Google This: TEM

Alas, my website will not come up, but this is beside the point. The point: Are you surprised by the pages of results for TEM (Telecom Expense Management)? I’m guessing you have never even heard of TEM. No worries, most people haven’t. But hopefully now Google has shown you it is a well established discipline with an entire industry behind it, no different than tax preparation.

TEM is simply the management of telecom costs using thorough and systematic methods. Like anything, it ranges from employment of basic tools and practices to very complex methods and software systems. Like other disciplines, you can take the do-it-yourself approach by investing in people and systems or you can simply outsource the entire thing. I happen to take a hybrid approach whereby I get a handle on everything for my clients, then hand it off to them to manage going forward.

I can’t say what the right approach is for your business, but I can tell you this. Take some approach. Any approach. Just do something, because if you aren’t actively managing your telecom costs, then you are mis-managing them and wasting money. Overcharging and waste in telecom is ridiculously common. A Gartner Group study found 80% of telecom bills have errors. My very first client cut their costs by over 50%. Luck? I think not. Every company I’ve ever looked at had some amount of waste. Why this is true is a subject for a future blog. For now, it’s enough for you to know that TEM is out there and well worth looking into for your company.

Be Well,

Mark