Wireless Asset and Expense Optimization

If you have any doubts, just look around – on the sidewalk, in your favorite restaurant, on the planes and trains carrying business people from appointment to appointment. Blackberries, cell phones, PDAs – they’re everywhere!

According to Alan Harlan, president of Symphony SMS, this growing dependence on wireless services significantly increases telecommunications expense and places a heavier administrative burden on those who are tasked with managing these services. “The burden is exacerbated,” says Harlan, “by the fact that mobile technology, equipment and services are continually changing, thus requiring upgrades as well as rate plan and other contractual modifications. We have identified over 15 different areas that can affect how much businesses pay for wireless services.”

In response to these challenges, many organizations are turning to outsourcing their wireless management to companies like Symphony SMS, which can optimize service contracts, audit invoices, provide provisioning and help desk services, and monitor your wireless spending on a monthly basis. Market research shows that if a company is not managing its wireless spending on a continuous basis, it can overspend by 15% to 25% on wireless services.

“Many organizations allow employees to choose their own service plan and equipment, and then reimburse the individual user for the costs,” Harlan explains. “This could result in the company paying the highest rates offered with limited means of controlling the costs. Once an account is locked into an individual contract, the rates may not be changed until the contract expires.”

Many organizations choose to provide their employees with wireless devices that are billed directly to the company under a “corporate rate plan”. In this scenario the organization receives a voluminous monthly invoice in either hard copy or electronic format and/or is given online access to view detailed account information and reports. Most organizations maintain multiple vendor accounts for a variety of reasons including the need to accommodate geographic demands for service coverage, access to specific services and/or devices, or the inheritance of accounts and contracts through mergers and acquisitions. Multiple vendors and vendor accounts means multiple bill formats and disparate information from one vendor/account to the next resulting in information overload. The challenge here is being able to analyze the information on a timely (monthly) basis and make appropriate decisions to manage organization assets in a proactive manner. Appropriate management decisions in this area include but are not limited to: disconnecting unused or underused devices; adding certain plan features such as data or text messaging plans to user accounts that require such services; and adding or reducing plan minutes for specific user accounts that consistently go over or under the monthly plan minutes currently provided. Another valuable report that all wireless managers should have on a monthly basis is a report ranking wireless users by: minutes of use; total monthly charges; and total non-service (equipment) charges. This information will allow you to identify those user accounts that may require special attention.

Symphony SMS has helped a number of clients take control of their wireless spending in a proactive and profound way. This is accomplished through a comprehensive expense management process that begins by taking disparate electronic account information from multiple sources and consolidating into a single application with consistent data elements. The consolidated information is then made available in a variety of reports that allows a manager to identify anomalies or trends that may require additional action. This information is then maintained on an ongoing basis for up to twelve months (historical information can be input as well) thus creating a valuable dataset that can be used for budgeting, trending, or financial modeling.
A truly comprehensive wireless spend management solution goes beyond simply providing a database and reports it encompasses the entire process from provisioning of services, to processing of invoices and payments, to auditing and optimizing the spend on an ongoing basis.

The provisioning of wireless services begins with establishing, maintaining and managing a Wireless Service Desk (WSD) in support of all the wireless assets and services, specifically including cellular phones and blackberry devices, but can branch out to include audio and web conferencing, as well as pagers, calling cards, PC cards and PDA’s. The responsibilities of the WSD, whether outsourced or managed internally include receiving calls, processing and tracking all requests via a standard toolset and placing orders with the wireless suppliers. This typically includes all orders for new service or a change to existing services and is initiated by the WSD and will be tracked and monitored to completion. In addition the WSD will process all moves, adds, changes and disables (MACD) and repair for all wireless equipment based on requests received and established processes and business rules. The WSD should maintain records of wireless assets and orders in the toolset and provide a wireless asset inventory report as well as a wireless status report. The WSD should create and maintain wireless policies and procedures as well. It is very important that a WSD obtain approval before implementing any changes to current policies and procedures.

