In the times of the hyper-connected digital world, most businesses rely on telecommunication to remain competitive, efficient, and collaborative. The increase in operation and adoption of more complex communication infrastructure by the enterprises, such as mobile telephones, landlines, cloud service, and the Internet of Things (IoT)s complicates the management of telecom costs as a key aspect of operations efficiency. This is the point where Telecom Expense Management (TEM) comes as a strategic tool.
Telecom Expense Management, what is it?
Telecom Expense Management (TEM) is the systems, process, and services which businesses use in controlling and managing the expenses which are related to telecommunications. It involves following, reporting and fine tuning the expenses of voice, data, and wireless services within an arrangement system of an organization. TEM is not just about cost containment but it provides information into areas of usage patterns, vendor compliance and contractual performance.
TEM has different aspects of telecom operations that include:
Invoice control and telecom expense audit
Management of the inventory (devices, lines, and services)
Monitoring and enforcement of policy on usage
Contract and vendor management
Dispute resolution
Mobile device management (MDM)
With TEM, companies can understand their telecom use and spend, enabling them to do a better job at making decisions regarding the telecom supply chain, negotiating with vendors, and allocating resources.
What makes TEM important to modern business?
Telecom services consume a big percentage of the IT budget of an organization. At big companies that can have hundreds or even thousands of employees it can be easy to lose track of mobile data plans, internet access, international calling, conferencing services, and cloud-based communication tools.
The following are some of the important reasons why TEM is important:
1. Cost Optimization
TEM assists in looking at overcharges, unused services and bill faults. It can also make businesses change service plans based on actual usage thus wastage of money. Automated audit tools are able to read invoices and draw attention to differences that would not be pickable in a manual review.
2. Enhanced Visibility and Control
TEM platforms enable a centralized perspective of all telecom costs since they help in bringing together the telecom data of various telecom vendors, and departments to provide a unified view of the telecom costs. Such universality in perspective allows the IT and finance departments to monitor expenditure patterns, compare usage on a departmental basis and regulate budgets accordingly.
3. Policy Enforcement
Shadow IT and unauthorized uses of telecom are a problem faced by many companies. TEM solutions for implementing company policies monitor the use to make sure that devices and services are consumed in accordance with the corporate policies.
4. Contract Negotiation and Vendor Management
Using the TEM tools, companies obtain the ability to compare vendor performance and prices, determine the overlaps of services, and use the information in contract renewal or negotiation processes. Such not only conserves money but also enhances quality of services.
5. Remote and Hybrid Workforce Enabling Support
Mobile and cloud communications have grown exponentially due to the transition of work environments into remote and hybrid working. The TEM platforms are used in tracking and controlling the usage of mobile data and subscription services along with the mobile devices to maintain productivity with reasonable expense.
Capabilities of a TEM Solution
Most of the TEM platforms that are robust comprise the following features:
Automated Invoice Processing: Telecom invoices are captured, verified, and reconciled digitally and the process eliminates all human error and as such payments are 100% accurate.
Real-time Usage Monitoring: Monitors data, voice and messaging usage within the organization in real-time and can be used to identify out-of-character activity and limit expenses.
Inventory Management: Maintains a list (comprehensive and current) of all telecom assets such as devices, SIM cards, lines and licenses.
Analytics and Reporting: Offers report and dashboards building, flexible and customizable that enables stakeholders to gain insights into the usage patterns, budget models and make decisions based on the data.
Service Ordering and Provisioning: To make it easier to add, alter, or terminate services among vendors and users.
Implementation Challenges
Although there are a lot of positive aspects associated with TEM, there are difficulties to using a successful program implementation:
Data Silos: It is usually complicated to combine data of different telecom providers, geographies and departments.
Resistance to Change: The employees and sections can be opposed to standard rules and technologies.
Vendor Cooperation: There can also be problems with the timeliness or information content of billing and usage data provided by some telecom vendors, which pose a problem in automation.
Multi-Complex Global Operation: Multi-national companies have the added burden of dealing with several currencies, taxation and other regulatory conditions.
In order to mitigate these issues a number of firms decide to outsource TEM to third-party firms that specialize in telecom audits, costs optimization and management of the lifecycle.
AI and Automation in the Age of TEM
Due to the further development of artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technologies, TEM tools are getting even cleverer and pro-active. Contemporary platforms apply machine learning which helps to identify uncharacteristic patterns, forecast use, and propose optimization plans. Zero-touch invoice processing and real-time alerting automation can also enable zero-touch processing of invoices and real-time alerting which frees up IT and finance teams to focus on more strategically-oriented tasks.
Moreover, PCI integration with other enterprise systems, including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and IT Service Management (ITSM), is increasingly typical, which also enhances the process and increases visibility even more.
Conclusion
In a business setting where the digital transformation will play a pensive role, telecom expenditure management is no rather a strategic requisite. Telecom Expense Management will help organizations to streamline their money, enhance their workflow and efficiency, and make more intelligent decisions in terms of their communication framework. TEM assists companies to be agile and competitive in a fast-jihad, data-driven world by applying superior analytics, automation, and centralized management tools.
The telecommunications environment is constantly changing, and as a result, its management strategies should evolve. The search for a capable TEM solution today might become the solution to reap enormous savings in cost, and excellence in operations in the future.