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 A Better Way to Cut Costs with Telecom Expense Management
White Paper |
Category: Negotiations / Renegotiations Network Services Process Transformation
Once upon a time, there was one phone company and all the rotary dial phones came in one color: black.
Back then it was easy to decipher your Bell telephone bill. Today, however, few companies have the time, expertise, specialized systems, applications or processes to handle their ever more complicated telephony bills, which have become an important place to save money. The difficulty becomes geometrically more challenging for corporations with thousands of phone lines, data lines, switches, cell phones and tablets for which it now must pay.
Are you paying your cell phone or landline provider too much? How do you really know? Here's how one company took a call for action.
Strategies to Reduce Network Costs in a Rapidly Changing Environment
White Paper |
Category: Strategy & Business Case Benchmarking Network Services...
The cost of an organization's telecommunications network services (voice, data and wireless), typically accounts for three to six percent of overhead and can average more than two percent of total revenue. In addition, telecom network services spend is increasing. Industry forecasts predict enterprise businesses' spend on IT and telecom will increase 3.7 percent in 2012 over 2011.
The current level of cost coupled with the anticipated increase makes controlling total network services spend a top-level imperative for all IT leaders, requiring them to scrutinize telecom costs and seek out every option for savings. Over the past 10 years, working with hundreds of clients, Alsbridge has learned a thing or two about managing network services spend. We've identified several trends and management strategies to help IT leaders rein in runaway network costs.
Alsbridge expects the market to continue to experience the following trends for the near-term:
- Vendor Side
- Full Service providers will continue to be difficult to negotiate with on pricing and contract Terms and Conditions as they flex their market power and continue to focus on trying to maintain their market share and revenue streams as they adjust to new market conditions and an overall shift in mindshare and CAPEX from the enterprise to the wireless and consumer markets. As a result, contract pricing and Terms and Conditions will begin to be a real differentiator between Full Service and Business Wire-Line providers.
- Layoffs will continue at Full Services companies, making retention of quality FTEs increasingly difficult.
- Vendor consolidation will continue, while integration issues also plague the market.
- The Business Wire-Line space will experience more activity, including increasing financial stability, driving better scale and service.
- Network services pricing will continue to decline year-over-year.
- The gap between the lowest price point for a particular service and the average price for that same service will widen.
With network services pricing continuing to decline and utilization continuing to increase, IT leaders have to consider and implement sourcing and benchmarking strategies that will help them control telecom costs and ensure effective service. Understanding recent market trends and forecasts is the first step to getting a handle on those cost and service issues. Coupling that understanding with industry-leading insights on how to effectively create a benchmarking and sourcing approach is the winning combination to successfully managing your network services strategy.
The "New Market Entry" Sole Source Option
White Paper |
Category: Provider Selection IT Infrastructure & Applications Finance & Accounting Services...
Sole source has gotten a bad rap over the years. Most companies associate sole source with overpriced, provider favorable deals defined by their low service levels. Current conventional wisdom in the sourcing industry advocates a multiple provider approach which encourages healthy competitive tension and client leverage by spreading around project among those providers who deliver the best overall value. Sole source therefore, is anathema to procurement departments raised on the holy grail of competitive processes. However, even the most ardent supporters of the competitive process agree, albeit reluctantly, that there are the two "traditional" times when sole source may be appropriate, based on the business strategy and requirements of the buyer.
The first occasion where sole source would be appropriate, occurs when a company wants to re-new an existing outsourcing relationship. For example, if the current provider is meeting all of its contractual and intangible commitments (meaning, it is both a cultural fit and "easy to do business with"), including bringing new innovation, year-over-year productivity gains, and improvements in risk mitigation, then sole source would be the correct approach.
Because of competitive pressures, companies are now looking at the possibility of outsourcing processes that have not been outsourced before. The need to reduce costs, improve efficiency, and avoid investments in facilities, processes and systems has forced the, "art of the possible" discussions within the C-suite that culturally would not have taken place before. The processes under scrutiny are outside the normal SG&A processes and include some industry specific ones as well as those that touch revenue generation and product development. For example, Alsbridge is engaged in discussions with clients about outsourcing legal services, evaluating marketing and advertising expenses from an outsourcing lens, audit, and actuarial services to name just a few.
This desire to look at every cost within the enterprise drives the second reason we are seeing new market entry sole source projects. These are the unique situations in which a buyer's research shows there may only be one provider who has the capabilities needed by the buyer. What is not well known is that there is a third situation in which sole source makes sound business sense for both the buyer and provider. These are what we call "new market entry" sole source transactions. They are not common but happen more often than most in the industry realize - particularly today when windows of opportunity open quickly and speed is of the essence.
How to Stop Overpaying for Network Services in 2012
eSeminar |
Category: Strategy & Business Case Network Services Outsourcing
Over the past decade, network services spend has become a top business expense and cause for concern. The rapidly evolving telecommunications industry creates both opportunities and challenges at each phase of a telecommunications contract.
Network services (including voice, data, internet, wireless, local, access, international and managed services), typically account for three to six percent of overhead and have a significant impact on your business operations. While network is viewed as a commodity, it's a high value commodity with thousands of different rate elements. With network services pricing continuing to decline year over year, have you considered your sourcing and benchmarking strategy to ensure you are not currently overpaying?
Space is limited.
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