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Of great interest to master agents is a recent piece written by Joe Basili all about what agents need to know within telecom expense management. Basili, managing director for the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association, offers thoughts on a fairly wide range of issues in his article including a total scope of work and service delivery,which are two key areas that master agents must be sure to get right.

“Before recommending a TEM product, it is important to consider the scope of work relating to the three areas of fixed, mobile and international telecom expenses,” he advises.

International telecom expenses are from international carriers and overseas locations rather than just international calls made from domestic locations. One thing that makes managing these such a challenge is that most telecom carriers use a variety of billing systems and formats for these services, as Basili explains, “Charges for each of these services are different. Carrier account teams have different compensation for selling these services, and government regulations vary for these services.”

The fastest-growing part of the business is wireless expense management, and Basili comments that’s because it “reflects the challenges that organizations have with rapidly rising costs for wireless services.” Part of the issue here is that more and more, employees are working outside the office using smartphones, tablets and laptops, as he notes.

In the future, then, TEM will require providers to extend their best practices beyond telecommunications to other areas of technology, Basili thinks, adding that “helping companies to analyze and benchmark how technology investments are contributing to the top line and controlling the bottom line.”

And as far as service delivery goes, yes there are many firms offering software, outsourced or managed services, and professional services for TEM. Frequently such a provider will handle the major service domains of inventory management and change control, invoice management, expense management (including validation and optimization), usage chargeback and reporting.

In addition, many TEM providers also offer professional services, such as one-time audits, sourcing, network assessments, optimization, process re-engineering and other client projects.

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