Wireless inventory is like wireline inventory in one main respect. It’s important for your wireless expense management (WEM) organization because it serves as the bedrock of data quality for your expense management program.
All other expense management services will base their analytics on the integrity of this data so getting this right matters a great deal.
Yet it is something that is often overlooked when enterprise expense management leaders start evaluating how to improve their expense management programs.
Wireless expense management leaders often don’t give inventory the thought they should at the beginning of their WEM discovery process because it’s more boring than, say, audit or optimization analyses that can capture the lion’s share of attention with potential eye-catching savings figures.
It’s these flashier services that often get more discussion time in Sales pitches
Wireless Inventory – Foundation of WEM
As noted, a comprehensive and accurate TEM inventory serves as a strong foundation for all the enterprise expense management analytical work that will need to be performed in all aspects of a healthy and sustainable TEM or WEM program.
So, naturally, inferior data from sub-par inventories (e.g., invoice detail-built) will yield poorer TEM program results while far more comprehensive and clean data inventories (e.g., CSR- attribute-built detail) will properly support all aspects of a TEM or WEM program in this case.
Of course, it’s needed for both wireline inventories and wireless inventories, but we’ll focus on the benefits of a strong wireless inventory in this article. Be sure any TEM or wireless expense management provider you choose to partner with in the future values the importance of a highly detailed and accurate wireless inventory seriously.
5 Reasons Why a Wireless Inventory is Important for Your TEM Program
1. Wireless inventory management helps with tracking your organization’s wireless devices
Tablets and smartphones are the front and center items here for most enterprises. You can’t manage what you are not measuring, so the very accurate tracking of these devices, tablets, and other wireless assets is important for strong, clean, wireless device expense management.
It’s also noteworthy to mention that wireless network security is enhanced through a highly detailed and accurate inventory. Your information technology team will be in a much better position to monitor device configurations within the network and update accordingly with software updates.
2. Wireless inventory management will help to reduce your communications expenses
Because you can clearly see the wireless devices, services, and assets you are utilizing within your TEM program, your ability to save money increases; you can now more easily identify areas of waste or needed optimization.
Example – Data usage charges are a common example of something we see regularly. If you and your team are not aware of soaring charges in this regard, it could cost your organization hundreds of thousands of dollars in short order, depending upon the size of your company and the plan(s) that you are employees are on.
This occurs because employees don’t typically track their data usage, especially if the company is paying for their mobile device and phone plan. They won’t care but you certainly need to.
3. Wireless inventory management will help to streamline your services in use
An extremely detailed wireless inventory housing data at the most granular levels will help more easily identify services, devices, and added features that can be removed because they are either not being used properly, adequately, or at all.
Example – Roaming charges: Some enterprises have high-traveling employees that are talkative. Much of this talk may be driven by business, and some of it may simply be personal.
Either way, reviewing these types of charges in detail and understanding what is best for both the business and your employees (they are an important part of it) will help you and your expense management team decide on any sensible vendor, service, or plan changes.
4. Wireless inventory management will provide better visibility into your wireless spending and facilitate vendor negotiations
As the old saying goes, “knowledge is power.” And knowing exactly what you have under wireless network management is critical to being able to perform insightful side-by-side comparisons of vendor plans, services, and devices, both from an operational and a cost perspective. You will gain clarity and be empowered to make much stronger wireless expense management decisions for your organization.
5. Wireless inventory management done well will also facilitate control in day-to-day lifecycle management
No question that an excellent line-of-sight into the full breadth of the wireless expense management landscape promotes a greater understanding of all operational and cost realities.
It’s this clear and accurate view of all wireless operational and billable components that gives a greater sense of control to your expense management leadership and facilitates better long-term decision-making with respect to the full wireless expense management (WEM) lifecycle.
Conclusion
A well-managed wireless inventory can do your expense management organization wonders. As noted, it will help promote communication network operation and cost visibility, to begin with, which is a great place to start.
You can then go through the wireless analytical paces to best determine the state of your present network and start planning on how to get to your best future state for your organization’s wireless network communications.
In the end, we hope that the main takeaway for you from this article is that your inventory is extremely critical within the world of expense management. Again, think of it as the foundational data floor upon which all other expense management activities emanate.
If you’d like to consider Tellennium in your TEM vendor comparisons, contact us to schedule a brief demo of our solution.
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