PHI Selects Veramark Telecom Expense Management Solution

By Anil Sharma, TMCnet Contributor

Pepco Holdings, Inc. has selected Veramark Technologies, Inc., a provider of Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solutions, to help the East Coast energy company process telecom invoices more efficiently and reduce telecom expenses.

Officials with Veramark said that the company's solution leverages the TEM provider's VeraSMART Telecom Expense Management software.

Pepco Holdings, Inc. (PHI), which serves the energy needs of about 1.9 million residential and commercial customers in the mid-Atlantic region, engaged Veramark in 2009 to audit its telecom inventory and expenses and implement an ongoing TEM solution.

The audit identified opportunities for telecom savings related to contracts, usage, network optimization, and third-party billing.

'An accurate telecom inventory is essential for the success of any TEM initiative,' said Josh Bouk, senior vice president global services, Veramark's, in a statement.

Bouk said the company's auditors reviewed PHI's telecom bills, contracts, and customer service records to identify every line and circuit they were paying for.

"We discovered immediate savings opportunities in the process, but the greater value was in establishing an accurate inventory baseline from which we can manage PHI's communications network to minimize cost and maximize performance on an on-going basis,' he said.

"We're pleased that our TEM solution has enabled PHI to take control of their telecom environment,' said Bouk. 'We look forward to supporting their TEM efforts and helping them to achieve even greater savings going forward.'

Company officials said that the Veramark solution allows PHI to receive and process carrier invoices electronically rather than through costly paper-based methods.

'Processing these monster invoices in paper form had become prohibitively expensive and time consuming,' said Keven Fitzsimmons, who is responsible for telecom expense reporting at Pepco Holdings, Inc.

Fitzsimmons said that validating each charge was nearly impossible.

"VeraSMART provides visibility to billing details that lets us process invoices accurately and efficiently. We saw immediate benefits when the system was implemented. For example, we were able to see where we were being slammed, and identify lines that could be eliminated,' he said.

According to company officials, VeraSMART is a scalable and fully integrated Web-based application platform that provides centralized data management, workflow automation, and business intelligence for telecom expense management.

Pepco Holdings, Inc. is using VeraSMART components for call accounting, invoice management, and charge allocation to provide ongoing management of these TEM processes.

'In addition to enabling electronic invoice processing,' said Fitzsimmons, 'the VeraSMART system helps us keep our telecom inventory up-to-date. Adds and disconnects can be entered directly into the application, allowing us to validate invoices and maintain our inventory with an accuracy that was previously unachievable.'

'We're very happy with the Veramark solution and are exploring possibilities of expanding the system with optional VeraSMART capabilities, which include contract management,' Fitzsimmons said.

(source: http://voip-software.tmcnet.com/topics/voip-software/articles/82393-phi-selects-veramark-telecom-expense-management-solution.htm)