Expense Management systems typically refers to the management information systems adopted by a business enterprises to process, pay, control and audit all expenses that the firm may incur during its day to day functional life. This may include programs like integrated financial management systems which will make it simpler to keep track of costs and help keep your business ahead of problems. Expense management teams govern the policies and procedures for every spending, as well as the technologies and services utilized to process and analyze the data associated with it, and is expected to have a huge impact on the bottom line of the firm.
Most average Fortune 500 company spends more than $100 million on telecommunications services each year. This arises predominantly from communication that may happen internally (Often 40%-60%) and with external stake holders (20% – 40%) Yet, on average, 7 to 12 % of telecom expenses are in surplus of what they could have been brought down to. This means that there is a high possibility of lowering costs by upto even $10 million each year! Think about all the revenue generating opportunities that could be funded with that money and the possible impact such a cost saving may have on the bottom-line of the firm.
It is interesting to understand how the Telecommunications Management Network facilitates the organizations consuming these services to achieve these goals. This framework enhances the operations management within the service provider, and expense management systems play an integral role in these systems.
Communications tools, such as wireless and wired connections, are crucial in managing the organizational day to day functionalities, communicate with the employees, liaison solid relationships with the customers, suppliers and business partners. Yet, firms are often forced to delay new communications projects that could give them a competitive advantage using ICTs, such as Voice over IP, because it’s difficult to accurately forecast labor and infrastructure costs. implementing a proactive Telecom Expense Management program can help defray those costs. With the telecom managed service from IT Service providers like IBM, Oracle, Infosys, the firms now-days can look beyond just cost savings and implement business process improvements through innovative adoption of communication technologies.
The best part about these services are that they are outsourced completely to the service providers and billing is done entirely based on how much the firms plan to use the benefits of such a service. It means, firms will pay a small percentage based on the dollar benefit they get out of such an engagement. They are completely priced based on usage. (Read Pricing of Information Technology)
Firms will be able to utilize the business intelligence sometimes bundled with such services to optimize network price/ performance, plan network strategies, forecast spend and justify telecom expense decisions to your management team.