What Percentage is Missing?

With school just around the corner and kids starting back to a new year filled with friends, homework, extracurricular activities and oh yes the anxiety of the “POP QUIZ”. LT~CRS would like to applaud the teachers that love to throw in those unexpected quizzes by giving out one of our own. So did you solve the missing percentage?

Let’s provide some clues. Did you know that 80% of telecom invoices have errors in them? 80% – that is HUGE! With that high of a percentage … what are the chances that you are paying too much for telecom services and/or telecom contract management? How often do you review your telecom billing and more importantly how can you recognize those mistakes or where can changes be made? Careful analysis and conducting a telecommunications audit would be the first step towards telecom cost reduction.

A Telecom Billing Optimization audit is the process of analyzing your complete telecom spends including reviews of your contract rates, terms and conditions through forensic – like process.

A telecom billing optimization would cover:
• Wireless
• Data circuits
• Land-line inventory
• Cellphone / smartphone
• Telecom tax analysis
• Telecom expense management
• Telecom billing studies
• Phone bill audit investigation services
• PBX investigations
• VOIP
• Telecommunication security services

Then after conducting an initial audit, Telecom Expense Management (TEM) can be provided – an ongoing monthly review of your complete telecom spend is put into place.
The Telecom Audit and Optimization provides a solid set of cost saving recommendations on some key areas of your telecom spend. Some of the savings recommendations cover the following:
• Hidden Charges
• Overage Charges
• Unused (Zero Usage)
• Optimization of Plan Minutes
• Cramming
• Slamming
• Text Plan Optimization
• Data Plan Optimization
• Missing or incorrect discounts

In addition to the above Telecom Savings recommendations, the following set of additional savings opportunities are also factors, each of which can save on your telecom spend.
• Alternative Plans (within a contract)
• Rearrange Users
• Standby/Pay as you go plans
• Association discounts/plans
• Government plans
• Group Purchasing Organizations or Consortiums
• High/Low Strategy
• Older/Unpublicized plans
• Seasonal usage
• Unpublicized Features
• Tax exemptions
• Suspension of devices

Now for some Telecommunications Homework!

Know your Telecom Acronyms!! Here are just a few:

MRC:
Monthly Recurring Charge – The monthly fee that is charged for a product or service component.

NRC:
Non-Recurring Charge – A one-time fee that can typically be attributed to an installation, a service set-up, or a service call.

ETF:
Early Termination Fee – The fee that is administered when a contract is broken prior to the date the contract ceases.

MUTM:
Make Up to Minimum – You will see this charge when there is a shortage between the contractual minimum that was agreed to be spent in a month or a and what was actually spent during that month.

MARC:
Minimum Annual Revenue Commitment – This is the amount of money that your company has committed to spend with your telecom vendor per year.

MUG:
Minimum Usage Guarantee – This term is another way of saying an annual commitment or agreement of how much will be spent by a company for services.

ARC:
Annual Revenue Commitment –Another way to express an annual commitment or agreement. Telecom Service Providers are big on your company committing to spend money.

Here are some facts to highlight:

• 80% of Business Telecom Invoices have billing errors (Gartner Group)
• U.S. Businesses have $13 Billion/year in Telecom Billing Over-Charges. (Gartner Group) Only 2% is ever recovered!
• U.S. businesses waste over $38 billion a year…mostly due to telephone company errors (Aberdeen).
• Up to 85% of mid-market company telecom bills are paid in full and are not audited by the organization.
• When telecommunications audit is conducted, billing analysts most often examine just a small subset of invoices associated with the largest spending leaving hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars not found in other telecom spend areas.

Did you solve it yet? Click here to see how you did on your “Pop Quiz” and for more telecom cost reduction resources?

If you have questions regarding telecom expense management contact LT~CRS.

407-330-4466
866-504-4050