Operators and TEM: Is the Argument About the Fox Guarding the Henhouse Going Away?

K. Weldon

Summary Bullets:

• Nearly all Tier 1 US and global mobile operators offer multi-carrier telecom expense management (TEM), providing voice and data usage information, billing reconciliation, and cost allocation, as well as advice on service/spend optimization.
• But independent TEM software vendors and IT service providers claim operators can’t be objective about mobile spend and shouldn’t be trusted to advise customers on how to optimize mobile expenses.

TEM is important because it is often the first step taken by enterprises to take control over their mobility environments. Before plunging into more extensive deployments of mobile applications or investing in more devices and service plans, they need to take a granular snapshot of what devices and services they already have, and see if they are spending wisely across all their carriers. At first glance it would seem unlikely that they would go to one of their primary carriers to get advice on where to spend (or not to spend) their telecom budgets. However, nearly all global carriers are now offering this as a managed service, often using platforms from leading TEM software vendors. Vodafone Global Enterprise has taken this a step further by acquiring two TEM vendors (Quickcomm and TnT Expense Management) and setting up a separate TEM practice with add-on professional services.