Cost Control / Expense Management
- In today’s tight economic business climate, everyone is looking to cut costs and get more value for their dollar. Industry experience has shown that a telecommunications audit can result in an almost immediate monthly cost savings.
Fact: As many as 80% – 85% of U.S. companies have errors on their phone bills.*
Fact: It is estimated that this equates to lost profits of as much as $8 billion dollars a year to Fortune 500 companies.
Fact: Overcharging is so profitable for carriers that many have recently filed petitions with local Public Utility Commissions to eliminate or greatly reduce the amount of time a customer would have in which to file a claim. This legislation would also cap the amount of money a carrier would have to refund or credit back.
Fact: This same practice is employed by carriers globally.
Fact: Industry experience has shown that a telecommunications audit can result in an almost immediate 2-15% monthly cost savings with the average being in the 10% range.
Industry wide overcharging:
*A recent Gartner Group study found that 80% – 85% of U.S. companies have errors on their phone bills. Most companies are unaware of these errors and do not report them. Another recent article based on research by Aberdeen in CFO magazine reported that telecom errors range between 7% and 12% of actual billing costs. In 2004 this equated to lost profits of as much as $8 Billion dollars a year to Fortune 500 companies.
Since full deregulation of the Telecommunications industry in 1996, “Telecommunications Carriers” have been free to price circuits, services, and hardware at whatever the market will bear. This has literally led to a free for all in the pricing of telephony services both in the united States and in many other countries.
Telecom errors typically range between 7% and 12% of actual billing costs.
When combined with using our TEIM tool (please see TEIM section), our own experience shows savings to be significantly higher.
It’s Your Responsibility
- For whatever reason, it has become the de-facto standard industry practice that the responsibility of finding and documenting errors falls on of the end user.
While most phone companies will work to correct the errors once pointed out and documented, some companies, will throw up the bureaucratic wall when trying to recover past charges. None are happy about correcting errors or refunding overpaid amounts. None do it willingly. It is actually in the phone companies’ interest to allow these mistakes to continue.
Why You Can’t Do It Yourself
- Obtaining refunds and credits is a tedious, labor intensive, time consuming task. The fact of the matter is that most companies do not have the in-house expertise to know what to look for and how to spot errors. They also cannot afford to pull internal resources away from their regular assigned work and spend the time and money to track down and document mistakes on their bill(s), or follow through on a request for obtaining a refund.
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Why IP Network Consulting
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The Audit
- The audit is a contingency based review of current carrier billings structured to identify billing errors in which our clients would be entitled to billing reductions and or retro-active over charges from service providers.
We check for:
- Duplicate billings
- Out of service/unused circuits
- Over billings
- Irregularities and anomalies
- Improperly applied taxes
We will work with you to:
- Recover any money that is owed to you
- Correct errors and overcharges
- Identify additional savings opportunities
- Negotiate additional volume discounts
- Re-negotiate existing telecom contracts and discounts
Telecom Expanse and Inventory Management
- Telecom Expense Management is a process to help manage your telecom expenses for improved cost control, expense allocation, recovery, and budgeting.
Following the bill audit, we work with our clients to implement an ongoing Telecom Expense and inventory Management (TEIM) solution. Using our own software specifically developed to manage and monitor these costs, IPNC is able design a customized on-going monthly TIEM to meet your company’s specific needs. The process moves from bill audits and vendor contract compliance, through to management reporting, expense allocation, and asset management.
Benefits of a successful TEIM solution include:
- Improved cost control through invoice verification
- More accurate expense reporting and cost allocation
- Up-to-date inventory information
- Telecom asset tracking to facilitate moves, adds, and changes
- Management reports to identify usage and cost trends
- Reduced internal staff time to process, monitor, and track telecom expenses
- Track contract compliance
- Maintain accurate records going forward
Call To Action
- For more information about these and other cost effective Telecommunications solutions please contact us at: info@ipnetconsult.com.