Once upon a time, movie night meant traveling to the local video rental store and surveying the aisles in hopes of finding the newest release in stock. Today, the combination of rental DVD delivery services like Netflix and movies on demand from your cable or satellite provider has created an entirely new and relaxing way to enjoy movie nights. The rental store is now literally at your fingertips. Netflix delivers DVDs by mail to subscribers via a rental queue created online. The greatest part of these new rental services is that there are no late fees. Subscribers pay a monthly fee for Netflix or a per-movie fee for on-demand services; back-end operations are handled by the provider. There is no more worrying about if the movie is in stock.

Telecom expense management (TEM) has evolved in a similar fashion. Enterprises that once used premise-based TEM software to handle telecom and IT expense management are now seeing tremendous advantages in utilizing Software as a Service (SaaS). By using on-demand TEM software, companies no longer have to be concerned with loading vendor billing data or dealing with the complex changes of vendor data formats. In the past this was a common cause of failures within premise-based TEM software solutions because it prevented companies from viewing data at the highest level of billing detail. With an on-demand TEM solution, companies can see their data loaded within 24 hours of it being received by the TEM vendor. Companies can then dedicate their full resources to analyzing their billing data rather than managing it. This stress-free solution allows companies to sharpen their focus on revenue-generating activities.

The Opening Credits – Implementation

Most Hollywood summer blockbusters feature action right at the start of the movie, immediately captivating the audience. In the same way, using SaaS for a TEM solution provides rapid implementation times, yielding a much faster ROI. Traditionally, companies with a premise-based software solution lacked necessary telecom expense management experience. Their TEM initiatives were prone to errors from the start – errors that were compounded throughout the course of the TEM program. Just like a summer movie that lacks innovative special effects or a great storyline, their TEM initiatives were doomed to fail from the very beginning. These premise-based TEM software solutions failed to deliver significant ROI after companies made a substantial investment.

The combination of expert knowledge and far less complex software installation can mean smoother transitions and a decrease in the need for troubleshooting. Furthermore, because there is less need for client participation from a technical standpoint during implementation, SaaS TEM providers can offer a project timeframe with a good degree of accuracy and configure the system specific to each company’s dedicated hierarchy. This benefits both clients and service providers by removing uncertainty in the deployment schedule.

In addition, scalability is never an issue. Companies do not have to purchase additional servers or hardware to increase the amount of data that is stored. More importantly, companies do not have to be concerned with developing new processes to handle new data feeds. That is handled by the vendor on the back end and is transparent to end users, allowing them to focus on analyzing data, disputing costs, or running reports.

Preventing Bootlegs – Data and Security in an SaaS Environment

We all know of Hollywood’s struggle to prevent bootlegs, an effort that entails deploying powerful encryption to deter pirating. In much the same way, organizations in the past were reluctant to have data stored offsite for fear of a security breach. With the advent of IPSec VPNs, this roadblock has been removed.

IPSec VPNs offer an extremely high level of data encryption, coupled with hardened data centers that offer economies of scale. Vendors routinely back up data and send it to an offsite disaster recovery facility. Uptime and disaster recovery services are built into SLAs, ensuring that the client can be up and running quickly and that the vendor adheres to the highest level of security standards. While it is understandable that organizations want control, the reputation and feasibility of SaaS depend on treating data with extreme sensitivity.

The Production – Maintenance

With an SaaS solution, any problems that do occur can normally be fixed faster because of the centralized nature of the service. Software-based solutions frequently require an onsite visit, which naturally delays any troubleshooting attempt. SaaS solutions circumvent this delay and reduce downtime. Moreover, SaaS solutions generally have 24×7 monitoring and management, meaning maintenance issues can be quickly and efficiently addressed because the majority of equipment is centrally located. To achieve the same service speed with a software-based solution would require a set of expert technicians onsite, and the resulting cost would most likely be prohibitive.

System upgrades can be managed more easily with an SaaS solution than with a software-based solution. The TEM vendor manages the upgrade and rolls it out when ready, making the transition pain-free. Furthermore, with an SaaS solution, operational expenditures are fixed and predictable, which in turn aids in planning cash flow. With software-based solutions, operational expenditures can spike unpredictably when issues occur.

