Healthcare providers must focus on other priorities. Smartphones, tablets and machine-to-machine mobile communications offer more applications for healthcare providers. However, opportunities to improve productivity and healthcare leveraging the benefits of mobility come at a high price.

Healthcare service providers face increased financial pressure due to changes in health coverage and reductions in reimbursement rates from insurance providers. Administrative personnel focus on managing patient insurance issues. As government healthcare plans bundle their reimbursement payments, providers have pursued mergers and acquisitions to achieve greater efficiencies and economies of scale. A proactive approach to manage telecom communications expenses will pay for itself by eliminating unnecessary spending.

Inventory Reconciliation 10%-15% Savings
Healthcare service providers simply don’t have the resources maintain an accurate inventory of telecom services and validate bills from telecom carriers. Reconciliation of site locations to bills will frequently identify opportunities to save money from closed locations. Most organizations fail to verify that disconnected items from closed sites or discontinued services are removed from bills. In addition, healthcare service providers are frequently paying for duplicate services and other items that they no longer need.

Savings for these items can amount to 10%-15% of the bill. They are significant because each month you are paying for extra services that can be removed with no impact to your services. If you have good records of cancellation requests, we can secure refunds for these items.

Billing Overcharges 5%-15% Savings
Reconciliation of contracts to bills will also identify overcharges. Organizations with multiple locations often pay different prices for the same services from a carrier. This occurs because they fail to reference contracts or other special pricing arrangements. Billing errors are common if you have special pricing.

Contract Negotiation and Sourcing 25%-40% Savings
If you don’t have special discounts, contracts have not been benchmarked, or you have not had someone review the pricing there will probably be opportunities to negotiate better deals. For most clients, Tellennium is able to negotiate savings of 25% to 40%. Our experience in negotiating contracts allows us to find hidden savings opportunities on telecommunications expenses. Learn how Tellennium’s program will pay for itself. through bill validation, inventory reconcilaition and contract negotiation and better sourcing. BACK

The ways in which employees use mobile services are changing. Smartphones, tablets, mobile apps and how people communicate is moving from voice calls to data services with e-mails, video, social media websites and other forms of communication. In our experience, employers are now paying for extra voice minutes for employees that they no longer need. If you pool employees’ voice services you probably have pools of extra minutes that you no longer need. On the other hand, employees may need service plans that allow for more data consumption.

You need to collect all of your employees’ bills for mobile services to do a thorough analysis of what they are using. After you compare it to their service plans you can determine cost saving changes. Next you will probably need to negotiate a new mobile service plan. You may want to issue an RFP to get competitive quotes from other carriers. Even if you are not seeking to make a change, simply issuing an RFP can create an environment where your current providers knows that they will have to offer you more competitive pricing for mobile service plans.

Also, consider that changes in how employees use mobile services are also affecting your fixed or wireline services. Changes in mobile communications will also mean changes in wireline services. These changes mean that you are probably paying too much for telecom services.    

If you don’t have the resources or the time to do the analysis we can help. Learn how Tellennium’s program will pay for itself.  BACK

Employers are grappling with mobile devices and demands from employees. Here are five quick strategies and tips.

1. Centralize and streamline management.

Centralization makes it easier to consolidate wireless plans for volume discounts and ensure that corporate policies are uniformly applied at all locations. This helps reduce ongoing administrative costs. It also enables you to get access to uniform reporting to see key trends in spending and consumption.

2. Jump into the Pool

With pooling of employees’ mobile voice service plans, managers can balance the consumption of infrequent phone users with power users who frequently exceed their monthly minutes. But do your homework first. You will need to determine if you have pool busters that need unlimited plans. Also, remember that picking the right size pool is critical because overage charges can be billed at five times the standard rate.

3. Get a Home for Orphaned Plans

Ten percent or more of active wireless lines at large organizations are allocated to users who no longer work for their employer. By identifying those lines, you can see 10 percent in saving. Some of the devices have no usage. In other cases, former employees are continuing to use their mobile devices. It takes some effort to reconcile HR files with bills, but the work will pay for itself. If you don’t have the resources consider Tellennium. Every month that you fail to act you are losing money that you will never recover.

4. Update Your Corporate Mobile Policy

Most organizations have a mobile policy. If you haven’t updated it in the past 12 months, it is probably out of date. Does your policy  address smartphones and tablets? What about data consumption. Recent moves by AT&T and Verizon to end unlimited data plans for consumers are starting to affect the corporate market. At a minimum your policy should set expectations for how much data employees will use. Many firms are now considering Bring your Own Device (BYOD) programs. Your policy should address this new trend. It may be appropriate for some employees, but you may find that you need to secure sensitive data on employee’s devices. Learn more from a earlier post on BYOD.

