solutions

An audit is a logical starting point for lowering costs because it sets the baseline for accurate billing and service delivery, and allows you to quickly reclaim overpayments from your vendors.

The best audit is the one that returns the greatest retained savings for you, in the shortest time and with the least disruption to your daily telecom management efforts. Our authoritative approach, 100% vendor independence, and thorough processes yield the highest possible results for our clients.

To earn your respect, we know we must deliver a truly meaningful ROI. And to earn the respect and cooperation of your vendors we must be accurate and complete in our claims documentation, persuasive in our presentation, and persistent in pursuing results.

The impact of common errors such as these can be staggering, yet these are the types of errors we see over and over again, even with companies that work very hard at managing their telecom effectively.

	Services not requested, but billed
	Discontinued phone and data services still being billed
	Unused or underused circuits and services
	Variations between contractual terms and actual billing rates
	Improper long distance vendor selection

A TelAssess audit delivers much more than just savings. The progress of your audit is tracked and reported to you on a regular schedule from start to finish. Each audit finding is meticulously detailed, then presented to you for validation and acceptance.

Upon completion of the audit we present a comprehensive Service Inventory Report that details all of the vendors, circuits and services we have audited, providing a critical value-added tool. And our Telecom Savings Report will list every finding and outcome so you can see exactly how much you saved and how.

Every day that you allow telecom overcharges to continue you are adding to your losses, because not all errors will result in recoveries. And if a dollar in excess spending requires ten to twenty dollars in sales to even out at the bottom line, doesn't it make sense to stop the losses sooner rather than later?

So, if your telecom expenses exceed $500,000 annually, and if you are interested in lowering your costs through our Baseline Audit and Recovery service .

Your network provides the cornerstone for your company's ability to communicate and deliver information, both internally and externally. Accurate design and deployment of that network is paramount to your company's successful operational performance.

Your network also provides the cornerstone element of a best-practice telecom cost management program, by defining needed services at their most efficient levels. Your choice of technologies, equipment and vendors will lay the groundwork for lowest total operating cost.

TelAssess brings a rich portfolio of technical success to the table when working to improve your telecom network infrastructure. We have the knowledge and experience to assess your telecom strategies and related risks, and to target solutions that match your unique needs. Because our overall company focus is telecom cost management, we are keenly aware of providing services and recommendations that save you money while improving performance.

	Reduce capital expenditure
	Increase service uptime
	Reduce operations expenses

As with all our services, TelAssess is 100% independent of carriers and hardware/software vendors so we provide an unbiased viewpoint on design, equipment and vendor selection.

Is your company being asked to cut costs, or even to justify your budget? We provide the expert, objective analysis of your telecom/IT environment to meet the demanding requests of senior management. Is your team on overload with a critical project looming? We can provide the support you need, including specialized expertise not available with current in-house resources.

With employee turnover, budget restrictions and rapidly evolving network needs, many companies are challenged in their ability to maximize network performance. Whether you need total project management, sophisticated network mapping and documentation, or some targeted technical advice, we can provide services to match your needs.

Rapidly expanding use of cell phones is a fact of life because of the powerful business efficiencies they provide. But industry analysts have pegged the increased cost of that expansion at up to 30% per year. It's no wonder that companies are turning to TelAssess for help in improving control and lowering their wireless costs. If wireless continues to expand at your business, you are likely dealing with issues similar to the ones listed here:

Mismatched Plans
Users aren't on the most cost effective plans, so companies pay their vendors more than they need to.

Inventory Management
The dynamic nature of wireless device management causes companies to incur costs for phones and charges they can't account for.

Administration Overload
The job of managing phones has been bounced around from IT, to Purchasing, to HR. Nobody wants to do it because of the drain on resources.

Policy Administration
Users are causing significant extra cost because of a sense of entitlement, and because there is no efficient mechanism to control expensive non-business use.

Company vs. Employee-Liable Phones
This dilemma has plagued wireless managers for years. Both options have advantages and disadvantages, and neither solution is an end in itself.

Pooling
The promise of reduced costs through shared minutes is not being realized because of corresponding increases in pricing formulas.

Frequently, companies confess to us that neither centralized nor decentralized management has worked for them. The manual processes and lack of available data yield limited returns in controlling wireless issues. They are at their wits end.

