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Four Common Telecom Expense Management Mistakes |
Article Submitted by: Lori Snow
Wednesday, 20 January 2010
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Telecom expense management is a complex field. It's easy to make mistakes, driving up your company's wireless, landline and other telecom costs far above what you should actually pay. As firms become more budget conscious in an uncertain economy, they increasingly opt to use a professional telecom expense management company. For ten years, GILL Technologies has provided professional landline telecom expense management and mobile management solutions for mid-sized to enterprise level clients. Companies often engage GILL Technologies after trying to cut costs themselves. The company has identified four common mistakes firms make when they try to address the problem themselves: Failing to Identify Their Business Needs Telecom expense management should begin with one simple question: "What does my business use the phone (or cell phones, or Internet access) for?" In other words, you need to begin by defining exactly how your telecom assets fit into company operations. Every company needs its own phone line but beyond that, your telecom plan should be specifically tailored for your business. Define your needs and the hardware and services you need to the point where you can justify every item and expense. Naturally, you'll have to adjust your plan over time as the company evolves and you get a better understanding of how you use landlines, wireless and the Internet in day to day operations. Missing Key Developments in the Industry Professional telecom consultants are invaluable for many reasons, but one of the most important is that they keep up with the latest development in telecommunications. Telecom expense management is about making the most cost effective use of the best technologies for the job. That means you need to know about new offers from major carriers, unadvertised policies and new products. For example, if you identify the need for a smart phone (a wireless phone with internet access and productivity tools) it's a mistake to just choose a brand leader. Your preferred carrier may not offer as competitive a contract on that particular phone, or there might be another phone that meets your needs for a fraction of the price. Unless you closely follow the industry with an eye for critical details you're likely to make a less than optimal choice. They Don't Compare Billing to Usage Don't just look at your bill's raw totals, but link them to usage. Unless you know your per-minute costs you won't really know your wireless voice expenses. The same principle applies to any telecommunications service. Monitoring usage and comparing it to your expenses will help you detect possible errors and inefficiencies as well as understand your telecommunications needs. The drawback is that bill auditing is time consuming and often difficult for a non-specialist to implement. Failing to Identify When They Need Professionals As you can see, an effective telecom expense management plan is time consuming and requires more than a little knowledge to put into action. The truth is that most businesses can't enjoy the best results through in-house efforts. This doesn't mean the company has failed - just that it does have a team of telecom experts on hand. You can only accomplish so much using your own staff, and the time it spends tracking telecom expenses is time it could be spending on revenue generating core business activities. If you have more than the most basic telecom needs, you'd probably benefit from employing a professional telecom expense management firm. Article Source: http://www.ArticleBlast.com |
About The Author:
GILL Technologies is a telecom expense management solutions firm specializing in mobile management.
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