Most telecom managers are challenged with compiling and making sense of the vast amounts of billing information within their program.  Typically, delivering a 40,000 foot view of their program for budgeting, program health indicators and in some cases the administrator performance is not a problem. Where telecom managers fall short is understanding the story behind the numbers and the power of getting the right data in front of the right people.

Big Picture Reporting

Numbers are like an ever-changing foreign language that needs to be translated in order to understand the full story. For example, historical analysis like total cost, line count, cost per device will vary greatly after completing large projects within the program.

Here are a couple of examples of projects that effect costs in different ways.

1. Transitioning your user base from “dumb or feature phones” to “smartphones”.  Your line count will remain relatively the same however your costs per device will rise with the additional data plans required for these devices.
2. Eliminating zero use by canceling 10% of your lines, will reduce the total cost of your program where as cost per device will likely rise.

Right Data Right People

There are two additional savings opportunities that MOBI’s reporting capabilities provide our customers on an ongoing basis.

The first is the end-user and manager level reporting to drive behavior that reduce costs and identify new saving opportunities. Behavior enforcement centers around a company’s ability to show end-users and their departments what their usage is costing the company. For example, there might be business rules or policies for acceptable usage within the program. Opportunities exist to enforce these rules or policy on habitual offenders when this information is turned over to cost center owners and department managers. MOBI and program administrators may optimize a line thoroughly by matching plans and features to usage. For example, a device may not need 1000 minutes for calls or send 2000 text messages a month because the phone is a backup device for a department.

The second saving opportunity MOBI provides is based directly on the goals and the complexities of the wireless program.  For example, if Wireless User Contact Information is readily available, kickouts (lines not properly assigned to specific end-users) can be easily tracked and reconciled saving the program money. Another example of goal-based saving involves the profiling of the companies user base. A better understanding of job function and responsibilities sheds light on appropriate usage for specific groups of end-users saving money.  Dependent upon how aggressive companies cost saving goals are, MOBI can even charge end-users back for personal usage within our Blended Payment options.

This series of posts provided take-a-way projects that you can put into action today. If you’re interested in using MOBI’s billing solution to generate maximum savings, contact us at email@mobiwirelessmanagement.com.

My first post in this savings series detailed the importance of centralizing your wireless program’s data in order to generate maximum cost savings through the optimization process.

This post will help explain the cost-saving values associated with reallocating charges to different departments, which all starts with an accurate inventory of people and phones.

Every charge on a carrier bill has to be tied to a phone number, and that  number has to be tied to an individual  and at the very least to a cost center. In a best-in-class management scenario, that record would include all information associated with their WUCI, which would ensure an accurate inventory of both people and phones.

Once you have an accurate inventory and the carrier’s wireless bill in-hand you can now reallocate those charges to different departments for additional savings.

Allocating wireless costs to different departments helps to drive and enforce end-user behavior.  Once you’re able to review the usage habits of end-users and the subsequent costs you will uncover additional saving opportunities through behavior enforcement. Sounds simple, right?  Wrong.

Carriers tie most, but not all, charges to a phone number.  Each month there are adjustments to the previous month’s balance, which may include account level equipment charges or account level credits for billing errors.  All of these billing subtleties can be researched and verified by a billing analyst to make sure the whole bill can be paid – not just the current charges.

So how does MOBI help with inventory management?

MOBI’s holistic approach to wireless management coupled with highly configurable technology solutions makes this process simple.  The foundation to generating maximum savings is maintaining an accurate Wireless User Contact Information, in addition to an external asset and transaction management inventory.  This allows MOBI to ensure the right phone numbers and individuals get charged or credited accordingly.

How does MOBI help with allocating charges?

At MOBI, we allocate all the charges on the bill in a way that is fair and accurate, so costs are realized in a way to help drive best practice behaviors.  MOBI’s configurability allows us to allocate costs by breaking out charges according to minutes or kilobytes used. We can then weight averages across user groups, pass through charges and distribute pool costs in a way that is fair and accurate for every line.  With fair and accurate costs allocated across the company, MOBI can provide powerful usage reports to cost centers.

In my next post we will discuss the important of being able to provide accurate reporting to management in order to drive additional savings.