Are you getting the telecom services you’re paying for, or just paying for what you get?

By Barbara Clements President of Auditel Inc. FL

It’s becoming more common for companies to outsource their phone and telecom bills to bill processing companies for bill payment and auditing services. While it can be efficient and convenient you must be certain the company you chose can do the job you require. If not, you may become isolated from what’s really happening within your telecom expenses. You must be able to trust the accuracy of all the reports. Having your Telecom BPO independently reviewed is to your advantage. Make sure to hire an unbiased telecom professional by contacting many references.

If you are new to telecom outsourcing BPO, here’s how to set some goals:

• Do you want a BPO to handle all or just a portion of your telecom expense?
• Do you want your phone bills audited, or do you just want the telecom invoices paid or processed by the BPO?
• How much detail in your (GL general ledger) do you require based on your total telecom expense?
• Budget considerations – How much do you want to spend annually for these services?
• Can these services pay for themselves?
• These are the types of questions that should be decided before engaging a BPO.
• Devise a plan that will benefit your company from a cost perspective and one that will increase productivity

There’s more to selecting a Business Process Outsourcing Provider than eliminating non productive positions. A good BPO can:

• Eliminate the need for Accounts Payable department to pay your telecom bills
• Consolidate your bills and move them to EDF (electronic data format)
• Dramatically reduce your telecom expense with no loss of service
• Obtain refunds and credits for billing errors, overcharges, tax exemptions, etc.
• Provide you with reporting to fully detail all your services, giving you reports based on published lines, non published numbers, detailing each feature associated with the lines and circuits.
• Perform traffic studies to determine actual services required, with reports given for line counts and GOS (grade of service) calls measured and details given to client; including data on PRI, T1s, DS3s, circuits, long distance T1s, etc. Further testing conducted on all data including reports on data packet usages plus any data backup services. Find out if your services are optimized.
• Monitor contracts and evaluate best costs practices. Stay updated on your current telecom contracts and details.
• Place all orders for telecom MACS (moves, adds, and changes) including ordering telecom equipment, phone systems, internet services, voice and data services, etc.
• Provide training to your telecom service department for accurate recordkeeping and order processing, if you decide to keep this in-house.
• Provide detailed monthly telecom cost benefit analysis summaries for monthly budget review.
• Provide proof of monthly savings and refunds/credits recovered for your company in the form of before and after, actual telecom bill copies.
• Provide you with a timeline for service implementation.

Have you already outsourced your telecom expense management? If so, now’s the time to take a step back and decide what you really wanted versus what you are getting from outsourcing your telecom. Beware if the following occurs:

• Service outages
  BPO plan is based on changing Long Distance, Internet, Data Services, or Local Service Providers. You don’t need a commissioned “reseller” claiming to provide telecom services that they themselves outsource and they make a profit from moving your services to their commission based provider.
• After the first quarter your bills don’t reflect any noticeable cost reductions.
• If you don’t see any reports of disputes then reevaluate your current provider. With tight budgets, companies need to maximize their telecom outsourcing dollar. An independent telecom outsourced BPO service can give you services that were initially requested with competent work at reasonable rates.