Telecom Cost Management

ABS understands the financial challenges facing businesses today. More than ever, increased competition and margin reductions make it necessary to control your telecom costs. By utilizing resources wisely, it is possible to contain these costs and maximize efficiency. We will conduct a comprehensive audit of your total telecommunications spend and recommend solutions to reduce expenses and create a more efficient network.

BEST PRACTICES
Changing the way your organization manages telecom spending and assets will help you to realize significant benefits:

• Elimination of significant operating costs related to telecommunications (10-30% of overall telecommunications expenditure).
• Ongoing cost avoidance of telecommunications expenditure.
• Internal resource productivity gains related to managing telecommunications spending and assets.
• Ongoing management of telecommunications infrastructure.
• Full cost transparency, chargeback, reporting and control of telecommunications providers.
• Stronger front-to-back processes between your business, IT, finance and control, and the vendor with respect to managing the delivery and expenditure of telecommunications services.

BEST PRACTICES
Driving down costs, delivering new services, increasing availability, and providing cost transparency of telecommunications services requires best practices:

• Vendor relationship management
• Telecommunications and network designs
• Policies and policy enforcement
• Reporting and cost accounting
• Audit, dispute and reconciliation
• Asset and inventory management
• Organizational accountability
• Procurement and disconnect process

STRATEGY AND SOLUTIONS
ABS will integrate the management life cycle of telecommunications with other core business processes within your organization.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS Manage inventory & networks Reconcile expenses Evaluate suppliers & services Procure and disconnect Accountability Pay Optimize Vendor management

BUSINESS PROCESSES Hiring & termination P&L accountability Financial planning & reporting Re-organization & acquisition Real estate growth/contraction Customer communication

VENDOR MANAGEMENT

• An audit of current telecommunications contracts to identify if rates and service-level agreements are competitive, based on industry benchmarks.
• Review of customer service records for local exchange carrier accounts.
• Recommended changes to the telecommunications sourcing process.
• Defined telecommunications vendor spend by the appropriate service (voice, network, wireless, etc.).
• Analysis of the underlying telecommunications infrastructure that provides voice, network and wireless services. Review of diversity and reliability of services by vendor.
• Creation of a vendor relationship management process that focuses on the commercial, operational and technical front-to-back strategies.
• Development of a request for proposal for all telecommunications services and implementation based on the recommendations.

AUDITS, INVOICE RECONCILIATION AND PAYMENT

• Audit all current telecommunications bills and recommend improvements.
• Define a process to match telecommunications invoices to production telecommunications inventory.
• Define a process to allocate the costs of all telecommunications invoices to the appropriate business or cost center.
• Define a process that identifies rejects between the general ledger, accounts payable, and telecommunications inventory systems.
• Define a process to manage telecommunications invoices that tie usage- based services.

MIS REPORTING, COST TRANSPARENCY AND COST ALLOCATION

• Develop financial reports that provide cost transparency of telecommunications spend by provider and business unit.
• Develop chargeback allocation methodology for cost allocation of all telecommunications services.
• Develop inventory reports that provide a breakdown of all telecommunications services by region and location.
• Define new general ledger telecommunications codes that map closely to the telecommunications service production.
• Select and implement user-friendly MIS reporting tools that allow IT and the business to make better business decisions.

ORGANIZATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY AND COMMITMENT

• Define project team. Make sure roles and responsibilities are clear, and hold people accountable.
• Gain support from management, IT, finance and control.
• Set up a business and IT sub-committee to oversee all telecommunications expenditures.
• Define organizational structure for ongoing operations and support of telecommunications expenditure assets.

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