When individuals have no visibility into their telecom use, they fail to see the impact of their behavior and there is no incentive to moderate use or reduce spending. In fact, we have seen situations where the managers of wireless expenses had large expenses because they were completely unaware of what they were spending and the calling plans were inappropriate for the managers’ needs.

Creating a link between visibility and accountability requires a good Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution with granular reporting that a good call accounting will provide. It must:

• Capture all fixed and mobile activity
• Link call detail to the individuals who incurred the expenses
• Accurately allocate charges making adjustments for department transfers and turnover in personnel
• Identify outliers with exception reports that flag expenses which are inconsistent with peers who perform the same job, role, or function
• Provide accessible web reporting to all employees with their call activity and charges

The more employees know about their expenses and consumption, the more likely they will reduce these items. The right TEM solution will help, but you need to go further by capturing data that call accounting systems provide which allow you to allocate charges to individuals. With the current economic conditions, corporations and government are demanding more accountability.

RIM executives claim that it would not make a difference if they located servers in the U.A.E.  because Blackberry devices encrypt all data once, it leaves the device and they do not have any keys to decrypt the data. This is good for corporate IT departments because only users can access their data.  The next time an employee asks to use their smartphone on the corporate network take a moment to think about the corporate data, customer information, and other sensitive documents that you need to protect.

Securing data on smartphones is different from conventional IT security, which has more layers of technology and control. With mobile devices, organizations need to focus on protecting intellectual property. Managers must think about data and information that attackers could target. The biggest threats come from professional attackers who are no longer seeking attention-grabbing site defacements or data destruction. Now, they aim at a business to steal secrets.

While many corporations have begun to adopt a policy of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) to work, this approach may expose your secrets to hackers. It is wise to adopt a contrarian approach. Instead of following the U.A.E., India, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon, this is a good time to require your employees to use a Blackberry! TEM programs can help in these efforts to secure your data with portals to enforce mobile policy, selection of smartphones, technology to track assets and reporting to identify suspicious voice and data use on devices.

Savings from TEM programs starts with bill validation. The savings can be quite significant ranging from 2% to 35% depending on your contracts, Move, Add, Change and Disconnect (MACD) activity, and the measures that were in place to manage telecom expenses. There are also savings from cost avoidance, which can range from 2% to 25%. With this category, instead of recovering refunds for billing errors, there are savings from proactive measures that seek to reduce future spending. These savings can eliminate unused services and optimize wireless services with pooled and individual plans based on the usage of each employee. In addition, many organizations find improved visibility and better accountability drives less wasteful consumption of telecom services. Finally, there are savings from automating manual labor intensive processes including invoice processing, asset management and MACD activity, expense validation, reporting and working with telecom service providers.

TEM helps companies become more proactive. This is important because simply focusing on ways to cut expenses is not enough for most Executives. Executives are now seeking to look more strategically at spending patterns and trends. They want to eliminate budget surprises and they need to see spending trends for telecom before expenses are out of control. They need to know what is going on NOW. They also want answers to questions that only Telecom Expense Management (TEM) programs can provide. “How did it happen?” “Why did this happen?” “How can I rein in telecom service costs and manage telecom assets?”

First, define the information that managers want to see on reports. Will the reports provide summary level information or will there be details about calling activity? You should ensure that the data elements, which you want to report on, are captured in your telecom carriers’ billing. For example many carriers may not provide call detail records. Polling of Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems for fixed voice services can help capture the data and provide granular information about individual users’ consumption of phone services. Also consider privacy issues. In Europe, caller information must not be included in reports. Here in the US, it is important to balance the benefits of providing granular data with privacy concerns.

Managers should consider the services that will be included (consumption, recurring costs, vendor usage, and infrastructure.) It is also necessary to identify the criteria for pricing services. This can include the actual contract rates, invoices, or some other formula from tariffs. Many organizations add a mark-up to the expenses to cover with common network infrastructure and operational costs to manage the telecom department. Also consider compensation for un-priced data (time of day, metered vs. fixed). Finally, determine how to pro-rate summarized vendor charges for taxes, late fees, credits, and miscellaneous charges.

