Wireless Expense Management
Wireless Expense Management and Optimization
Corporations need to be able to focus on their core business, the larger the business the more there is to handle on a day-to-day basis. And businesses with a large mobile / cellular / wireless presence also have the expenses associated with them. These companies need professional Telecom Expense Management (TEM) to help them manage their wireless telecom bills accurately and effectively.
For a business already under pressure from their primary business obligations tasking an accounts payable department with tracking the ever changing wireless technologies and changing General Ledger (GL) codes from acquisitions and mergers can be overwhelming and they honestly are not qualified to track what they need to look for to make sure that telecom bills are truly accurate and the business is not being overcharged.
Cellular (wireless) Telecom Expense Management (TEM) is essentially a two part process
First step is capturing, and analyzing the monthly cellular data and putting that into manageable reports. Second step is getting historical money back from the Vendors and correcting the wireless invoices.
But as simple as it may sound these two steps are not so easy to do as there are any number of things that can change that will affect how much a wireless bill is and whether the company is being overcharged for services that have not been used.
Wireless devices need to be managed on a daily basis in real time. An effective and realistic plan needs to be put into place that enforces wireless policy and controls usage, this is critical to control costs. This is the job of your telecom auditing team or TEM. They can concentrate on optimization, ongoing wireless management and contract management to reduce costs and provide a managed invoice service. TEM provides contract compliance monthly checks, this catches overcharges from tariffs, surcharges and taxes and this means that you know exactly what you are paying for each month
After the first initial audit of your wireless telecom expenses you should find that your cellular services have been optimized, your overhead has been reduced and refunds paid back to your company so that immediately your company realizes the savings from the service of the TEM. This optimization focuses on the end user as well as viewing the group as a whole, while at the same time it analyzes your voice, data and features so that you only pay for the services that your business really needs thus lowering the amount your company currently spends. Providing protection and benchmarking is important to each business and telecom auditing firm (TEM) and these telecom auditing solutions really help in decreasing billing errors, tracking spend and increasing current staff productivity. Even with companies offering BYOD (bring your own device) TEM providers can give consulting advice to help reduce overhead and ensure maximum savings. The cost for this service can be provided by many telecom expense management firms and some telecom auditing companies.
Your telecom auditing team (or TEM) can also take out of your hands contract negotiation and compliance and the ongoing management of your wireless expenses resulting in monthly savings. Through the pooling of mobile optimization your TEM will identify wrong rate plans, needed or not needed features, usage analysis, active and non active phones, corrected surcharges and fees and analysis for cellular and blackberry service as well as the analysis of data cards. This means that you only pay the taxes that you qualify for and get the tax exemptions that you deserve. You can reduce fees for SMS, Data Cards, Data plan usage, voice pooling plans, International calling plans and usage, roaming, and those extra fees that are simply not necessary to pay. With a centralized phone usage policy for wireless and bill processing you can ensure that your expenditure records are accurate. Your wireless invoices can also be authorized for bill payment which will result in less late fees and provide more information about your wireless phone network.
The process that a TEM uses to optimize your wireless needs while minimizing wireless bills
- They electronically capture your data in real time.
- They analyze your usage and compare it to more than 35,000 available cellular rate plans.
- They may recommend changes to your service that will reduce the amount that you spend but will not cause any discomfort to the users.
- They analyze the records of data used and compare the digital bytes you are using to make sure that you are not paying for any unused minutes or unused wireless devices, data cards, or lines.
- They may recommend wireless policies to keep costs under control that will allow for checks of any abuses or fraudulent usages. This is critical if you have high International usage.
- They will provide you with a dashboard interface that allows access to your detailed cellular usage in real time. This provides you accurate data visibility, cost control, improves efficiency and reduces waste. This gives you solid information to improve corporate planning, decision making, and budgeting providing future cost reductions.