Most businesses don’t realize how much telecom management can save their organizations every year. Medium sized businesses have reported savings around $50,000 while larger corporations have saved up to $15 million per year! That’s a huge overspend being missed simply by not managing your telecommunication bills correctly.
Telecom Management
Getting started with a telecom audit is easier than it sounds. Once the appropriate audit specialist has been chosen, the project begins with a kick-off meeting. This meeting is followed by a full analysis of all telecommunications bills, systems, and devices for the company. The specialist will then make recommendations for savings which you will have the option to approve. Once these ideas are implemented, the telecom audit is complete. You’ll verify the savings and sign off on the project – with a much happier bank account!
Contract Guide for Your Telecom Management Plan
End dates are crucial to great telecom management. Be sure to document all agreement end dates and renewal terms. Always use deliver and read receipts when sending notices and ask for acknowledgement from the provider. In the contract itself, the following is a guide to making sure you have all bases covered:
- Ensure no auto-renewal clause and agreements are month to month following term, with reasonable rate guarantee
- Confirm revenue commitment of 75% or less of expected billing to allow for downturn
- Have Early Term Fees (ETFs) wane as the agreement progresses
- Require a price guarantee
- Demand no time cap on credits created by carrier errors (typically 60 days)
- Consolidate all accounts and all services under one account and coterminous agreement
Lastly, make sure you require self-service or carrier provided network utilization reports as well as self-service or carrier provided service level reports. Without access to these reports, you won’t have an accurate representation of the benefits obtained from the telecom audit.
Support After the Telecom Management
While the project is officially over when you sign off, you’ll need some ongoing support from your telecom audit specialist. Service carriers will often send rate increase notices to locations and persons at different centers without informing the main contacts. Be sure to require notification to be sent to the main contacts. A good idea is to request a report of the named contacts quarterly and update these as needed. Carriers will sometimes phase out old services (TDM). They tend to send notifications via snail mail (USPS) resulting in services being turned off unknowingly. To better control this possible issue, require electronic notification sent to a company distribution list to ensure visibility throughout the business. This email address could look something like: TelecomManagement@xyzcompany.com.
Many times, technical account management and client success management models will have charges associated with them. Have your providers require monthly reports of activity and time tracking along with quarterly reviews of work, projects, and priorities. Another effective telecom management solution is to always check your invoices to verify that you are not charged a Universal Service Fund or Federal tax for dedicated internet services. All of these actions are very easy to implement and can save your company 6 or 7 figures every year.
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