Today's economical climate dictates that businesses must watch every dollar they spend. Margins are so close nowadays that wasteful spending can mean the difference between staying in business or boarding up the doors.

What Can You Do?

Telecom is one of the greatest expenditures many businesses deal with. There is historically a large amount of wasteful spending involved because of the complexity of billing, inventory of equipment, and simply “who has what device.” Wireless Expense Management (WEM) can help you reign in that unruly monster and save potentially thousands of dollars a month.

What Do You Mean, “Unruly Monster?”

If you have more than a handful of employees who use wireless devices you probably are aware of the complexities involved. Without proper oversight and control, your users will be independently replacing lost or broken devices. That often results in your company paying for service for the old device as well as the new one.

Then you have the task of trying to scrutinize the various invoices. They are difficult to decipher as it is, let alone when you are being billed for non-existent wireless devices. When you do find something that looks like an error, you may have no idea who has it or where it is.

Employees will have problems using their new equipment, too. When they can't figure it out they either quit trying to use all of the features (which is a waste of money) or they dump it and get a different device as I mentioned two paragraphs above.

You Get The Idea

A comprehensive approach to Wireless Expense Management can all but eliminate these problems, and more. The basic categories for controlling your Wireless Expenditures are as follows:

Asset Management

It is the process of maintaining a current inventory, which includes who has the device and where they are.

Invoice Validation

A professional with experience can find discrepancies and errors in billing. Did you know that 7 to 12% of telecom services expenses have errors in them, and that 85% of those invoices are paid without being scrutinized? Does that sound like your company?

Expense Optimization

Simply put, Expense Optimization makes sure you are getting the most “bang for the buck.” The WEM team sifts through all your expenses and finds better deals for you, and makes recommendations for cost cutting procedures that do not reduce productivity.

E-Procurement.

E-Procurement is an important part of controlling assets and expenditures. By using a centralized portal for all purchases, repairs, and exchanges, your company can be sure that only approved devices are acquired, and that each acquisition itself was approved.

Help Desk

Critical. A team of knowledgeable professionals can answer any question and handle any problem in a timely manner, keeping your employees productive. The users will not need to spend hours – or perhaps days – trying to contact vendors or service providers in order to solve a problem. The Help Desk team knows just who to call and how to take care of the problem.

Bottom Line

Wireless Expense Management is not a free service, but the savings you realize from the service is generally much more than the fees charged by a WEM company. Contact a reputable Telecom Expense Management company and see if they can help you control the rising costs of doing business.
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The author works for Integrity Communications, a business specializing in Telecom Expense Management. He is a freelance writer who has created articles about police work, promotional advertising products and marketing. Click here to see some of the offerings from Integrity Communications.