Critical Requirements in a Global Telecommunication Expense Management Solution

Small world? It's still pretty big when it comes to Telecom Expense Management (TEM).

Your company is (or soon will be) global. Now you've been tasked with corralling your company's global telecommunications investment. It has senior-level visibility across the entire company. You're the Christopher Columbus of IT. He had it rough out there for a while and you may too. So hopefully this article will help you avoid some of the common problems associated with going for Global TEM.

Why even do it?

Why go through the struggles of synchronizing the myriad of processes, software, vendors and people? And is it worth it when you layer on the lingual, cultural and time-zone differences? For most, the answer is "absolutely". The two major goals are to increase your company's ability to make or save money without affecting quality. Efficiency gain, collaboration, visibility, and fiscal accountability are in there as well but they can easily be pointed back to the almighty Yen, Euro, Pound, and Dollar. And with the telecommunications investment up there (with compensation packages) as the highest line item expense, companies just like yours look at it as a windfall if done correctly.

What are realistic Global TEM

Global TEM capabilities vary wildly amongst the providers and we'll tell you why.

USA! USA!

Let's take a US-based TEM firm in New York or other metropolitan locale. Realistically the CEO and head of sales can look out a window and identify hundreds (thousands if the windows are clean and the skies clear) of prospects that need their product and services. The motivation to leave some states, never mind the country, may never materialize. There will always be local, massive corporations to pursue. For the customers that do have international locations, the TEM provider will be stretched to handle the additional business in a limited capacity. There are some exceptions, but that is usually the state of TEM providers founded and located in the US.

...! ...! (Singapore! Singapore!)

Now look out that same window in another market (Sydney or Singapore for example) and you may have a different story. The number of companies is now in the low hundreds and the smart CEO is thinking, "Everything I do is to help me win here AND to expand into other countries." Again, there are exceptions but that is the usual makeup for a company that was founded international and is still there or now based in the US (or both).

Point we're trying to make: Educate yourselves on what help is out there and set your goals accordingly.

Here are some realistic goals that a true Global TEM provider can help you with

Standard providers will support

• A single-database for all telco carrier information such as billing, inventory, contracts & provisioning activity. The system should support the consolidating of all expense and inventory types (i.e. landline AND mobile) and should have a healthy amount of electronic billing mappers (better than paper bills) for international telco carriers. How to validate: Get a demo of the software they use and ask for a list of bill mappers by continent and you'll know quickly.
• Audits of your telco carrier information against your list of locations and users. How to validate: Discuss integration with HR and premises database and how that info is used. Have them show you where location and HR data is fed and stored for all countries in the system and reports.
• Integration with your GL and chargeback system(s) for payment instructions. When providers pass along chargeback/payment details to accounting they typically customize the feeds into file formats such as Excel. How to validate: Talk to a reference and ask them how payment details are getting sent over and how they're handling multiple accounting systems for international locations.
• Visibility across inventory, spend, contract & MACD activity in dashboard reports. How to validate: Specifically look for the integration of landline and mobile service types in the inventory reports, the currency indicators in the spend reports (if there's a "$" in the reports it was probably designed for US use), and discuss how currency updates are coordinated.
• Conversion of most paper billing into electronic data formats. Just because they can provide a large list of mappers doesn't mean they're especially good at supporting them (when the carriers change them without notice and the system breaks) or building new ones (when the carrier releases new products). How to validate: Discuss SLA's around updates and how they charge for new ones. A true Global TEM provider will have aggressive time frames to fix format changes and will build new ones as part of a special maintenance program.

Exceptional providers will also support

• Non-English character support for billing. This is especially important for AsiaPac deployments that use symbols such as Kanji. And although most mainland Asia billing can be converted to English, expansion into areas such as Hong Kong, Vietnam, and Taiwan can be hampered without this ability.
• 24X7 support options. True Global TEM providers will have a few non-US locations to eliminate the time zone challenges around deployment and support services.
• Advanced encryption of databases. The ability to wrap additional layers of encryption around data storage and transmission will be especially important in the EMEA region, where the EU Data Privacy guidelines are the legal reality. See Safe Harbor in next section for more detail.
• Engagements with non-US companies. Companies that are US-based and have an international presence are one thing but when your TEM provider can connect you to customers that have been successfully deployed and serviced in an purely international location, you're in good hands.
• Experience in global process deployments. You should not have to develop the strategy for deploying TEM services simultaneously in AsiaPac, South America & the UK. The Global TEM provider should, with confidence, call up numerous deployments that fit your goals.
• Multi-lingual staff. "Esto aumentará el nivel de confort de esos lugares que pueden ser nuevas para la experiencia TEM" (This will increase the comfort level of those locations that may be new to the TEM experience). Also, you can have the best local support available.
• Itemized charge storage for tax break-outs. Whether it's USF for US, PST/GST for Canada or VAT taxes for the UK, the ability to store and break out taxes for coding and credits is a capability you can and should expect in today's market. The telco carrier's billing side may need some work but the software should have ample storage for a detailed breakout of these charges.

Crème de la Crème providers will also maintain

• Safe Harbor status – There are less than a ½ dozen providers that have gone through the technical and legal process of gaining this status. It is an increasing "must-have" by any company with a UK presence. The Safe Harbor framework calls for "adequate protection" of personal data transferred from Europe to the U.S. as required by the European Union's Directive on Data Protection (EU Directive). The EU Directive prohibits the transfer of personal data to non-EU nations that do not meet the European adequacy standard for privacy protection.
• In English: You cannot store or transfer personal data related to TEM, including individual employee IDs, invoices and other personally identifiable information from the UK to the US without this certification. It frazzles the lawyers.
• International locations (non-partner) – There are many firms in the TEM landscape with international partners. There is no guarantee they've actually worked together beyond establishing their partnership and created any synergies that you'll actually benefit from. If you come do across a provider with international locations that are in the same company, you can be assured your priorities are their priorities as well.

Summary

We hope the above information will be a useful compass as your global strategy is being developed. You can implement a successful Global TEM solution. Choosing the right TEM provider will make it easier.

About the Author

Louis Crespo is the VP of Marketing of Quickcomm Software. Louis Crespo is responsible for marketing, new product development and industry analysis for Quickcomm. Louis has more than ten years of experience in both sales and technology roles in the telecom expense management field.