TEMIA Meeting Provides Opportunity to Discuss and Develop Telecom Expense Management
November 08, 2012
By Rachel Ramsey, TMCnet Web Editor
The telecom expense management (TEM) market has undergone significant changes in the recent past due to the proliferation of mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. As more employees bring their personal mobile devices to work, IT managers want to ensure that telecom costs, including roaming charges, remain under control.
TEM entails the management of voice, data and wireless costs, allowing organizations to minimize and avoid overages by ensuring users are on the right plan and, if not, move them to the right plan, sometimes in real-time. Real-time TEM, or “rTEM,” is increasingly utilized by customers who want to understand their employees’ usage patterns instantly, instead of waiting until the end of every month to retroactively view and correct overages.
Key players in the TEM market include independent TEM providers, telcos, system integrators, large system management vendors, and select mobile device management vendors. The Telecom Expense Management Industry Association (TEMIA (News - Alert)) is the authoritative voice for the telecommunications management, telecom expense management, wireless expense management, mobile device management and solutions providers in related areas. Today, TEMIA members manage more than $31 billion of wireless, voice and data telecom spend.
TEMIA meets three times a year with two meetings in the U.S. and one in Europe. The organization recently held a meeting for its members in Washington, D.C., which provided an opportunity for members to network, develop new partnerships, discuss ways to overcome industry challenges, exchange different views and learn about industry developments.
"TEMIA has come a long way over the past few years. It was exciting to see such a large number of industry leaders at the dinner, and the agenda for the next day was filled with compelling topics," said Michael Bodetti, head of Global Operations for Vodafone (News - Alert) Global Enterprise, in a statement.
This meeting had a comprehensive agenda with new action items that will enable it to build on its past success and help its member companies maximize their investments in the association. There is work to do on industry standards, best practices and promotion of “telecommunications management” as a new industry term.
“I was very excited to speak at the TEMIA Association conference in Washington D.C. this past week. It was an outstanding opportunity to share with so many companies in the telecom expense management industry and highlight the benefits and ease of doing business with AT&T’s (News - Alert) National Business Services,” said Jay Kovalcik, NBS program manager for Specialized Care Program Management from AT&T. “Productive dialogue on topics that proactively streamline care related transactions for our AT&T Telecom Manager and Authorized Order Placer community have a tremendous upside.”
Image via TEMIA
TEMIA's mission is to raise awareness and knowledge of the values and benefits of TEM, WEM, and MDM solutions, to improve the quality and value of these solutions through the development and promotion of open industry standards, and industry knowledge among Solutions Providers, business partners, telecom service providers, and enterprise clients. With more than 37 members, TEMIA is a not-for-profit organization guided by service and industry solution providers.
“Every company needs to be aware of the regulatory and legislative environment and how changes in leadership might impact the technology and communications industries,” stated Jennifer L. Richter, co-chair Technology and Communications Group at Patton (News - Alert) Boggs, LLP. “Of particular concern for TEMIA members are evolving regulations related to employee privacy for mobile devices, data security, carrier data caps and tiered pricing, universal service reforms, foreign ownership restrictions for domestic communications networks, cloud computing and taxation of communications services including taxation of e-commerce. We are watching these developments closely in Washington and recommend that TEMIA members do the same.”
The next conference will be held in March 2013 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
“There is something magical that occurs at TEMIA meetings we see the depth of thought-leadership within the association, the diversity of solutions providers (large and small, comprehensive and niche) and gauge the overall health of our industry,” said James Price, TEMIA executive board president and president of ICOMM. “It is amazing to see competitors meet and work to establish best practices and industry standards. This was a first step on an important journey.”
Edited by Amanda Ciccatelli