Let's not dwell on the problems, you already know them all too well. If you've got 50 or 5,000 wireless phones (or more), let's look at solutions that will dramatically lower your wireless costs and improve your management efficiency.

case studies

Billing errors are well documented and perceived as the primary culprit in excess telecom costs. But almost every audit yields additional savings by lowering pricing with your carriers, modifying and/or canceling circuits and services, and determining improper routing of long distance. True telecom expense management requires rapid resolution of these findings, because savings will not begin until the error is remedied.

Our client made a significant number of infrastructure changes in a compressed period of time. New facilities were opening while others were closing. Telecom vendors were being evaluated and frequently replaced. And on top of all this, they underwent key telecom personnel shifts.

The 25-page monthly summary invoice contained a significant amount of Frame Relay and ATM charges that were not grouped logically, making cost evaluation a nightmare. TelAssess first developed an accurate and complete network inventory. We made sure that every single charge was associated with a specific service, at a specific location, looking for overlaps in services that might be causing our client to absorb excess charges.

Our analysis identified duplicate services from multiple vendors, totaling $20,000 per month. TelAssess arranged to have those services cancelled the very next business day, effectively eliminating a huge expense which had gone unnoticed since our clients has switched vendors eight months earlier.

Our initial position was to request a refund, but further investigation showed that the excess services had never been cancelled by the client. Because they had since switched to another vendor, there was little motivation for the outgoing vendor to issue so much as a "customer service" credit. TelAssess was, however, able to negotiate a full cancellation of further contractual liability, saving the client $560,000 in contracted commitments.

Frequently our clients recognize there are problems with their telecom expense management efforts, but they can't always put their finger on what those problems might be. The most common reason for this problem is because they don't have the resources to perform the required anaylsis.

A recent TelAssess audit for a US airline began just that way. The client had undergone recent facility changes, and the newly hired telecom manager wanted to get his expenses validated and under control quickly.

Within 60 days of gathering our client's telecom information we were able to identify billing errors and arrange for credits of nearly $200,000. Large errors were found in T1 discount calculations, long distance rates, LEC services and regulatory charges.

If you've been assigned the responsibility to manage your company's cell phone program, we feel your pain. It's a thankless job, but the tools and services are available through TelAssess to turn a bad situation into a good one.

In April, 2003 the telecom administrator at a medical equipment manufacturer was tasked with trimming $100,000 from the annual telecommunications budget. He assumed this process would require him to evaluate the entire spectrum of telecom spend, and decided to start with the company's 400 cell phones.

But how? He knew that they were likely spending too much on wireless but he didn't have an internal option to resolve the problem. Whatever thinking had led them to this situation needed to be "rethought". It was time for automation, and help from the outside.

That's where our application capability came in. Within days of deployment, significant rate plan optimizations and abusive-user savings opportunities were identified. Real savings of $25 per phone and $10,000 per month were being captured by August. And those are net savings, after paying the costs of this solution!

Because this company opted for the Application Subscription program, they have benefited from ongoing wireless management improvements. Building upon the initial savings, the client continues to receive incremental monthly savings by enabling managers to closely monitor spending while providing automated rate plan recommendations.

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The Telecom Audit Process

Prior to utilizing telecom audit software, all contract information must be put into the system. In addition, leading systems will be able to track equipment owned, leased and used, along with rate plans.

Telecom audit software should be able to handle both EDI inputs as well as manual invoicing from telecom companies to enable efficient processing of invoices. Once input into the system, the core function of the software is to audit the telecom bills against contracted rates and tariffs. Exceptions are automatically highlighted in reports, facilitating manual and/or automatic remedy with the billing agency.

Leading telecom audit systems will be able generate a variety of reports including exception reports, inventory reports, status reports, and be able to interface with enterprise ER

telecommunication audit

In telecommunication, the term audit has the following meanings:

• To conduct an independent review and examination of system records and activities in order to test the adequacy and effectiveness of data security and data integrity procedures, to ensure compliance with established policy and operational procedures, and to recommend any necessary changes.

• Independent review and examination of records and activities to assess the adequacy of system controls, to ensure compliance with established policies and operational procedures, and to recommend necessary changes in controls, policies, or procedures.

• Analysis of invoices, lines, rates, tariffs, taxes, plans, usage, call volume, systems, and contracts resulting in cost reduction, proper invoicing and optimization of telecommunication systems often conducted by an independent telecommunications consultant or firm.