Telecom Expense Management Defined
Technology, IT Financial Management, ITFM, and Telecom Expense Management, TEM programs were created to proactively reduce expenses, introduce new efficiencies, increase visibility and provide better control for telecom (fixed and mobile voice and data) services. Increasingly with the blurring between IT and telecommunications, TEM programs also include management of technology expenses.
Several acronyms and other terms fall under the TEM heading. IT Financial Management or ITFM programs seek to optimize and manage IT expenses. Wireless Expense Management or WEM focuses on mobile expenses with employee portals for procurement of devices and service plans, and emphasis on managing and optimizing pools of voice minutes and shared data plans. New terms have been introduced to address management of mobile devices and support including Mobile Device Management (MDM), Mobile Application Management (MAM), Managed Mobility Services (MMS) and Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) and Mobile Security Management (MSM). These terms are addressed in a post titled “Defining MDM, EMM, MMS and other Terms Related to WEM”.
TEM has ten major focus areas:
- Inventory management and change control
- Sourcing
- Procurement and fulfillment
- Invoice management
- Expense management (including validation and optimization)
- Usage management and chargeback
- Bill payment
- ITFM and Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM)
- Reporting
- Business Intelligence.
TEM Components
The above diagram shows the domains and illustrates how TEM requires technology, people and process to manage the full ongoing lifecycle of IT and telecom expenses. Future posts will provide additional information about these domains. Download the RFP Template for For Business Process Outsourcing of TEM, WEM and IT Expense Management to see a detailed description of each of the 10 focus areas.
