In the digital age of today, data and voice services play a vital role in any company’s business operation (Intense Technologies Limited, n.d.). Intense Technologies Limited (n.d.) states that companies, regardless of their size, utilise an array of Telecoms services, such as telephone services, email, voice and video conferencing tools, mobile, routers, and more. These services amount to a substantial part of a company’s operation costs (Intense Technologies Limited, n.d.). Research from IDC Research Group shows that Telecoms costs, on average, make up the “second-largest indirect expense” and the third to fourth-largest overall expense for a company (Intense Technologies Limited, n.d.). This research also reveals that 7% – 12% of these costs are due to errors on the service providers’ side (Intense Technologies Limited, n.d.).
Common Telecoms Challenges Facing Businesses Today:
Predicting Future Expenses: In a time where technology is advancing at a rapid pace, remaining ahead of the curve and building a strategy that is proactive instead of reactive can be difficult to continuously attain (Macronet, 2020).
Ensuring Accuracy of Telecoms Invoicing: Errors in invoicing from Telecoms service providers are almost expected, which can be costly and even result in unjust penalties (Macronet, 2020).
Maintaining an Accurate Telecoms Inventory: The foundation of managing your Telecoms expenses lies in maintaining an accurate Telecoms service inventory. You cannot identify opportunities to reduce costs if you do not know what services you have (Macronet, 2020).
Why managing Telecoms expenses is important:
Effective management of your Telecoms environment is essential to company success (Tangoe, 2018). In essence, Telecom Expense Management gives you visibility of what devices or technology you own, who is using these devices and which technologies they are using, and the location in which they are using it (Tangoe, 2018). If you do not have this information, you put the integrity of your telecoms infrastructure at risk, which may result in serious negative impacts on your company (Tangoe, 2018). Maintaining an accurate and complete telecoms asset register is necessary to avoid errors. For example, without an asset register that is continuously updated, an employee with mobile device privileges may resign but due to an inaccurate asset register, the company continues paying for that former employee’s mobile device usage, resulting in unnecessary expenses (Tangoe, 2018).
What is STBE?
In today’s world, no company can survive without having Telecoms or ICT services to support their business. Unfortunately, most companies don’t have a holistic strategy when it comes to this environment. In support of this need, Telesa has created the term STBE (Strategic Telecoms Business Enablement) which includes a 7 step process for the creation and auditing of an organisation Telecoms or ICT services success, as well as the reinvention process.
Telesa’s Solution offering:
Telegence is an unrivalled, proudly Telesa Comms designed, developed and deployed Strategic Telecoms Business Enablement (STBE) tool. It provides a secure, web-based, one window view into your company’s Telecoms health.
Telegence is focused on supporting Business Intelligence, Telecoms Expense Management, Contract Management, SLA management, Asset Efficiency Management, Event/Incident Management, Budgeting and Control, and Behaviour Profiling across your entire ICT environment.
Some Benefits of Telegence:
Telegence provides central visibility into your company’s Telecoms infrastructure, providing valuable insights into your historic, current, and ideal infrastructure. Telegence also helps you lean into the future by building a Telecoms strategy that is proactive, instead of reactive also allowing your business to be more flexible, agile, and adaptable to changes in the market.
Telegence provides true visibility of your Telecoms spend by identifying the mismatch between actual costs and business needs. This results in significant cost savings as unnecessary, unused, or outdated Telecoms services are eliminated, upgraded, or alternative solutions are sourced.
Telegence provides an unparalleled base of data, allowing your business leaders to make data-driven decisions in support of your business functions. The automation of supplier invoice collection, processing, and auditing, as well as the automated tracking of contracts, faults, and orders, allows your team to shift focus from these time-consuming and repetitive tasks to core business activities.
References:
Intense Technologies Limited, n.d. Monitor, Analyze and Reduce Your Telecom Expenses. [ebook] Intense Technologies Limited, p.2. Available at: <https://www.academia.edu/25217687/Monitor_Analyze_and_Reduce_Your_Telecom_Expenses_UniServe_TM_Smart_Telecom_Expense_Management_STEM_>
Macronet, 2020. Post COVID-19 Challenges with Telecom Expense Management. [online] Macronet. Available at: <https://www.macronetllc.com/post-covid-19-challenges-tem/>
Tangoe, 2018. The 4 Biggest Challenges of Managing Technology Expenses. [ebook] Tangoe, p.2. Available at: <https://www.blackfinsquare.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/The_Challenges_Behind_Managing_Tech_Expenses_WhitePaper.pdf>