Companies across America are adding up millions of dollars in telecom bills each year. 80% of the telecom bills are wrong! According to Gartner Research, "the typical Fortune 1000 company is over billed anywhere from 6% - 8% per invoice."
The obvious solution is to manage telecom expenses more closely. There are several methods to do this, all of which entail manpower, time, and analytical experience - not something that every company wants to expend looking for errors in monthly bills.
Telecom Expense Management (TEM) is a specialized process that combines the Accounting department's analytical expertise and the IT department's technical expertise. To make things even more interesting, companies with more than one location need to involve regional specialists from each management team who knows all available telecom resources. At this point, the cost of John Smith's salary and his responsibilities have out-weighed the value of the billing errors and the company would need to clone a team to handle its TEM workload.
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Jackson County plans to save by downsizing phone systems
Pascagoula – Jackson County will save $290,000 over three years by eliminating telephone lines, cashing in on discounts offered by telephone companies, modifying calling plans and streamlining its communications systems.
The audit by consultants with RMH Enterprises that made this possible cost the county $18,000.
The consultants suggested the county use the savings to modernize and centralize its communications systems. What county leaders had agreed to do was to see what the consultants could save the county now as opposed to a long-range plan. County Administrator Alan Sudduth said. “See how that goes before considering the rest.”
With such good results, the Board of Supervisors listened to what the firm offered in the line of modernizing for further cost savings. They made no decisions Monday. The consultants showed the county how they negotiated savings without degrading the quality of communication service the county receives. They proposed eliminating 67 old specialty lines that had been used to carry data before the county began using the Internet. They proposed the county cut back on the use of Southern Linc, a wireless radio between county and staff officials.
Telephone numbers have been eliminated and volume and term discounts negotiated. Butch Loper, special projects coordinator for the county Roads Dept. said he won’t miss the duplication of communications equipment he carries around. I feel like a wireless cowboy with a phone on one side and a radio on the other”, Loper said. I feel like a wireless cowboy with a phone on one side and a radio on the other”, Loper said.
(THE SUN HERALD)
