Posted by Jennifer Burns on Tue, Apr 27, 2010
I recently came across another good tip for you guys.
Tip #148: Invoice Processing - Service Provider Name Changes
With all of the merger and acquisition activity that has been taking place in the service provider world, it can be difficult to determine how the past and present names of local, long distance, and wireless providers connect together. Changes reflected on invoices often add to the confusion when the invoices include multiple service provider names. For example, AT&T now encompasses AT&T local, SBC, BellSouth, AT&T long distance, and Cingular.
The most effective way to ensure a payment will go to the correct vendor is to tie each payment to an account number. The account number will then tie to the correct name of the vendor. If automated payment systems are used, care should also be taken to ensure vendor names have been changed to reflect the most current service provider naming convention. - AOTMP
We all know what a delay in a payment to the correct vendor can lead to, right? Hefty late fees and even worse, service disconnection. It is a simple pitfall to avoid. Keep this tip in mind when you are establishing your telecom management processes. If you are currently looking into a telecom or mobile management solution, this should really be a "must-have" feature that you research during the information gathering process.
Hope that you found this helpful!
Photo by Bob B. Brown
Posted by Jennifer Burns on Thu, Jan 28, 2010
Earlier this week, I posted some tips that may be helpful prior to implementing a telecom and/or mobile management program. To my surprise, I received some really good feedback and a few requests to keep them coming. So going forward, I am going to try to share tips that I come across here and there. Yesterday, I was nosing around AOTMP's Telecom Knowledge Base (a very cool database full of endless resources) and found the following advice that I thought would be helpful on your respective cost-cutting journeys.
Tip #235: Stop Being Billed for Your Bills
These days, there are multiple ways you may receive a telecom invoice; you may be opening paper bills each month, you may be loading a CD-ROM invoice into your bill payment system, or you may hop online to have access to all of those monthly telecom service charges. How convenient, right? What isn't as convenient, however, is having to pay extra to receive those invoices in your required format and/or quantity.
Many Telecom Service Providers charge their subscribers a monthly fee, per account, for invoices provided in a specific format (paper, CD-ROM, EDI, online) or for invoices that are sent in duplicate. Although these per account fees may be individually low, the accumulative financial effect can be great. Thus, it is important to negotiate waivers for these types of fees into your next contract. Before heading into negotiations, know your own organization's requirements for billing document retention, as some Telecom Service Providers may waive invoice presentment fees for customers who provide proof of such requirements. Regardless, plan to require invoice presentment waivers in every telecom contract you sign to avoid paying extra just to be billed.
We love this tip as this is one of the cost-cutting areas that we specifically look for when implementing a client. We have seen a number of clients who are being billed to receive their bills! While we always advise our clients to convert their paper bills to electronic, we understand that in some cases, you may still need a paper copy of the invoice. In particular, we had one client who was legally required to retain a hard copy of their invoices. Their carrier charged them per account on a monthly basis to continue to receive this additional set of paper. What's the big deal you may ask? A few dollars, right? Not when you have over a hundred individual accounts arriving each month. That's an easily over-looked cost that can get lost amongst all the monthly invoicing. When contract renegotiations came around, we were armed with this information and were able to get the carrier to waive the fees going forward.
Check back for more helpful tips soon.
Posted by Mark Evans on Mon, Dec 14, 2009
In response to John's recent post:
Monthly billing for smart phones is far more expensive than simple voice devices. My iphone would come in with data roaming at hundreds of dollars per month - where it used to be around a hundred. This alone makes it worth scrutiny. Add to this the complexity of the information contained; all the various categories of charges and then subsequent detail and I would easily spend 30 mins each bill satisfying myself that I really did rack up $500.
Its an easy stretch then to imagine
what its like for corporations receiving 20,000 such invoices (some corporate liable and some not) each month and having the task of being able to answer the question by their CFO... "This is huge! Are they right?"
photo by cybrgrl