Telecom Expense Management (TEM)

In many companies, Telecommunications present one of the least controlled costs borne by the organization. Often the costs are fragmented by regional or departmental billing which results in a situation where many people see a fraction of the costs but no-one sees the full scale of any problems. Telecommunications bills are also often difficult to read, especially for the more complex contracts, and often lack the required level of detail - so it is hardly surprising that they don’t always receive the necessary level of analysis.

The mobile market, with its intricate array of tariffs, plans and bundles, offered by physical and virtual network operators and their resellers is perhaps the most complex sector at present.  Add to the mix organizational churn, office moves, new system requirements and an ongoing demand from users for the latest devices and services and it is little wonder that managing the telecommunications spend can be seen as a daunting task.

The management of telecommunications and network costs is a core competence within ITPM.  We have advised some of the UK’s largest companies on how they can simplify their service infrastructure and reduce costs and delivered real savings for clients in Europe and Asia.  Having built up a wealth of knowledge of the state of the TEM system market and the leading players in it, we are also able to offer clients clear and focused advice on the most suitable system for their own unique situation and support its acquisition and deployment.

TEM Consultancy

Many of the TEM services that we now provide as standard, grew out of earlier, consultancy based projects.  Consultancy however remains one of our primary TEM offerings, whether it is aimed at defining a client’s strategic approach to the management of telecommunications services and costs or representing your interest during the implementation of a specific TEM system or service, we have a team of specialist TEM consultants who can help.  Consultancy projects managed by ITPM have included:

• TEM Strategy:  development of strategy for the management of telecom services and costs and building the necessary business case for its implementation.
• System Purchase: whether it is done by formal RFI / RFP or less formal methods , ITPM has the capability to get a TEM acquisition moving past the first hurdle.
• Process Development: TEM systems are great at automating the process managing telecom services – however those processes need to exist prior to system deployment.  Using our system knowledge and experience Process Development, ITPM can ensure that you have the right process in place at the right time.
• Project Management and Assurance: the implementation of a TEM system or service is typically project managed by the vendor.  ITPM is however able to provide client-side project or programme management – putting in place all of the necessary controls, communication and expertise that experience tells us are vital to the success of a project which will require change in many parts of the client organization

Billing Audit

Service and Billing Audit is one of the first steps an organization can take towards developing a TEM way of working.  Billing for Telecommunications and Network services is an error prone process and few organizations have developed sufficiently robust processes to manage the services that they are using or terminate those which they are not.  As a result, Audit is also one of the areas in which savings can be generated quickly and easily.

A Services and Billing Audit from ITPM is designed to ensure that clients have only the services that they currently need, that they have the optimum tariffs and are paying the correct rates for the services and plans that they have in place.  In addition it will capture any billing anomalies over the previous period and present the opportunity to recover over payments from the service provider.

I-TEM Services

The I-TEM Monthly Management Service is ideally suited to those organizations who want to keep a close watch on the cost and volume of services deployed, but either does not need the additional functionality (procurement, Mobile Device Management, etc) or complex systems integration provided in the larger TEM systems

Using the same technology that we use internally for our leading Service and Billing Audit, we provide a clear and concise web based dashboard that provides clients with up to date analysis of telecommunications inventory and spend.  The system is simple to use and supports the full range of standard Voice, Mobile and Data services.  It provides a detailed breakdown of service use, devices deployed and associated costs.

At the basic level, the system provides an individual user with details of their own mobile services and spends.  Additionally, management views provide for grouping and summarization of costs accrued across teams or across the organization.