Do you still need Telecom Expense Management TEM?
Actually, you need TEM more than ever! With recent downsizing, upsizing and right sizing your organization probably has too many phone lines. A good TEM program can provide reports, to determine how to adjust your network for the reduced call volume. Second, new forms of communication through e-mail, video conferencing and social networks may require less voice services from carriers, but they consume more data services. The issues that AT&T has experienced with its wireless network from iPhone subscribers illustrate an interesting parallel that shows how carriers must update their networks as well.
A Nielsen study, found that mobile calls peaked in 2007, and our calls have dropped in half from an average of three minutes. An article in Wired Magazine highlights a new trend in which phone bills are shrinking. Clive Thomson writes about his own bills, which dropped from 15 pages 10 years earlier to two or three pages today. He makes the point that we are going through a “cultural transition: the death of the phone call” which is being replaced with video conferencing, e-mail, and “lightweight contact” through texting, instant messaging, and social-network messaging like twitter.
Despite the drop in phone calls, employees are communicating more than ever. These new forms of communication require data networks that are always on and networks that can adjust to spikes from activity, large data files, video conferencing, and software applications. Data circuits are expensive. When there are billing errors with these data circuits, the mistakes can be huge. Installation and disconnect procedures are very complex. This is where an effective TEM program with a good program to manage Move, Add, Change, Disconnect (MACD) activity can make the difference in controlling costs.
The phone call may be less important, but the network has grown with new forms of communications. Organizations are not spending less because employees are consuming more of these new services with richer forms of communications. As you transition your network for these new services, be sure to reduce the voice services that you no longer need. Now more than ever, you need an effective TEM program to manage your costs.
What do you think?
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