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Telecom ExpenseManagementBlogs

Explore our TEM blogs for expert perspective, real examples, and clear guidance to manage telecom and technology expenses confidently, with fresh insights added routinely.

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Valicom Helps Telecom and IT Consultants Expand Service Offerings for 2011

Valicom Helps Telecom and IT Consultants Expand Service Offerings for 2011

Dec 6, 2010

Telecom expense management firm Valicom is helping telecom and IT consultants expand their services through their web-based software Clearview paired with Telecom Practice Packages. The combination offers even small consulting businesses a leg up in offering expense management solutions and a wealth of other money-making client deliverables. To help consultants increase profitability in 2011, Valicom is also offering some promotions for businesses that adopt Clearview by the end of the year.

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Tracking Systems Used By Telecom Consultants Today

Tracking Systems Used By Telecom Consultants Today

Nov 29, 2010

This is a follow-up to my previous blog entitled “Telecom Expense Management Portfolio Expansion For Consultants” and the third in a series of blogs that outline the results of Valicom’s telecom consultant survey that was sent out to a nationwide group of independent telecom consultants in August, 2010 on this subject.

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Check, then recheck, the long distance PIC for new service

Check, then recheck, the long distance PIC for new service

Nov 11, 2010

One of the most common mistakes made while ordering new service, is to neglect to request that the long distance usage for the new service be billed to your corporate long distance service.  The second common mistake, is that once requested, nothing is done to make sure the carrier actually does it.

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TEM Portfolio Expansion For Telecom Consultants

TEM Portfolio Expansion For Telecom Consultants

Nov 9, 2010

This is a follow-up to my previous blog entitled “Telecom Auditing and TEM Software Tools” and the second in a series of blogs that outline the results of Valicom’s telecom consultant survey that was sent out to a nationwide group of independent telecom consultants in August, 2010 on this subject.

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Telecom Auditing and TEM Software Tools

Telecom Auditing and TEM Software Tools

Nov 4, 2010

In August of this year, Valicom sent out a survey to a nationwide group of independent telecom consultants regarding their needs for a consultant-specific telecom auditing and telecom expense mangement tool. We received a 20% response rate and an overwhelmingly positive response regarding the overall need for a telecom-specific TEM tool. We also had the opportunity to speak at the Society of Telecom Consultants conference in Dallas in late September where I presented the results of this survey.

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Telecom Expense Control: Remove Your Wire Maintenance

Telecom Expense Control: Remove Your Wire Maintenance

Nov 2, 2010

When conducting a telecommunications audit for a business, one of the first things to be removed for cost savings are the Inside Wire Maintenance features (sometimes called Linebacker) from your business lines.  The probability of a break occurring within a building wall is very low (on average, once every 14 years).  The cost of paying a technician to service a break, if it were not covered by your equipment vendor’s maintenance contract, would be less expensive than paying a monthly maintenance fee indefinitely.

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Smartphones Make Old Ideas Seeem New: Managing User App Purchases

Smartphones Make Old Ideas Seeem New: Managing User App Purchases

Oct 22, 2010

Who would have thought a flashlight could be so cool?Well, as long as it is an app that runs on a smart phone, the flashlight all of a sudden becomes current again.  This seems to be the case with so many smart phone apps, that when looked at carefully, really just accomplish some traditional function using your phone.

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Spreading Telecom Account Level Charges: 2 Approaches

Spreading Telecom Account Level Charges: 2 Approaches

Oct 20, 2010

When processing large and complex telecommunications invoices, there are often account level charges such as taxes and other fees that don’t relate to individual service items.  Often organizations lump these charges into a special accounting bucket for lack of a better approach.

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Document invoice processing procedures for consistent results

Document invoice processing procedures for consistent results

Oct 20, 2010

A simple, yet important part of any good TEM project, is to maintain detailed instructions and documentation to go with your telecom invoice processing efforts.  Some invoices are more complex than others, and will require significant documentation, while some or so simple that they won’t require any documentation at all.

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To Cut Telecom Costs in 2011, Plan in 4th Quarter 2010

To Cut Telecom Costs in 2011, Plan in 4th Quarter 2010

Oct 11, 2010

I know this sounds like something your mother would tell you, but looking ahead and making good decisions in the present can lead to good things in the future.  As 2010 starts to wind down in its fourth quarter, firms are making decisions about what to spend, and what NOT to spend, in 2011.   Essentially, it’s budgeting time for many departments, and with IT costs set to rise with Windows 7 deployment, increasing security issues, and higher demands for wireless devices and data plans, finding ways to save money before you spend it is not a bad idea.

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Game design influences business software design

Game design influences business software design

Oct 8, 2010

With this growing crowd of inexperienced TEM practitioners, it is more important than ever to consider how easy to understand and learn a TEM system is.  Video games are a great place to start.  After all, most video games are designed for a wide range of age levels and degrees of technology sophistication.  Additionally, they are designed to be as intuitive as possible and easy to learn.  This important for video game producers because it would be very hard to sell a video game that took too long to learn.

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Healthcare Facility Discusses Their Success in Telecom Cost Control

Healthcare Facility Discusses Their Success in Telecom Cost Control

Oct 5, 2010

In today’s economy, any way to trim fat from the bottom line is a welcome activity.  As clinic and hospital professionals, the focus is often concentrated on the health care side of spending, not the technology end.   But as technology needs become more and more complex, there can be great opportunity for savings through better management of telecommunication costs.  Problems like overpayments, errors, or poor inventory tracking of your land lines, circuits, pagers,  “smart” phones, and data plans could be wasting a lot of your annual budget.

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The Internet and Smartphones combine to produce the perfect storm of distractions

The Internet and Smartphones combine to produce the perfect storm of distractions

Sep 28, 2010

As if the Internet, with all of its information, or non-information, and tools, widgets, etc wasn’t enough of a distraction… not to be outdone, the telecommunications industry (and more specifically, wireless telecommunications) has developed smart phones that come with full featured browsers and we can all now carry the full distractablity of the Internet in our pockets.

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Survey Says: Business Productivity and Cost Reduction Top Concern for CIOs

Survey Says: Business Productivity and Cost Reduction Top Concern for CIOs

Sep 24, 2010

Think the Great Recession is over? Not for CIOs. For the second year running, business productivity and cost reduction was the No. 1 concern of CIOs, CTOs and IT executives in the annual CIO survey from the Society for Information Management — and by a wide margin, according to Jerry Luftman, who has conducted the survey for SIM for the past 10 years.

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