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Total telecoms expense management - looking beyond cost cutting to gain greater value
Voice and data communications are taking up an increasing amount of organisations' budgets as more information is shared between and across more businesses.  Person to person contact now includes richer media, more participants and is becoming increasingly mobile.  Historically telecoms expense management has focused on the mechanistic processing of bills, payment and costs of individual items.  It is too simplistic to make blanket cuts or restrict use and opting for cheap alternatives may lead to a loss of business value.  A better approach is needed for managing telecoms expense, so what best practices should companies adopt to meet their total communications needs and avoid unnecessary costs
Key Findings

  • Too much focus on just cutting telecoms costs can lead to a blinkered view
    It is easier to measure and manage those responsible for cost centres on objective criteria such as meeting or beating budget line items, than assess an individuals' broader impact on value to the organisation.  But an overemphasis on targeting separate telecoms costs means businesses run the risk of missing out on wider efficiencies and benefits.

  • Reducing expensive line item does not always translate into reducing organisational costs
    More companies perceive that total mobile costs are rising even as individual tariffs are falling, citing increasing usage and increasing numbers of users.  Restricting users or usage is ultimately ineffective, so growth needs to be factored into planning and procurement.

  • Lack of consolidation means that individual bills do not reflect the bigger picture
    A diversity of suppliers and services makes life complex to manage at the contract level.  This and variations in the level of apportionment to cost centres means that managers will rarely have the full set of facts they need to make accurate decisions.

  • Poor cost centre management practices are reflected elsewhere
    Organisations where managers have complete visibility and take action on discrepancies or overruns are likely to be more proactive and regularly auditing their telecoms needs.  Visibility and interest taken at senior levels has an impact on motivating those managing costs at a lower level.

  • Lack of resources is the main challenge to effective telecoms management
    However those companies with total telecoms spend of less than £1m per year are also limited by the tools and technology they have at their disposal.

  • Personal use of business mobile phones is not always tightly accounted for
    For almost half of businesses, employees make only a partial or zero contribution to personal calls costs, and although almost two thirds of organisations fully and accurately account for the personal use by their employees, the remainder are less strict.

  • The format of billing data does not always support the need for precision and visibility
    Fewer than half of companies consistently receive fully itemised electronic bills, reducing the timeliness and visibility of information that is necessary to impact employee behaviour.