If outsourced, it is imperative that the WSD track metrics for Problems and MACD activity. Metrics must be tracked, escalated, and resolved according to the established procedures by severity level agreements (SLA’s). SLA’s must include performance measurements, commitments, resource ranges, reporting and related penalties or service credits for non performance.

The toolset used by the WSD should also include the capability to receive invoices, both electronic and paper, and normalize the data into a common repository. With this in place, wireless invoices can automatically be received, validated and processed for payment. The value in tracking the wireless invoices comes with the reconciliation of the wireless assets on the invoice to the same wireless assets that are being managed by the WSD. Exceptions should be generated when the charge for the asset is “out of variance”, based on the wireless supplier’s established contract and previous months spend by asset. Verification of all wireless MACD activity is made during the reconciliation process as well.

With the auditing of the wireless invoices, wireless spend is monitored, reported and optimized. In addition, if outsourcing the wireless invoice process, the outsourcer can ensure, without a doubt, the accuracy of the wireless vendor invoices in all key areas.

Whether you choose to manage your wireless spend yourself or outsource the management to a third party the first step to taking control of your wireless spending is to know your current usage, number of users, location of users, types of devices employed, and travel patterns of users. You will also need to forecast new usage and any changes that make occur during the contract term. With this information at hand, you can begin to optimize your wireless contract. Some of the key areas for optimizing include discounts on service options, pooled minutes, commitment levels, term plans, number portability clauses, early termination clauses, and dispute resolution clauses.

Symphony SMS helped one of the U.S. top 20 independent exploration and production companies, with approximately 750 employees worldwide, realize a $30,000 annual reduction in wireless costs (22% per month), plus first year savings of $28,000 through contract re-negotiation.

Organizations must carefully negotiate wireless contracts in such a manner that provides flexibility to adjust all the service elements on an ongoing basis so that one is not “stuck” in a rate plan that does not fit the organizations needs as those needs change over time. For example the right to change an individual subscriber rate plan without penalty or to add or decrease pool plan minutes, would be areas where such flexibility is appropriate.

Once you have a good service contract in place, Symphony SMS recommends wireless rate optimization and cost auditing. Managing your wireless telecommunications invoices on a monthly basis, for each plan and for each piece of equipment, will allow you to track overages and isolate roaming charges, including international roaming. This information will then allow you to adjust the plan to avoid being charged higher rates on the overage minutes. In addition, monthly wireless expense management will allow you to identify services or devices that are not being used, thus allowing you to disconnect an account or change the features of a given account. Those individuals that consistently incur international roaming charges may need to be put on an international rate plan that many carriers are now providing.

Another aspect of wireless rate optimization for those organizations that currently choose to reimburse employees individually would be to establish corporate accounts with your wireless vendor in which your business will be eligible for volume discounts. Depending on the nature of your organization, there may be preferred rates offered through affiliation with various trade organizations, government agencies, or purchasing consortia. An added benefit to establishing a corporate rate plan and contract is the ability to gain better control with access to consolidated billing information as described earlier in this article.

Outsourcing the management of your wireless services allows you to concentrate on your core business. Qualified TEM providers can provide expertise in the audit area to include checking that your carrier is applying appropriate charges including: contracted rates, equipment discounts, correct taxes fees and surcharges, overage rate and data usage costs, as well as ensuring you are paying only for the services you are using. Furthermore, they can identify opportunities for upgrades in technology or devices to enhance, consolidate, and benefit the bottom line; assist in identifying misuse; disconnect or block unwanted or unneeded services or features; and provide a best practices guideline or policy for corporate use.

“Voice and data wireless expenses are a major portion of any company’s total telecom spend,” Harlan points out, “and they are expected to increase dramatically over the next few years. The savings realized from outsourcing this important part of a company’s operations can provide a significant return on investment.”