Hospitals and other healthcare organizations spend a lot of time and energy conducting audits for telecom expense management. Often identifying areas of savings once all equipment, processes, and usage have been accounted for and analyzed for improvement potential. It’s challenging to keep track of all of the extensive equipment that comes with telecom technology, as well as the analysis of lengthy invoices compared against actual usage or terms of the telecom contract.
Extensive audits can yield significant savings, with hospital administration identifying areas where unnecessary policies or equipment are tying up resources. Unfortunately, between audits, the use of telecom expense management strategies often fade into the background again and any gain realized during the audit may be lost until the next audit is conducted. This effect is often magnified when factors like employee turnover, new applications, and the growing use of mobility add to the complexity of telecom expense management.
Utilizing a telecom expense management software solution can remove many of the challenges healthcare organizations face when trying to implement the changes in an audit. These solutions use an automated approach to manage devices across the organization, compare and reconcile invoices as well as usage, and guide employees to the right corporate-approved mobile device.
There are two major benefits that come with using a telecom expense management solution: employees that have been dedicating their hours to reconciling invoices, managing mobile contracts, and looking for cost savings can now be assigned to other tasks. In addition, the managers assigned to monitor these activities can be redirected to objectives that add more value to the organization.
A telecom expense management solution offers the following features:
Sourcing: The solution helps match the requirements of the hospital’s telecom with providers’ contract options, then manages the relationship over the course of the contract terms. The solution will identify the best terms and pricing for your requirements.
Ordering and Provisioning: This feature allows for the ordering and provisioning of service plans and devices, managing the entire procurement process from requisition to fulfillment and then the deployment of devices. This feature serves to reduce costs and improve cost allocation.
Inventory: Both tangible and non-tangible assets can be tracked and managed, including telecom services, assets, and circuits. This feature can monitor asset serial numbers, computer and software licenses, vendor contracts, and service level agreements. All inventory activities can be synchronized to capture aspects like invoicing, sourcing, usage, and provisioning.
Invoicing: No activity related to telecom expense management takes more time than invoice management. An automated solution can receive, audit, and approve invoices.
Usage:Usage solutions combine call accounting and invoice data to gain a comprehensive view of wireline and wireless telecom usage. You can track and reconcile costs across user, department, cost center, or other categories to better understand usage across your organization.
Dispute: A telecom expense management solution helps you manage invoicing situations in which the charges are in dispute or there is a no-pay decision. This helps you easily catalog and view these decisions, as well as alert you when these charges reappear on a future invoice.
An audit is a way to quickly identify savings in a telecom expense management strategy, but the benefits don’t tend to be long-lasting. Instead, healthcare organizations often lapse back into the behaviors and processes that existed pre-audit, removing any gains realized.
When it’s time for your next audit, contact us at PAG. We can help you leverage the best telecom expense management solution to deliver savings that hold steady for your healthcare organization, even between audits.
