Businesses - Increase Your Bottom Line Using Wireless Expense Management
Author: Andy Barber
It is not easy keeping your business profitable in this economic climate. Some things are simply out of your control, but there are ways to trim back expenses without decreasing productivity or staff.
Tell Me How
Telecommunications expenses are one of the top three expenses incurred by most businesses, according to a recent study by BIGresearch. It is also one of the easiest expenses to manage if you do it correctly. In this treatise I will concentrate on wireless telecommunications expenses. Wireless Expense Management is a fairly new industry. It was discovered that most companies didn't have anyone on board who was familiar with the many aspects of managing it. At first there were a handful of cellular phones in use, and it wasn't too difficult to control who had what and how much it cost. Then came along PDAs, wireless data devices, and all the other whistles and bells. Soon everyone in the organization had a device. Monthly invoices started piling up and they simply got paid without anyone going over them. Employees would lose or damage a device, and instead of telling someone that they dropped their phone in the sink, they just sashayed into the local vendor and got a new one. The company was then on the hook for two devices for the same person, and only one of them was working!
As you probably already know, wireless expenses can become a wild and unruly monster that consumes lots of money. There is a method of taming that monster and minimizing its appetite for your profits.
Wireless Expense Management
It is also known as WEM, but what ever you wish to call it, it is becoming a necessary part of doing business nowadays. In a nutshell, Wireless Expense Management goes over every aspect of your telecom spend and finds ways to control, streamline, and make it more efficient. It sounds simple, but unless you have the knowledge, experience and tools to do it right, it can be intimidating. The basic aspects of WEM are as follows:
Asset Management.
You must know what you have before you can control it. This means not only devices, but service contracts, as well. A WEM team utilizes software to keep track of it all.
E-Procurement.
As I mentioned above, your inventory can grow out of control if there isn't a way to keep tabs on it. E-Procurement does just that. It is a centralized portal through which every device and service contract acquisition must pass. Replacements and repairs are controlled by E-Procurement, too. It ensures that only approved devices and contracts are purchased, and it interfaces with Asset Management so you have a real-time inventory at your fingertips.
Expense Optimization.
WEM teams are – or should be, at least – vendor neutral. They aren't tied to any particular vendor or service provider, so they are free to sift through all the possibilities to find the best deals for your company. They know how to locate group discounts, unadvertised specials, and to simply “arm wrestle” with vendors until they can negotiate a better plan for you or get better prices on devices.
Help Desk Support.
Eventually an employee will have a problem. It might be an issue with operating the device, or it could be a problem with service. Regardless, Help Desk Support can remove the burden of solving the problem from the shoulders of the employee. If Help Desk cannot solve the problem right then and there, they know who to call to get it resolved. This minimizes downtime for your employee so they can remain productive instead of spending hours on the phone trying to take care of it alone.
Invoice Validation.
The Aberdeen Group found that 7% to 12% of all invoices have errors. Most of those errors are in favor of the vendor or service provider. They also discovered that 85% of those erroneous invoices are paid without anyone checking for discrepancies. WEM personnel can use the data they have from Asset Management and E-Procurement, for example, to comb through the invoices to find those costly errors.
Contact a reputable Wireless Expense Management company and see what kind of savings they can provide for your company. WEM companies don't do it for free, of course, but they generally charge a percentage of the savings they find. They make some money and your business saves money. Everybody wins in that situation.
Tell Me How
Telecommunications expenses are one of the top three expenses incurred by most businesses, according to a recent study by BIGresearch. It is also one of the easiest expenses to manage if you do it correctly. In this treatise I will concentrate on wireless telecommunications expenses. Wireless Expense Management is a fairly new industry. It was discovered that most companies didn't have anyone on board who was familiar with the many aspects of managing it. At first there were a handful of cellular phones in use, and it wasn't too difficult to control who had what and how much it cost. Then came along PDAs, wireless data devices, and all the other whistles and bells. Soon everyone in the organization had a device. Monthly invoices started piling up and they simply got paid without anyone going over them. Employees would lose or damage a device, and instead of telling someone that they dropped their phone in the sink, they just sashayed into the local vendor and got a new one. The company was then on the hook for two devices for the same person, and only one of them was working!
As you probably already know, wireless expenses can become a wild and unruly monster that consumes lots of money. There is a method of taming that monster and minimizing its appetite for your profits.
Wireless Expense Management
It is also known as WEM, but what ever you wish to call it, it is becoming a necessary part of doing business nowadays. In a nutshell, Wireless Expense Management goes over every aspect of your telecom spend and finds ways to control, streamline, and make it more efficient. It sounds simple, but unless you have the knowledge, experience and tools to do it right, it can be intimidating. The basic aspects of WEM are as follows:
Asset Management.
You must know what you have before you can control it. This means not only devices, but service contracts, as well. A WEM team utilizes software to keep track of it all.
E-Procurement.
As I mentioned above, your inventory can grow out of control if there isn't a way to keep tabs on it. E-Procurement does just that. It is a centralized portal through which every device and service contract acquisition must pass. Replacements and repairs are controlled by E-Procurement, too. It ensures that only approved devices and contracts are purchased, and it interfaces with Asset Management so you have a real-time inventory at your fingertips.
Expense Optimization.
WEM teams are – or should be, at least – vendor neutral. They aren't tied to any particular vendor or service provider, so they are free to sift through all the possibilities to find the best deals for your company. They know how to locate group discounts, unadvertised specials, and to simply “arm wrestle” with vendors until they can negotiate a better plan for you or get better prices on devices.
Help Desk Support.
Eventually an employee will have a problem. It might be an issue with operating the device, or it could be a problem with service. Regardless, Help Desk Support can remove the burden of solving the problem from the shoulders of the employee. If Help Desk cannot solve the problem right then and there, they know who to call to get it resolved. This minimizes downtime for your employee so they can remain productive instead of spending hours on the phone trying to take care of it alone.
Invoice Validation.
The Aberdeen Group found that 7% to 12% of all invoices have errors. Most of those errors are in favor of the vendor or service provider. They also discovered that 85% of those erroneous invoices are paid without anyone checking for discrepancies. WEM personnel can use the data they have from Asset Management and E-Procurement, for example, to comb through the invoices to find those costly errors.
Contact a reputable Wireless Expense Management company and see what kind of savings they can provide for your company. WEM companies don't do it for free, of course, but they generally charge a percentage of the savings they find. They make some money and your business saves money. Everybody wins in that situation.
-------------------------------------------------------------
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.
Article Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_1267207_15.html