By Mark on Friday, 28 October 2016
Category: Telecom Expense Management Blog

Attention C-Level Executives: TEM is More Important Than Ever!

Anyone who says that Telecom Expense Management, or "TEM", is no longer important is not taking the enormous changes of the last 5 years into consideration. With BYOD, IoT, and more vendor choices, keeping track and managing telecom requires a more sophisticated set of tools. TEM bridges that gap.

The IT folks get it. That's because they work with technology, suppliers and contracts every day. But senior management often lacks the same level of visibility. Therefore, they continue to operate under the broad assumption that expenses associated with communications are just a 'cost of doing usiness', which cannot be significantly impacted.

That's a dangerous assumption. Because, today, more than ever, TEM is necessary to effectively align and optimize diverse contracts, services and suppliers. And that results in significant savings.

Everyone in your organization needs to understand the role that TEM plays and takes it seriously. Why? Because, when we talk about 'significant savings' we aren't just talking about hundreds, or even thousands of dollars. We are talking about the potential of hundreds of thousands of dollars in both initial and ongoing savings!

The 'Efficiency Triggers'

For TEM to do its work, however, we must first identify areas where it can be quickly and effectively deployed. We have done some of the ground work for you below. These three efficiency 'triggers' can serve as an effective springboard for discussion, helping managers understand how using information from their TEM system can lead to better decisions for improved fiscal and operational health.

Operational and Financial Assessment

Today's TEM technology can give you a level of depth and insight into fixed and mobile telecom environment that wasn't available in the past. It is the backbone you need to make better financial and operational decisions. Many managers are simply unaware of the level of granularity and sophistication that today's TEM is capable of providing in these areas:



The bottom line: Better business decisions based upon accurate information!


Compliance Enforcement

Your TEM solution should have the depth and flexibility to let you dynamically program 'rule sets' into your system. What does that mean? You can customize and define the parameters that your company needs to adhere to in order to comply with industry and business standards.

The bottom line: 49% of companies queried by AOTMP indicate that compliance is a primary challenge for their organization!

Adherence to best practices and keeping pace with changing regulations that impact business operations can save a lot of hassles downstream, not to mention costs.


Process improvement

Amazingly, many top companies are still using old school manual or semi-automated methods to handle internal audits such as invoice reconciliation and to generate IT/telecom reports. When added together, the collective time spent with spreadsheets and calculators costs companies thousands of dollars each month in wasted overhead. This is real money and real time wasted!

The bottom line: 70% of organizations queried by AOTMP indicate improving internal workflow efficiency is a priority!


The Good News:

Today, more than ever, IT and Telecom managers need to 'make the case' to senior management for an efficient and smooth running TEM program. And it isn't hard when you let the numbers and facts speak for themselves. A solid TEM solution gives you the data, information and insight to get management on your team and everyone on track to save costs and improve efficiencies.