It is critical to develop clear communications to users about how price points are allocations are determined. Many organizations develop FAQs to deal with Frequently Asked Questions. For example, employees may be curious to learn how the system will deal with mid-month transfers of employees and services. Obtaining management buy-in for the program will help to address some resistance to the program. Chargebacks are now common for most Information Technology expenses.

While the costs for voice services are declining, call accounting is gaining in popularity because communication expenses are rising. Costs are growing from increased use and new services like wireless phones, mobile email, and data applications, which rely on laptops, netbooks and a proliferation of smartphones. Chargeback allocation to locations, departments and individuals improve financial accountability. Value-add benefits from chargebacks drive savings through improved sourcing of contracts, better negotiation, bill validation, expense optimization, and productivity studies, which can improve your bottom line.

Recently, there were three news reports that highlight the need for organizations to focus on network security. There were wide spread reports of people that were able to see other people’s information when they were caught in the rush of online ordering of the new iPhone. A few weeks earlier a group hackers got the e-mail addresses of more than 100,000 Apple iPad owners and the ID numbers the iPads use to communicate over the network. In addition, Google’s Street View cars – used to develop Google Maps collected personal information sent over Wi-Fi networks.

The Federal Communications Commission has now states “the FCC’s mission is to ensure that broadband networks are safe and secure, and we’re committed to working with all stakeholders to prevent problems like this in the future.”

With more employees connecting personal wireless devices to corporate networks for e-mail, this is a good to determine what you are doing to manage the security on these devices. Each of these devices presents opportunities for hackers to access your network. As employees access corporate e-mail and other data, it is important to develop plans to secure this data. As you think about these issues, cost considerations are sure to rise. A good way to manage these expenses is through Wireless Expense Management or WEM programs.

Effective TEM programs reconcile assets with invoices and help identify services and items with no usage that can be removed from billing. These programs must start by collecting all telecom service providers’ invoices and Customer Service Records (CSRs). In the US, each service order and change placed with a telecom provider requires an update by the carrier to the Customer Records Information System (CRIS). The CRIS system information must be entered into a separate system that manages billing.

CSRs do not capture wireless devices and mobile services. For mobile devices, phone numbers, billing and the names of the employees using them should be reconciled with personnel records. After implementing a TEM system for one large company we found that nearly 500 monthly cell phone bills were still being paid for employees who were no longer worked for the company. This finding saved the company approximately $600,000 per year.

After the inventory is complete, it should be analyzed for further savings. Effective TEM programs can help identify equipment or services that are not associated with an employee, department, project or corporate location that can be discontinued. In one case the refunds were $400,500 for a client that had clear documentation of a request to disconnect services for a branch location that had been closed. In other cases where clients have no record of submitting a disconnect request to the service provider there will still be future savings after submitting a disconnect request and avoiding the cost in the future.

Telecom assets require vigilant monitoring. All moves, adds, changes and disconnects (MACDs) of service or equipment should immediately be recorded to keep the inventory up-to-date and reduce expenses.

It is possible that the FCC will impose on Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Sprint, and other service providers rules that are similar to those in Europe, where carriers must send text messages to subscribers who approaching plan limits. Managers of telecom and wireless expenses should not wait for the FCC to act. One way to avoid these penalties is to ensure that employees are on the right plans. Grouping employees together and buying a large pool of minutes is usually more cost effective than a plan, which charges a fee per minute for each employee. It will enable organizations to avoid shock from situations where one employee exceeds their individual allotment of minutes. In addition, pools enable organizations to reduce the number of minutes forfeited each month with individual buckets. In rare cases large volume users should be in an unlimited plan rather than being included in a pool with other employees. This “pool busters” will have a lower cost-per-minute for calls using an unlimited plan.

In many corporations and organizations, employees never see their bills because their employer pays them. It is important to provide employees with visibility into these expenses. At Telesoft, we have even found that managers of wireless expenses have been surprised when they are able to view these charges. Learn more about how our programs can help you to avoid sticker shock and improve accountability for expenses.

The problem of coordinating TEM activities arises from the fact that different functional groups have their own preferred legacy software and ways of doing things. Failure to include these groups in the process of selecting TEM solutions leads to breakdowns after implementing the new program. There is no “single version of the truth” because people are entering data into different systems and using reports from these legacy applications to manage telecom expenses.