5. Consider outsourcing.

Telecommunications expense management and Wireless can provide usage patterns, identify cost-savings opportunities and help you to negotiate better deals with carriers. An effective program will help you get control of your inventory, optimize expenses, enforce corporate policy, provide reporting and accountability through visibility and cut expenses. Contact us today to learn how Tellennium’s program will pay for itself.   BACK

1. Validate all charges on your bills

If you have telecom services, you have billing errors. Telecom bills are complex with a wide range of services that have different contract provisions. Common errors in local and long distance charges occur through metering malfunctions or clerical errors. For example, a service or call may be shown twice on a bill. There can also be mistakes in applying tariffs, contracts and special pricing. Tax errors can occur with mistakes in the calculation of a tax or imposition of a tax for the wrong jurisdiction or on a company that has an exemption. Learn more about telecom auditing.

2. Use inventory to remove unused lines and validate bills

It is amazing to see the number of firms that have unused lines. If you have had any site closings or changes in services, there is a good chance your bills do not reflect your current inventory. You may be charged for services that have been disconnected or for items that are associated with another subscriber.

Start by collecting all the inventory data sources that your organization has. This will include spreadsheets, databases, carrier information, Customer Service Records (CSRs), and any other data source that has a record of what telecommunications assets you currently own and your current locations. Step two is to create a database with fields shown below.

Service Provider or Telecom Carrier

• Circuit/Service Type
• Circuit ID/Phone Number
• Account Number/Sub Account Number
• Circuit/Service Status (e.g., in service/out of service)
• Installation Location (street, city, state, zip)
• Quoted Amount for Service
• Install Date
• Disconnect Date
• Change Date
• Port Speed/CIR (if applicable)
• Employee ID (if applicable)
• Contract Length (if applicable)
• PIC/LPIC (if applicable)
• Features (if applicable) 

Next try to verify the inventory’s accuracy by doing site surveys, call in projects and other automated tests. If you are a large company with thousands of locations, you might just choose to do the largest sites or focus on the more costly data services. Also as part of the survey try to identify circuits that are not connected to anything.

Once your centralized inventory database is in place, the challenge is to be vigilant in keeping it accurate. The biggest reason databases lose their integrity is the lack of automation and repeatable processes to keep the information accurate. With telecom the challenge comes from provisioning or Move, ADD, Change and Disconnect, MACD activity.

3. Optimize your services and plans

Disconnecting underutilized lines and services and ensuring they are removed from billing can drive significant savings. An accurate inventory can also be used to groom or optimize services. Sometimes it is a simple as a paperwork change rather than a major reconfiguration of your network. Consider upgrading to higher capacity services. For example a T1 can be less costly than 5 lines. With six or eight T1 lines, the price of a T3 line is more competitive. A T3 line is equivalent to 28 T1 lines. Grooming or replacing a number of T1 lines with a T3 will reduce costs. Learn more about telecom optimization.

4. Hire a telecom consultant for telecom auditing optimization and ongoing expense management

Time is money. If your staff cannot implement the tasks listed above, consider hiring a professional telecom consulting firm. An initial telecom audit will uncover many areas for cost-savings. Remember each month that you fail to act you could be forfeiting savings. The Statute of Limitations in most states allow six years for submitting claims on local billing errors and two years for long distance. However, carriers have been adding provisions in contracts to limit the time to file refund claims to six months. So it is critical that you act to secure your savings. An ongoing telecom expense management program will help lock in the savings and automate critical functions.

Contact us today to learn how Tellennium’s program will pay for itself.   BACK

1. Evaluate

The first step is to evaluate how employees currently use mobile devices. This may involve updating your inventory of devices they use and service plans. Many organizations are starting to evaluate employee liable and Bring Your Own Device to Work programs. A key consideration should be security of corporate data. The rise in mobile malware and other security threats is leading many organizations to put more controls I place. An earlier post provides more information on this debate.  

2. Make a Plan

A mobile policy should include sections that explain

• The Policy and Goals
• Eligibility
• Acceptable Use
• Financial Responsibility
• Program Management
• Equipment

3. Automate Mobile Policy Enforcement

A wireless mobile management solution can help automate policy compliance using technology to automate policy enforcement. Establishing a standard approach for ordering services and request approvals is a good place to start. An online mobile store can provide a single interface for employees to order devices and services from all carriers. It can limit the options that employees are offered to pre-authorized devices and services. Employees and managers can use it to request replacement devices, cancel services, or request upgrades. The portal can help track mobile assets and services.  

4. Revisit Your Strategy Frequently

Has your mobile policy been updated in the last 12 months? Many enterprises have not updated their policy to keep up with wireless technology and changing business needs. Do employees use their personal devices to access corporate e-mail? Are they using tablets? Adoption of smartphones and tablets should lead to a review of policy since these devices contain sensitive corporate data. If you have not recently updated your policy, consider establishing a cross-functional team to work on the updates.

5. Educate Employees Regarding Your Mobile Policy

Include mobility policy as part of new hire orientations. Periodic seminars and a newsletter can help reinforce the message and explain the policy. Let employees know about reporting and give them visibility into expenses. Automated reporting for wireless services can provide managers and individuals with visibility into the longest calls, most expensive calls and unnecessary expenses.

Conclusion

Updating your mobility policy and using automated tools to enforce the policy can help save money. On average, enterprises with an effective mobility policy spend 40% less per user on mobile voice services. Contact us today to learn how Tellennium can help.  BACK