Small Businesses - Some Costs Cannot Be Controlled, But Wireless Expenses Can - See How
Author: Andy Barber
Taxes. Energy costs. Health care. These are aspects of doing business that are essentially beyond your control. With the economy on such shaky ground nowadays, it is difficult to make ends meet. Margins are tight and revenues are down. Yet, there is a way to trim the cost of doing business without reducing products, services, or even worse…reducing staff.
What Can I Do For My Business?
Telecom Expense Management. Recent studies have shown that telecom expense is one of the top three expenditures for most small to medium size businesses. Using various methods of controlling all facets your telecom spend, you can quite possibly save hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. That money can be turned around and invested into your company any way you see fit.
How Does It Work?
There are a number of fronts with which one can use to wrestle telecom expenses into submission. They are unique aspects among themselves, but yet they dovetail nicely to form a complete and comprehensive approach to minimizing expenditure while keeping or improving upon your current telecom usage status. In no particular order, they are:
Expense Optimization.
The Telecom Expense Management team (TEM, for short) has the knowledge, experience, and contacts within the industry, which enables them to find the best deals on equipment and service contracts. A good TEM team will be vendor neutral, meaning they are not tied to a particular service provider or equipment dealer. They can find group discounts, special deals and unadvertised specials, and they can simply haggle and bargain with vendors to get the most out of your telecom budget.
Asset Management.
That is more or less a fancy name for inventory control, but it is an important part of the puzzle. Almost all other pieces of that puzzle rely on having an accurate and up to date listing of devices and services. Using sophisticated software, the TEM team does just that.
E-Procurement.
In order to keep your employees from acquiring devices without authorization, a single gateway for all equipment purchases, leases, replacements and repairs is created. It controls service contracts, too. This way only approved devices and service contracts are acquired. No more will you need to be concerned about users who lose or damage their cell phone, who then wander in to the vendor and order a new one without canceling service for the old one. You will know exactly which employee has what equipment and what their service contract is.
Help Desk Support.
Inevitably someone will have a problem. It could be a user issue, or perhaps a problem with the service. Instead of trying to solve it themselves by spending hours on the phone being transferred from person to person, they can call Help Desk and tell them to “handle it!” The Help Desk personnel can either walk them through the problem, or if it is more complex or something over which they have no control, they know who to call. Problems are solved quickly, keeping your employee productive.
Invoice Validation.
This is the practice of combing through all the invoices to find errors and discrepancies. Recent studies show that 7% to 12% of all invoices contain errors. And as hard as it may be to believe, a majority of those errors are in favor of the vendor. (gasp!) Approximately 85% of those invoices are simply paid without any scrutinizing. The TEM team finds those errors and curbs wasteful spending.
What Does It Cost?
It isn't a free service, of course. Most of the time the Telecom Expense Management team charges a percentage of the savings they find. They make a few bucks, and your company realizes significant savings. Everybody comes out smelling like a rose.
Find a competent and reputable Telecom Expense Management company and ask them for details. The phone call is free, and the potential savings are substantial.
What Can I Do For My Business?
Telecom Expense Management. Recent studies have shown that telecom expense is one of the top three expenditures for most small to medium size businesses. Using various methods of controlling all facets your telecom spend, you can quite possibly save hundreds or thousands of dollars a month. That money can be turned around and invested into your company any way you see fit.
How Does It Work?
There are a number of fronts with which one can use to wrestle telecom expenses into submission. They are unique aspects among themselves, but yet they dovetail nicely to form a complete and comprehensive approach to minimizing expenditure while keeping or improving upon your current telecom usage status. In no particular order, they are:
Expense Optimization.
The Telecom Expense Management team (TEM, for short) has the knowledge, experience, and contacts within the industry, which enables them to find the best deals on equipment and service contracts. A good TEM team will be vendor neutral, meaning they are not tied to a particular service provider or equipment dealer. They can find group discounts, special deals and unadvertised specials, and they can simply haggle and bargain with vendors to get the most out of your telecom budget.
Asset Management.
That is more or less a fancy name for inventory control, but it is an important part of the puzzle. Almost all other pieces of that puzzle rely on having an accurate and up to date listing of devices and services. Using sophisticated software, the TEM team does just that.
E-Procurement.
In order to keep your employees from acquiring devices without authorization, a single gateway for all equipment purchases, leases, replacements and repairs is created. It controls service contracts, too. This way only approved devices and service contracts are acquired. No more will you need to be concerned about users who lose or damage their cell phone, who then wander in to the vendor and order a new one without canceling service for the old one. You will know exactly which employee has what equipment and what their service contract is.
Help Desk Support.
Inevitably someone will have a problem. It could be a user issue, or perhaps a problem with the service. Instead of trying to solve it themselves by spending hours on the phone being transferred from person to person, they can call Help Desk and tell them to “handle it!” The Help Desk personnel can either walk them through the problem, or if it is more complex or something over which they have no control, they know who to call. Problems are solved quickly, keeping your employee productive.
Invoice Validation.
This is the practice of combing through all the invoices to find errors and discrepancies. Recent studies show that 7% to 12% of all invoices contain errors. And as hard as it may be to believe, a majority of those errors are in favor of the vendor. (gasp!) Approximately 85% of those invoices are simply paid without any scrutinizing. The TEM team finds those errors and curbs wasteful spending.
What Does It Cost?
It isn't a free service, of course. Most of the time the Telecom Expense Management team charges a percentage of the savings they find. They make a few bucks, and your company realizes significant savings. Everybody comes out smelling like a rose.
Find a competent and reputable Telecom Expense Management company and ask them for details. The phone call is free, and the potential savings are substantial.
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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.
Article Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_1267211_15.html