Optimizing telecommunications services: challenges and opportunities

Measures for improving their use, reducing costs, and adapting them to business operations

A challenge that the large corporations we work with face is improving the management of their telecommunications services. Companies with many employees and locations need different ICT services for their operations, so they work with one or several telecommunications providers, with the corresponding rates and features.

Having the right services for business operations results in high expenses, and when a company expands, these expenses increase and are hard to control. This is then combined with the cost of analyzing their efficiency. This analysis must consider at least the following:

• How the service is used

• Market conditions

• Negotiation power with telecommunications providers

• Cheaper alternatives that are more efficient

• Similar services that are being provided by several telecommunications providers, resulting in double charges

To optimize how telecommunications services are used, we propose a series of measures that a company should implement in order to reduce its telecommunications costs while receiving services that are better adapted to its operations:

• Aligning business objectives with the most important services in order to determine requirements and reduce risks

• Analyzing the services and rates that are currently established with each telecommunications provider

• Creating a system to track telecommunications expenses in order to detect peaks, underused services, and billing errors

• Anticipating change management according to the company’s growth

• Applying corrective actions that optimize the portfolio of telecommunications services

• Performing physical counts to verify that the devices for which the services being billed actually exist and are operational

Electronic billing currently makes it possible to process all the information regarding the use and the cost of the telecommunications services that companies receive. This can be taken advantage of to establish periodic billing reviews and to quickly detect potential improvements.

Automating these reviews requires a significant initial effort. However, once established, the other measures mentioned can be implemented with a solid base of information that supports the decision making process.

In summary, improved knowledge of how the services are being used and of the cost is an opportunity that, once equilibrium is reached, will allow the company to improve its return on investment and maintain stable costs.