The need for greater insight and control of technology assets leads enterprises to TEM

Enterprises challenged by rising costs, increasingly mobile workforces, and rapidly advancing technologies are turning to Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solutions to meet their current and future technology management needs, according to a survey conducted by global market intelligence firm IDC on behalf of Tangoe, the global TEM and managed mobility services (MMS) standard for America’s greatest brands.

The survey featured 600 companies with more than 1,000 employees from multiple industries across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany.

The results, to be presented at the upcoming Tangoe Roadshows, showed the vast majority of people surveyed find TEM solutions essential to optimize telecom and mobility expenses.

Businesses must find new ways to reduce and optimize mobility costs. Mobile devices are increasing across the globe at a dramatic rate and are expected to accelerate with next-generation technologies. Enterprises already forced to manage highly complex technologies will see the challenge increase. They need scalable management solutions that grow with them. Recent IDC research shows 66 percent of U.S. enterprises anticipate investing more in mobility in the next 12 – 18 months and more than 40 percent cite Internet of Things (IoT) devices and machine learning applications as technologies they expect to use in the next three years.

The new survey results, published in an IDC InfoBrief, sponsored by Tangoe, titled “Telecom Expense Management: Order in a Complex World”, show enterprises are plagued by multiple challenges in how they manage telecom and mobile expenses. Respondents reported their five most significant challenges are:

• Forecasting for future expenses (32%)
• Validating telecom invoice accuracy (26%)
• Managing and maintaining an accurate telecom service inventory (26%)
• Accurately allocating invoiced charges (24%)
• Accurately charging back costs across the business (24%)

By using a telecom expense management solution, respondents noted they could better optimize technology and telecom expenses, accurately allocate assets and simplify vendor bills while improving invoice accuracy. Cost savings and optimization drives TEM adoption, and respondents cite service quality and technology as significantly more important in choosing a solution vs. the cost of the solution itself. Long-term control over costs was cited as more important than initial savings gained from TEM solution adoption. Enterprises are willing to invest more on a superior solution, and value greater efficiency, control and productivity within their organizations over initial decreases in telecom costs.

“Enterprises today are challenged with managing an increasingly complex ecosystem of technology assets and services. This is becoming more complex as new technologies like 5G, IoT, and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) learning solutions become widely adopted,” said Bob Irwin, CEO of Tangoe. “Companies need high quality, cost effective solutions to address their technology management challenges and enable them to work smarter. Productivity gains drive business success and global organizations rely on technology expense management solutions to control their technology investments.”

The survey found 89% of global enterprises have adopted a formal telecom expense management solution. This includes 67% that manage their telecom expenses internally with technology provided by a TEM provider and 21% that formally outsource their telecom expense management to a third party solution provider.  The three most important qualities in a TEM managed services provider, according to respondents, were the quality of services, the quality of technology and the cost of services.

To attend a Tangoe Roadshow in the city nearest you and get further insight into the full IDC InfoBrief results, register here: https://www2.tangoe.com/tangoe10citytour