The best approach is one in which an executive champions the program. The goal from the outset should be to select one application, which will replace the legacy software and disjointed old ways of managing telecom expenses. The software should manage the entire procure-to-pay lifecycle of expenses for fixed and mobile telecom services. It must also include tools for assets and inventory management, MACD and service orders, invoice processing, expense validation, usage allocations, reporting and business intelligence. Managing telecom expenses requires a customized tool to address the complexity of managing different carrier billing systems and network assets.

Boosting Employee Productivity

A common use of call accounting is to minimize productivity losses through visibility into calling patterns and non-business calling activity of employees. Call Accounting also offers a unique view into how the business and individual employees are performing. Reports present an audit trail to track all client interactions and can be helpful for businesses and government agencies that interact with the public. Call Accounting provides valuable information to improve performance at customer or public outreach centers and sales team interactions.

Every phone call that you make or receive is an opportunity to win (or lose) a customer or constituent. How employees handle calls can determine the success or failure of your operation. Call Accounting provides critical information regarding:

• Caller success rates: Are callers getting through or do they receive busy signals?
• How many callers hang up because it takes too long for someone to answer?
• How long are employees on the phone when they do answer a call? Is that call time too long or too short?
• Are callers stuck in a directory of call options or are they abandoned to voicemail instead of speaking to person?
• How often are your employees transferring callers to other departments instead of dealing with the issue themselves?
• How do customer contact centers and employees compare?

Busy signals may indicate that call centers and offices do not have enough lines. Abandoned calls from people that hang up could indicate that there are not enough employees answering calls or that they are taking too much time with callers. Call Accounting is a valuable tool to answer these questions. By reducing hold times and abandoned calls, you can improve customer satisfaction.

Often the answers require a combination of different employees with different knowledge. Managers of corporate IT services or telecommunications can determine if a trunking issue is preventing calls from getting through. Frontline managers that are familiar with employees’ jobs can help assess individual employee performance issues. Telecom and IT managers should strive to work with managers in business units. The experience will help prove the value of their services to other business units, and the experience will help them advance their career.

Use Loaner Devices

You can reduce mobile calling costs for employees that do not regularly travel overseas and for those that travel to different countries by establishing a pool of loaner devices. These mobile devices can be set with reduced calling and data plans for international travel. Employees can arrange to have domestic calls and e-mail forwarded to the device.

Use SIM Cards

For employees that travel more frequently, removable country specific Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards make it possible for employees to save money. Employees have to have unlocked phones that allow them to insert SIM cards and operate on the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) network. Aside from Verizon in the US, some providers in Japan, and a few other countries this is the most common network overseas. SIM cards enable employees to leverage the benefits of the SIM card company’s volume discounts for international roaming.

Implement Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) for International Sites

FMC technology allows wireless users to seamlessly transfer calls and call features from a cellular network to a WLAN and back using the same device, phone number, and voice mail. The enterprise specifies a preferred type of connection on employees’ devices such as Wi-Fi to avoid use of the more costly provider’s network. This reduces roaming charges in locations with Wi-Fi connectivity. It has some limitations, and it does not address inbound calling because location information for the device is not available to the home provider to enable call routing.

Use Skype

For mobile calls, obtain a “SkypeIn” phone number and configure it to forward to the employee’s foreign cellular (generally prepaid) phone number. Forwarding the employee’s US cell phone number to the Skype number, achieves end-to-end call forwarding from the US cell number, and incoming cell calls will be free. With this approach, the cost is reduced, but it is equivalent to the cost of an international mobile-terminating call from the VoIP provider since most international markets have billing where the calling party pays the cost of calls to the roaming subscriber. Skype calls to cellular and landline numbers cost $1.40 down to .20 cents per minute.

Educate Your International Travelers

Perhaps the most important feature is to educate your employees about the high costs of using mobile services when they travel overseas. Employees should turn off their mobile phone if they are not available. This avoids charges for calls to the handset on the foreign network, and forwarding of the call from the handset back to the domestic voice mail server. Disabling applications that automatically connect to the network can help to avoid costly application updates that use the foreign cellular network. Where possible, employees should also avoid downloading attachments using wireless services. It is more cost effective to wait until a LAN or Wi-Fi connection is available.