Explore our TEM blogs for expert perspective, real examples, and clear guidance to manage telecom and technology expenses confidently, with fresh insights added routinely.
Will Kelly over at Tech Republic posted a good article called 10 Essential Elements of BYOD Training. The article covers training needed to introduce staff to a BYOD program. Takeaway: Training is a critical part of any BYOD initiative, introducing users to security and policy guidelines and allowing IT and management to set expectations.
We are continuing our series discussing how telecom management software streamlines telecom management tasks. In our series on how telecom expense management software can make your telecom management job easier, we’re starting with the Big Kahuna. Inventory. And it’s a doozy….
Telecom expense management, or TEM, consists of a variety of tasks, each one handling a different aspect of the telecom environment. So a TEM software-as-a-service (SaaS) tool is designed to make it easier to enter data, track changes, cross-reference items, flag problems and push invoices from entry, to approval, to payment.
To kick off our series on how telecom expense management software can make wrangling your telecom and wireless environment easier, we should start with terms. The best softwares out there today are web-based, or software-as-a-service (SaaS). We discussed this in a previous post about using stone age tools for stone age results.
As we discussed in our previous two posts about “Living in the Past” Part 1 and Part 2, you need modern tools to address modern needs. This applies to everything from using your smartphone to find the closest Starbucks (something I will admit to doing on a regular basis) to managing your firm’s telecom and wireless environment.
As we discussed in Part One of “Living in the Past”, businesses should strive to keep an eye out for new tools and technology that can make their jobs easier. And I don’t mean easier as in “I get to leave for the golf course half an hour early”, I mean easier like “We saved 30% of our telecom spend over last year, because now we can actually SEE what we’re doing”.
We all know that it’s a lot easier to use tried and true tactics, going down the same path every day, rather than tackling anything different. Heaven forbid – you might have to learn something new! But the price you pay for stagnation can be huge. New techniques arise, best practices evolve over time, fresh technology comes out…. Your competitors are probably on board. The 25-year old guy in the corner cube who wants your office is probably on board. You better get on board too, or the boat is going to leave without you.
Telecom expense management firm Valicom reports record high client satisfaction scores for 3rd quarter 2012. The scores were 3.88 on a 4.0 scale, with three-quarters of clients registering a perfect score. This continues Valicom’s thirteen year tradition of surveying clients quarterly, to learn how well they are delivering in eight key areas: professionalism, overall expectation, communication, quality and accuracy, understanding client needs, responsiveness, meeting deadlines, and overall value.
Jeff Poirior, president and chief operating officer of Valicom points out “We really want to shake up the industry by forcing people to look at telecommunications management with fresh eyes. While some firms have yet to implement a strong TEM program, others have one in place but may not know what they THINK they know about its effectiveness. These questions are designed to dig deep into your processes, your environment, your management style and really make you think about whether you are doing it right or not.”
This Panel debates the age old question – Man or Machine? Only this time it is a telecom auditor vs. a TEM provider. We will have a lively discussion between two consultants and two TEM providers (one being our own Jeff Poirior!) The main focus will be – when and where an auditor beats a TEM solution – and when and what are the TEMs best applications. Join us for what will be some strong opinions.
Born with the mission to raise awareness, improve the quality and value of solutions and cultivate shared industry knowledge for telecommunications management, telecom expense management (TEM), wireless Expense Management (WEM) and mobile device management (MDM) solutions, The Telecom Expense Management Industry Association (TEMIA), has proposed a new broad umbrella term to describe the industry and invited the members and other market participants to adopt it.
As they say, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure”, and many firms are finding that they don’t have reliable data on what their current wireless plans are costing, let alone the assurance that they have optimized as much as possible. Thus, making the decision as to whether Data Pooling will save any money is difficult, if not impossible.
Valicom, a twenty-one year veteran of telecom expense management (TEM), today published a new white paper entitled “Telecom & Wireless Cost Control: What You Need to Know” covering best practices in managing telecom, wireless and mobility costs. The white paper is a good introduction to the elements of a strong telecom and wireless management program. The paper also showcases how modern web-based telecom expense management software tools support the use of these best practices.
As we discussed in our last blog post on telecom management pain points, telecom invoice auditing is a major headache. New cloud telecom expense management software tools make that management process easier, and we wanted to show a case study that illustrated how various telecom management services can be bundled together to build a custom solution around your needs.
Telecom Expense Management, TEM and Wireless Expense Management just got more interesting with Verizon Wireless announcing its Share Everything Plans for pooling of mobile data plans. These plans offer potential savings, but subscribers will need to do some analysis to determine if it is worth giving up their unlimited data plan.
Compliments of the New York Times tech blog – data pooling is here. We had heard rumbles in the industry that this was coming, and we await with baited breath the future consequences for business data plans. But for now, it is just being rolled out for consumer plans. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea, but it could also be a closet price hike. Check it out – what do you think?
Last week we got to put our WBE hat on and attend the fabulous Supplier Council Minority Business Exchange in Des Moines. It did a good job of reminding us how hard some companies work to be inclusive of woman-owned and minority-owned businesses.
In our 21-year history of doing telecom expense management, we’ve racked up a lot of success stories. Sometimes seeing those stories help to illustrate exactly what it is we do for our clients. The following is an outline of a case study where a client realized considerable savings by optimizing their wireless plans and users.
We always talk about telecom expense management in the traditional sense – audit your invoices, negotiate your contracts, keep track of your stuff. These are great ways to cut your telecom budget. But the folks at Tech Republic have gone a step further. They just did an interesting piece on how switching from traditional desktops, or laptops, to energy-sipping iPads can cut your utility bill!
Telecom Resellers, IT System Integrators and Telecom Agents need Telecom Expense Management, TEM, Wireless Expense Management, WEM, and Mobile Device Management, MDM now more than ever. This may seem like a contradiction, but here are eight reasons these services should be part of their portfolio of offerings. Also, be sure to participate in our survey.
What does Earth Day have to do with Telecom Management? Normally? Nothing. But in honor of the planet’s upcoming birthday, we thought we’d share a few things you can do to “green up” your telecom management practice. Because, as they say, every little bit helps….
