by Ray Horak, Technology Editor
We live and work in an increasingly complex and competitive world, a world in which technology, properly applied, can make the difference between profit and loss, liquidity and liquidation. The options are staggering in number and diversity, including TDM and IP, wireline and wireless, LAN and WAN, Unified Messaging (UM) and Unified Communications (UC), on-premises and hosted, open source and proprietary…and the list goes on to the point that it’s difficult even to keep the acronyms straight. Sorting through the vendors—even to build a qualified short list—can be a real challenge, as well. Thankfully, once the decision is made, the contracts are signed and the systems are installed and accepted, we can breathe easy, for our work is done…except for the maintenance and management, of course. Finally, it’s time to write the checks and pay the bills. That’s where we all too often lose our grasp over time and let profitability slip through our fingers.
Telesoft is in the business of Telecom Expense Management (TEM) and has been helping companies tighten the grip on profitability for 27 years. Telesoft President Kevin Donoghue explains that the company’s initial focus was on call accounting and cost allocation. That’s where the easy money was, so to speak, in the days of long distance at 35 cents a minute. In other words the costs were easily identifiable and significant hard dollars savings were virtually immediate. The solutions suite then expanded to include asset management (ordering, provisioning and inventory management), invoice auditing, and now includes complete invoice management, i.e., end-to-end management of the invoice approval and payment process for products and services across the entire telecom spectrum.
Telesoft typically works with enterprise-level organizations, including colleges and universities, but, according to Donoghue, “You can group customers by vertical market, but we frankly haven’t found a lot of verticality to TEM issues. The common thread through our conversations with clients is that they are working to manage their telecom spend more effectively—to spend the right amount of money on the right stuff—and that is not an easy thing to do, given the complexity of the typical telecom scenario. Common flaws include the failure to have a complete and up-to-date inventory, without which it clearly is impossible to reconcile invoices to inventories. Vendors tend to be quick to connect and collect, but slow to disconnect and render a final bill. It is not unusual to discover that a client is still paying for circuits or cell phones that were disconnected years ago. The growth in wireless usage is incredible and that element of the telecom spend is typically the most poorly managed. We can help make sure the right people get the right kinds of phones on the right kinds of plans based on job code or other policy parameters. On average, fixed and mobile telecom services represent 4% of an organization’s annual expenses, and 26% of telecom charges are either erroneous or avoidable. TelesoftTEM experience is that as much as 15%-20% is fairly readily identifiable and recoverable. A company that spends $5M-$10M-$15M a year can save some serious money. Actually, that’s just a matter of scale—it’s all serious money.”
More at telesoft.com.
