Call Accounting Solutions Reduce Carrier Bill Reconciliation from Days to Minutes
April 16, 2014
By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor
It’s no secret to anyone who works in corporate accounting that telecommunications bills chew through a huge percentage of a company’s revenue. Thanks to the widespread nature of wireless phones in business, the globalization of business today (requiring regular phone calls to the other side of the world) plus the additional burden of audio and video conferencing, telecom bills are through the roof. As companies fight to keep expenses under control, it simply makes sense for them to turn their attention to the bills and ensure that money isn’t being wasted.
For financial services firms, the stakes are even higher. The use of telephony and data is more intensive, largely due to the spread out nature of financial services businesses (multiple branches, regional headquarters and corporate headquarters). Call accounting is one of the best ways a financial services firm can keep control of its data and voice communications outlays.
Many call accounting solutions providers (such as those offered by ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert)) offer software designed to help financial services firms such as banks and brokerages be more productive and stay in control of their landline and wireless spending. By implementing reporting tools that are focused on wireless voice and data optimization, client billing, and voice and immersive video, these organizations can cut costs and streamline their mobile needs by boosting efficiency and cutting out misuse of telecom resources.
“Banks and mortgage companies are generally branch-based and feed into one large central headquarters,” according to ISI Telemanagement. “They are scattered all over towns, cities, and states, with some bigger towns entertaining multiple branches. This presents a nightmare for reconciliation of telecom bills. In the past, phone bills would be delivered to one central location and a team of workers would spend days scrutinizing call records to make sure they were assigned to the right departments and personnel, and free from erroneous charges. This took time, staffing, and an understanding that ‘room for error’ applied to the process.”
Nowadays, few companies can afford to dedicate an entire department to telecom bill reconciliation. Even when they do, manual processes often have large holes that leave room for huge inefficiencies. With a high quality call accounting solution, financial services organizations no longer have to devote hours reviewing carrier bills by hand. The solutions can turn the reconciliation of bills into a process that takes minutes rather than days, and eliminate the need for extra staff and additional quality control. Carrier bill reconciliation reports help identify erroneously listed calls, mistimed calls, and calls billed at incorrect rates.
In an era where every penny counts in order to prevent shrinking profit margins, an effective call accounting solution can make an enormous difference to a bank or financial services company. Use the time you’ve freed up for human employees to pursue your core competencies instead.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi