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Telecom Invoice Management - Keeping Up With Explosive Growth

According to the Telecommunications IndustryHistorically, telecom invoices were issued in
Association, the total spending in the U.S.paper form. Large enterprises might receive
telecommunications industry in 2005 amountedhundreds of them and they were a nightmare to
to $856.9 billion with an expected growth ofverify and reconcile, due to their volume and
9% per year through 2009. Internationalcomplexity. Today, invoices have electronic
spending (excluding the U.S.) for 2005 was atcounterparts, which make computerized invoice
$1.8 trillion and expanding even moremanagement  much  more  feasible.
sharply. This explosive growth fuels the need
for Telecom Expense Management (TEM), ofA further complication is that many different
which Invoice Management is a majorvendors may be involved in providing telecom
component.services. Integrating invoices from all these
different vendors into the invoice management
Invoice management includes thesystem can be a major challenge. Some vendors
administration, verification andmay provide paper invoices only, requiring
reconciliation of invoices. Benefits of anmanual data entry, while others may use a
automated  Invoice Management system include:variety  of  electronic  media.
*  Prevention  of penalties for late paymentsFortunately, there is a move towards
standardizing electronic invoicing in the
* Reduction of telecom costs by catchingindustry, but even so the invoice level of
billing  errorsdetail may vary from vendor to vendor, which
adds to further complications. In selecting a
* Verification of invoices against contractedtelecom expense management system, it is
rates ensuring negotiated rates are beingvital to select a system that can deal easily
appliedwith  these  disparities.
* Having an accurate inventory of existingOnce an invoice management system is
telecom facilities relative to billedoperational, the time and cost savings can be
facilities,  which  might  save another 5-25%considerable. Depending on the size of the
enterprise, this can amount to many thousands
* Reconciliation of actual calls based on CDRof dollars, which means the system will pay
from PBXs and wireless devices againstfor itself in short order. Savings can be
invoiced  calls  from  carrierseven greater if effective inventory control
is instituted as part of the (TEM) strategy.



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