TEM benefits go far deeper than cost savings — and after decades in the industry, we can say with confidence that great telecom expense management is something worth celebrating. Learn more about telecom expense management and why organizations that embrace it consistently outperform those that manage telecom costs reactively. Valentine’s Day has us reflecting on all of the reasons we love telecom expense management here at Valicom. Because frankly, after 25 years in business, you could say that we have developed quite a thing for reviewing telecom invoices and building inventories.
Here’s a few reasons why we absolutely LOVE T-E-M:
Why TEM Benefits Every Part of Your Business
Before diving into our love list, it’s worth understanding why TEM benefits extend so far beyond the finance department. Modern telecom environments span dozens of vendors, hundreds of devices, thousands of invoice line items, and contracts that renew automatically if no one is watching. Without a structured approach to managing all of this, waste accumulates silently and compounds month after month.
According to Gartner, organizations that implement dedicated TEM programs consistently identify savings of 20% to 40% on their annual telecom spend — making TEM one of the highest-return investments available to finance and IT leaders today. Here are the ten reasons we love helping organizations capture those savings.
1. Flirting With Efficiency
Breathe a sigh of relief as you hand off telecom expense management processes to our team of telecom experts. Save time and money by allowing the people who specialize in TEM to handle your invoice processing and bill pay. Outsourcing TEM allows your team to get back to their core responsibilities and the things that make your business tick. The TEM benefits of outsourcing start from day one — and compound significantly over time as your team reclaims hours previously lost to manual invoice review.
2. Kissing Invoice Errors Goodbye
Finding invoice errors can sometimes be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. If you don’t know what you’re looking for — chances are you aren’t going to find it. But the savings to be had from finding these errors is worth its weight in gold. It’s one of our core strengths. Industry research consistently shows that 12% to 20% of telecom invoices contain errors that favor the vendor — and without a dedicated audit process, those errors go undetected month after month. See why 5 reasons TEM might right for your organization starts with invoice error recovery.
3. Beloved Bill Pay
Another thing we love helping our clients with is processing their telecom payments. It takes one more thing off their plate, so they can get back to the things that they are really good at. Consistent, accurate bill pay also eliminates the interest charges and service suspension risks that come with late or disputed payments — a TEM benefit that quietly saves organizations thousands every year.
4. Split the Love With Cost Allocation
Our TEM tool allows you to split invoice costs down to 1% of the total invoice with cost allocation. What does it mean for you? Less tension between departments, and no more “who’s going to pay for this?” Now invoices can be fairly and transparently split amongst departments, locations, and employees. Cost allocation is one of the TEM benefits that finance leaders consistently rank as transformative — replacing guesswork and interdepartmental friction with clarity and accountability.
5. We Adore Telco Invoices
That 1,000 page invoice that arrives on your desk every month? What a pain. But we love them. Why? It’s like a treasure hunt with a pot of gold at the end, every single month. We love scouring through invoices, line by line on behalf of our clients. We love surprising them with our findings. The 10 reasons TEM is worth investing in all come back to this fundamental truth — the data hiding in your invoices is incredibly valuable, but only if someone is actually looking for it.
6. Passion for Negotiating
Not only do we talk the talk, we walk the walk. Lean on our team for effective contract negotiation with your carriers. Clearview will alert you when your contract is about to expire, and we’ll handle the rest. You don’t have to settle for the same rates year after year. Valicom’s benchmark pricing data and professional negotiators will provide you with the competitive edge you need to get great rates. This is one of the TEM benefits that consistently generates the largest single savings events for our clients — often recovering more than the entire annual cost of the TEM program in a single negotiation cycle.
7. Infatuation With Invoice Approval
It’s a module built directly into Clearview. The module allows invoices to be reviewed and approved by multiple people, depending on cost, location, or type of spend. The invoices can be sorted by several fields — date, expense, variance — and approval is just a click away. Streamlined approval workflows eliminate the bottlenecks and delays that cause late payments and strain vendor relationships.
8. True Love for the Right Tools
Goodbye Excel! Valicom created Clearview, our web-based application, to allow telecom analysis to do away with spreadsheets for TEM. Why? Because the old reliable Microsoft application just doesn’t have the right capabilities that a dedicated TEM tool does. The TEM benefits of purpose-built software versus spreadsheets are substantial — real-time data, automated alerts, audit trails, inventory management, and reporting that would take days to replicate manually. Considering whether to leave experts… like my lawn. is the analogy that perfectly captures why the right tools in the right hands always outperform DIY approaches.
9. Enamored to Educate
One of the most rewarding parts of our jobs is educating our clients about the power of TEM and the effects proactive management can have on a business’s bottom line. Access our entire resource library on our website. We have white papers, case studies, and webinars available to help you understand the full scope of TEM benefits and how to apply them in your specific environment.
10. Sweetheart Partners
Did you know we have a fine-tuned channel partner program? That’s right — you can resell our software and services to your clients. Add passive recurring revenue to your bottom line by expanding your business suite of services. Your clients trust you to bring the solutions to the table — lean on Valicom as your experienced TEM solution. The TEM benefits extend to your clients and to your own business simultaneously, making the partner program one of the most compelling opportunities available to telecom consultants and resellers today.
Still Not Convinced? Let’s Talk TEM Benefits
Still not convinced? Let’s chat a bit more about adding some room in your heart for proper telecom expense management and finding areas for efficiency. The organizations that experience the greatest TEM benefits are the ones that commit to a structured, ongoing approach — not a one-time audit or a spreadsheet cleanup. With the right partner and the right tools, the savings are consistent, the visibility is continuous, and the return on investment is measurable from the very first month.
Ready to fall in love with what TEM can do for your organization? Contact Valicom today and let’s start uncovering what your telecom environment has been hiding.
