According to the latest research by AOTMP, enterprises spent upwards of $930/year/employee on telecom costs, pre-pandemic. The sudden rise in work-from-home resulted in even greater spending, as duplicate services were quickly added in order to facilitate remote employees. At the same time, the types of services being consumed with an organization is increasingly complex, including wired, wireline, and cloud services with varying service plans and details.

Capturing, making sense of, and finding efficiencies among all of this data requires the right software vendor. This will ensure you are not overpaying for products and services, help you rationalize existing investments, and identify whitespace savings opportunities.

With such a business-critical decision at hand, there are a few hidden factors that you should look for when determining which vendor is right for your business.

1. Can the vendor demonstrate the ROI of their TEM software?

It’s one thing to talk about savings and another to see them. TEM software should have an ROI dashboard to provide at-a-glance highlights into hard dollar savings, time savings, and inventory accuracy, that come from using the software. Being able to easily visualize your investment in TEM software on an ongoing basis, and compare that to the results you are expecting, helps you demonstrate the return that your investment is generating.

2. Does the software allow employee self-serve?

Managing telecom expenses for 1,500 products and services will require at least one full-time employee. When you add the number of software licenses, mobile devices, carrier plans, and office IT, it quickly reach a threshold that requires additional resources to manage inventory and services.

On the other hand, TEM software with self-serve tools allows staff to carry out simple tasks like password resets, automatically receive or gain access to their invoices as well as validate device assignment. Commonly known as self-serve IT, these capabilities empower your employees to manage their own services without disrupting the IT department or requiring additional staff.

3. Is the reporting function flexible to your business?

Standard reporting is powerful to help you understand your inventory, services, vendors, and payment cycles. However, no two businesses are alike, and the need to configure reports gives you the flexibility to track your IT and telecom costs according to your business and your culture.  important, but flexible reporting allows you to create configurable visualizations. Built-in reporting formats, configurable reports, and visualization functions let you view and digest data from many different perspectives, so that nothing is missed, you gain a holistic perspective across your inventory. And extra points to the TEM software that offers the flexibility to build those reports yourself without having to call on the vendor for help.

4. How current is the software?

Modern software architecture matters. TEM software that requires manual invoice loads and processing is outdated, inefficient and open for error. A system that supports electronic processing are more efficient and give customers more detail on the invoices.  It enables you to see as much detail in your invoices. This why invoices that are electronically processed makes everything internally run smoother and more efficiently.

Another factor to consider is the importance of regular software updates / product releases. Adding new features and removing outdated ones keeps the technology current, and means your software is designed for optimal performance. Similarly, consider where the software and the data are hosted, and what processes and systems are in place to ensure your data is secure. Consider looking for a hosting service like AWS to ensure you are getting the best possible service.

5. Is the software scalable?

When sourcing a telecom expense vendor, consider whether they can expand alongside your business growth. It is important to have them help you identify cost savings in the immediate term, but are they positioned to help you identify and incorporate the right tactics for repeatable savings. What services do they offer to expand beyond telecom savings to build a sustainable technology business management infrastructure to optimize cloud and IT costs.

Keep learning

Organizations will only continue to increase their telecom spending over time, making it imperative to find the right telecom expense management software. Check out these additional articles and content to give you more ideas.

• Blog | Why businesses need inventory management
• Blog | Winning the battle against billing errors
• Ebook | TEM RFP Questions You Forgot to Ask 

And, if you’re looking into TEM software, consider Upland Cimpl telecom expense management software to manage inventory, vendors, contracts, and more to accelerate telecom costs savings for your business.