Telecom expense management (TEM) solutions automate the entire telecom lifecycle including contract sourcing, ordering, inventory management, invoice processing/auditing, wireless expense management and reporting/analytics. Despite these benefits, many organizations have not yet initiated the migration to automated TEM platforms.

The recent mid-market telecom expense management trends survey from CCMI finds that lack of sufficient technical and analytical resources hinder telecom expense management in small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB).

The survey, “Mid-Market Telecom Expense Management Trends: Implications and Best Practices for Wireline & Wireless Expense Management in the SMB Market,” analyzes telecom expense management challenges faced by these organizations.

According to CCMI, the current telecom environment – a mix of complex wireless and wireline services within the organization as well as the services from multiple service providers – make the process more complex and difficult to handle.

The lack of technical and analytical skill sets to effectively manage the procurement, deployment and expense associated with the services also worsens the TEM scenario.

According to the survey, 42 percent of respondents process 10 or more invoices each month, some tackling 25 or more monthly. One third of the companies surveyed use three or more wireless service providers.

SMBs are not yet serious about adopting automatic TEM services, which according to industry experts, save significant cost and resources. The survey found only 9 percent of the firms use automated tools to track and manage telecom expenses.

Organizations lacking these tools not only need visibility into their telecom expenses, but also miss good opportunities to avail lowest possible prices and better services.  Almost one-half are not sure they have the optimum mix of services and the lowest possible prices, and well over one-half believe they can do better.

 “These firms are in a difficult position because traditionally the scope of communications services they used and associated expense simply did not warrant dedicated staff,” said George David, president of CCMI. “But as this survey details, the SMB communications environment in 2012 is markedly different.”

“The good news is that the emergence of cloud-based expense management software coupled with the proper use of communications service aggregators offers SMBs viable options to better manage costs,” David added.

In a recent development in the TEM industry, vCom Solutions announced it has been chosen to manage telecom expenses for Western Independent Bankers (WIB) and its wholly-owned products and services subsidiary WIB Service Corporation (WIBSCO).