Table of Contents
Intro to Mobility Costs
Controlling mobility costs has become increasingly challenging in the face of complex wireless technologies, customer support issues, and a lack of available resources. Industry resources reveal that 80 percent of telecom invoices suffer from misapplied taxes, unnecessary services, or billing errors.
Mobile Expense Management is a challenge without the right tools and technology. Other issues include the inability to track services and assets, as well as the inability to manage employee telecom costs due to lack of transparency. The best way to avoid all of this and gain insight into your corporate wireless landscape is to deploy mobile expense management.
It’s not the fault of your IT or finance team if they’re unaware of the potential benefits of wireless expense audits. After all, none of them are experts in the technicalities of telecom charges. They may not even know that audits can be carried out for this area of the business. However, failure to enlist telecom audits could result in your organization bleeding money in terms of paying for devices or services it isn’t using.
With mobile expense management, you can gain a 360-degree overview of your total wireless spend, optimize costs, and identify savings opportunities moving forward. If you have yet to conduct one for your organization, now is the right time to do it. Below are the 4 key areas to scrutinize during the process.
Usage Patterns
The second key area to analyze is current usage. The audit will give you insight into your wireless expenses and infrastructure with a comprehensive breakdown of your costs by vendor, grouping usage by charge categories. When you evaluate ongoing costs, usage, and features, you’ll spot potential discrepancies as well as opportunities to reduce bills.
And while you’re at it, you’ll also discover patterns of potentially wasted spend for unnecessary features. Zero-use devices are also a menace and should be re-evaluated for business impact. Additionally, keep in mind that multiple wireless and landline devices that require data plans and internet connectivity are great assets for organizations, but could lead to an intricate invoicing procedure.
Billing Assets
Mobile expense management is also incredibly useful in helping you identify what your wireless assets are, as most bills do not highlight this clearly. A thorough review of all billed assets can be useful for determining if there are any lines, features, or other charges for assets not being used (this happens far more often than companies would suspect). Staying abreast of current asset billing is critical to gaining a strong foothold on your company’s overall wireless expenses.
Data Pools
If you find that your company is using a larger data pool than it requires, you might be suffering from poorly managed or overlapping services, which should be eliminated to reduce wireless costs. Another smart measure to take is to track invoices on wireless costs to prevent wasted spend, unutilized features, missed discounts, or low-quality processes that prolong or compound overspending.
Vendor Contracts
Has it been a while since you last checked your wireless contracts? Read through them again to see whether or not the terms suit your organization at this given point in time. Also, research competing vendors to see if lower pricing models are available. Taking this step may help you negotiate lower wireless rates with your existing provider. In addition, eliminate features that don’t meet your employees’ needs to shift savings towards costs that are more significant to users’ wireless usage.
Why You Need a Trusted Partner
Verizon is raising prices again. Although the fee may seem small, it will certainly sting those on limited budgets. Verizon has a way of always seeming slightly more expensive than its competitors. And its new budget plans haven’t helped its image any. The change also comes during a time of intense competition in the U.S. wireless industry and as carriers have been scrambling to offer promotions and discounts to keep customers loyal as they try to jump between vendors. Those affected by Verizon’s price increase include customers who are on More Everything, More Everything Loyalty, The Verizon Plan, The New Verizon Plan, as well as shared 5GB/10GB plans.
If you have high wireless spend, such as tens of thousands of dollars each month, a rapidly evolving environment, or a pattern of changing, adding, or removing features regularly, then ongoing mobile expense management is vital. If your organization fits the qualifications described above, you could benefit from a trusted mobile expense management partner. The savings a reliable partner finds are usually substantial enough to pay for itself in a matter of months. Our MDM experts can help ensure you are prepared for the future of IT.
