With the move to nearly all digital telecommunications, which include data, voice, and mobile/tablet devices, big carriers have had to invest billions in building up mobile and fiber-optic networks. The cost of those systems is being paid by, well, your company and many others. Unfortunately many companies lack visibility and control over their telecom spend. And the more the company grows with multiple offices across many states, the more time consuming and labor intensive it becomes to manage the complicated infrastructure. 

Nowadays, often only Fortune 500 companies can dial up the volume discounts that help to reduce costs and increase efficiency. These large companies are able to afford the typical approach of Telecom Expense Management firms, which is to charge expensive software licenses and professional services fees to companies to manage their telecom through a single, online dashboard. 

However there are other unique options of TEM that mid-size companies can afford. For example, a company called vCom Solutions provides the software and professional services for free. No charge. Instead, vCom distributes the carriers’ services — such as Verizon or Sprint — to its customers and uses its wholesale buying power to pass along savings. 

Gary Storm, CEO and founder of vCom Solutions, said that the high cost and complexity of telephone bills and service hassles with the phone company are making the carrier direct model cumbersome and obsolete. Tomorrow’s businesses will expect telecom service to be a low-cost commodity with the invoicing and carrier relationships left to a management firm. 

“From our company’s earliest days we recognized the significant transformation that was going to happen in telecom,” said Storm. “It’s why we continually invested in the development of software-as-a-service products. Technology has now reached a point where the transition from a ‘carrier direct’ model to a ‘distribution’ model is happening.”

As featured in: The CFO Evolution Newsletter, Armanino McKenna LLP, July 2011

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