle their process requirements. The vendor may be able to customize the workflows to meet their need, but time and cost requirements are prohibitive. Sometimes it’s an issue of a basic solution being oversold, other times it’s a question of the company not fully understanding their own business requirements. Our advice is 1) know your requirements and 2) be absolutely sure the software can meet them before you choose a solution.

And while the software is crucial, don’t overlook the experience of your TEM vendor. Especially if you are implementing a SaaS or BPO solution, look closely at the people who support the application. Test their response time¬ and process experience. Ask for references and get some unbiased feedback about their level of expertise and technological fluency.

LEARN MORE
Watch our on-demand Webcast: “Why Do Some TEM Programs Fail While Others Succeed?