Firms are losing billions on failed telecoms projects; could yours be one of them?
By Paul Fegan who chairs the CMA's Telecoms Cost Management Forum.
A study recently conducted by Forrester Research has highlighted that businesses are failing to properly source and manage telecoms projects resulting in billions of unnecessary costs. The report states that 'chief information officers (CIOs) are not committing enough staff resources to telecom strategies, sourcing or governance'.
Even with a reforecast of UK economic growth to 0.3 per cent rather than 0.1 per cent for the last quarter, there is a continued requirement for private and public sector organisations to closely manage all aspects of cost management including budget spent on telecoms provision. In addition, forecasts from analysts such as Gartner predict either flat or negligible growth for global IT and telecoms expenditure in 2010, placing even greater emphasis on the need to efficiently managing existing budgets.
The challenge facing the budget owner continues to be the need to implement new platforms, devices and applications that will deliver either business growth or service enhancements with no extra budget and without impacting current service levels.
Essentially, they need to spend the same money twice.
Whilst telecoms cost management (TCM) cannot claim to double the telecoms budget of an organisation, industry figures estimate savings of between 12 and 18 per cent can be achieved through pro-active management of expenditure relating to the telecoms estate. With IT and telecoms still ranking as one of the top three costs of an organisation, recouping a percentage of this spend could enable the deployment of new projects or simply boost the bottom line results.
The Forrester report also emphasises the need to ensure that the appropriate skills and experience are allocated to all aspects of telecoms sourcing and management:
As organisations plan their IT projects for 2010 and beyond, CIOs need to change the way they approach, plan and source their telecoms ... "looking beyond their existing sourcing models whilst dedicating the right skills and adequate time to projects".
Whether allocating in-house expertise or employing the services of a TCM specialist, the addition of a review of all telecoms expenditure to the overall cost cutting agenda could deliver substantial cost savings and provide an opportunity to 'spend the same money twice'. Through comprehensive analysis an organisation can uncover savings resulting from discount schemes that have been incorrectly applied, erroneous charges on historical bills and under-utilised lines. A positive result for public and private sector businesses alike.
Damovo fully endorse the views expressed by the CMA, Forrester and Gartner. In fact in certain respects Damovo believe that the potential for cost savings is extremely conservative.
For example, with fixed mobile convergence now easily and seamlessly achieved without the need to involve network operators it’s possible to reduce mobile call costs by as much as 50% or more. At the same time as harmonising voice mail systems, call logging and voice recording of mobile traffic, whilst providing one business number to all users. And that’s just the start of the potential saving.
Why not try out the simple cost saving calculation tool and see how much you can potentially save on mobile call costs – click to view
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