By MIKE POWELL

WITH the sub-prime mortgage crisis, liquidity crunches, and even the possibility of a recession dominating the headlines these days, companies are increasingly becoming cost-conscious and actively considering options to reduce business expenses, including expenditure on telecoms. Talk to the CIO of any major corporation about what's on their minds these days, especially with regard to managing telecommunications costs, and you're likely to hear a similar theme, 'We need to reduce our costs by 10-20 per cent'.

Too much to ask, you say? Not really - because with a reasonable investment in a TEM (Telecom Expense Management) solution, it's possible for companies to drive increased operational efficiency, enhanced service and reduced telecommunications expenses.

TEM is a set of software suites that allow the IT and finance departments of companies to work efficiently together to better manage their resources and reduce expenses. TEM is already well accepted in North America and across Western Europe.

The TEM application vertical is predicted to grow into a US$1.7 billion market by 2010, according to industry analyst Gartner. In Asia-Pacific, however, it's a relatively emerging business.

So what can TEM can do for businesses?

In a nutshell, TEM solutions enable organisations to manage complex billing data from suppliers, gain valuable end-customer information and reduce both operating and capital expenses. More and more enterprises are recognising the benefits that TEM can deliver:

• Savings of 2 to 5 per cent, by eliminating late payments and penalties
• 5-20 per cent reduced monthly telecom spend by auditing invoices against contracted services
• 15- 20 per cent reduction in OPEX on invoice processing through automation
• 4-10 per cent reduction in IT expenses by effectively eliminating wastage of non-used services

Widely different

In the Asia-Pacific region, the TEM marketplace is widely different from the rest of the world.

Most large corporations operate across 16 or more countries in the region - many of which have different languages & currencies.

Even early adopter corporations keen to look at TEM solutions in Asia-Pacific have been thwarted by the complexity of not only managing billings in multiple languages and currencies but also by the exchange rate variations and the myriad country-specific regulations they face across the region. The challenges in gaining control of telecom invoices are clearly more complex.

Nonetheless, it's the right time for TEM in the Asia-Pacific.

TEM has provided global CIOs significant savings. The total savings in telecom expenses with a TEM solution, according to Gartner, are upwards of 15 to 20 per cent for wireless services in North America.

In the Asia-Pacific, where processing an invoice can cost as much as US$75 due to the sheer number of countries and languages (compared with US$7-13 in North America), the potential savings are far greater.

Additionally, the current slowdown in global business is driving a conservative mindset even in the high-growth Asia-Pacific region. The time is right for TEM!

Let's start with the basics - the first step would be to look for a partner who can deliver a single Telecom Invoice Management (TIM) solution, a part of the overall TEM solution, with tools that automate invoice processing.

This will virtually eliminate late payments and penalties while delivering a single consolidated view of your billed services across multiple countries. Just this solution alone will save you money by driving visibility of spend patterns, allowing for right-sizing of services.

The ideal TEM solution provider, however, stretches beyond this. It should be able to offer customers the complete range of TEM solutions and services, delivered in a customised manner (per the customers' legal, regulatory, finance and IT parameters), across the entire region.

'Life cycle' solution

It should also be able to offer a modular, 'life-cycle' solution that allows customer organisations to start off as basic users, and then grow the scope and scale of services as they start realising gains from the solution.

Beyond the technical capabilities, it is critical to find a partner who can deliver a range of services, understands your business priorities and delivers you services as you require them to be - proactively and pre-emptively.

The partner needs to have a sound understanding of, and close relationships with, carriers across geographies, and the experience to effectively manage the complex challenges inherent in the world of telecoms.

A bit like marriage - except there is money to be saved here!

The most compelling measure of any Expense Management solution, however, has to be the money it saves and the time it takes to do so.

From our experience, a well-implemented telecom expense management solution has the ability to dramatically lower the cost of telecom ownership and can typically deliver ROI targets within the first year of service itself.

This is no time for rainbows - not with the global wobbles that we're experiencing now. However, this is probably the best time for organisations to invest into their business.

In times like this, when companies are looking for solutions that help them manage their telecom resources more efficiently and keep IT costs under control, the value of a well-managed telecom expense management solution cannot be overlooked as the a leading option in your IT and telecommunications strategy.

The writer is Vice-President of Service Delivery for Cable & Wireless Asia-Pacific.

This article was first published in The Business Times on January 05, 2009.