Data Analysis – The True Blockbuster

The bottom line is that, in the world of telecom expense management, SaaS solutions allow businesses to concentrate on revenue-generating activities and areas of their business that they do well. In areas where their knowledge is limited – such as TEM — businesses can turn over the responsibility to vendors who have real expertise. Once an organization has implemented an on-demand TEM solution, they instantly gain enhanced visibility to their telecom spend and are up and running in a matter of weeks versus six to 12 months. This enables companies to begin analyzing their data to make more informed purchasing decisions and identify areas where more cost-effective services can be utilized. By using an on-demand solution, organizations are no longer struggling with loading data and maintaining systems, but instead spending time on true telecom cost control by drilling deep into data they never had access to before.

Just as Netflix and on-demand movies have changed the way we rent films, SaaS for TEM has pulled back the curtain for a next-generation TEM solution. TEM vendors can utilize their expertise in processing electronic data to provide companies with a truly comprehensive TEM solution that presents data accurately in a secure, easy-to-use interface. While software-based solutions provide companies with the comfort level of perceived control, a TEM environment offers true control, with the ability to analyze detailed data that can generate consistent savings. And that makes for the classic happy Hollywood ending.

Penetration rates of telecom services in the South Pacific Island region are still comparatively low, with large differences between urban and

rural areas where coverage is usually poor. Access to basic telecom services remains relatively expensive. Less than half of all Pacific Islanders have

a phone and generally there was only one supplier for any particular fixed, mobile or Internet service.
However, a lack of reliable fixed infrastructure combined with cheaper installation costs has enabled mobile services to begin to make significant

inroads into the market, and Digicel Pacific is leading the market here, as it sets up networks across a number of islands. As well improving the

penetration of telco services and lowering prices, more competition in the mobile market is in fact benefiting the entire economy, including the

creation of more jobs. Mobile telephony is expected to continue outpace growth in fixed-line connections as the market moves into 2009.

2009 South Pacific Islands – Telecoms, Mobile andBroadband
(http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research-Reports/2009-South-Pacific-Islands-Telecoms-Mobile-and-Broadband.html)  discusses industrial

forecasts number of islands including Fiji, Cook Islands, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Guam, Niue and Tonga.

For those needing detailed overviews and statistics as well as objective analysis on all aspects of the South Pacific telecoms industry, this report

provides essential reading and gives in-depth information on:

1) An overall market overview and statistics.
2) Mobile and broadband markets.
3) Key players in the market.
4) Telecommunications infrastructure.
5) Regulatory developments.
6) Fixed network voice and VoIP markets.

For more information please visit:http://www.bharatbook.com/Market-Research/Mobile-Telecoms.html

Or

Contact us at:
Bharat Book Bureau 
Tel: +91 22 27578668
Fax: +91 22 27579131
Email: info@bharatbook.com
Website: www.bharatbook.com

If you are in the booming field of telecom and related services and hardware, you need to know that the market is changing. Change can be a good thing, but don’t let the change catch you blind-sided. Rather, be aware of how things are changing and what you need to do in order to embrace that change to the benefit of your company’s bottom line.

Every business wants to grow their business. A business in a particular area would love to be able to dominate their niche market or sub-market for their particular product or service. But the traditional ways of making that happen are changing and you should be aware of what that change is and how you can embrace it to your advantage.

There are still companies that employ the age old technique of pounding the pavement. While that may yield some success with more traditional products, the world of telecom and the acceptance of the Internet as a superb marketing medium has been replacing the burning of shoe leather to a great extent. It becomes obvious to the astute business owner that he wants to invest his marketing dollars where he is going to get his greatest ROI (Return On Investment) which is a Business 101 principle.

Even embracing the Internet, how has that been done to date? There are three methods with varying degrees of success and each with their set of challenges, which we will look at briefly here.

Buying Leads

There are various companies online who employ various techniques for capturing what an online customer is looking for and will sell you those leads. For a high-demand product, especially telecom related, those leads can go for as much as $20 each or even more, and at that point you have no guarantee that the lead was not a 12 year old kid or a bored Internet surfer, you have still paid good money for the lead.

Your Own Web Page

You of course almost certainly have a web page for your business, outlining the products and services you can provide. But spending the time and effort on those pages to get them a top ranking within Google and the search engines is an extremely difficult task, and chances are high that you do not have sufficient IT resources to accomplish this, or if you do accomplish, to provide the ongoing maintenance required to keep your high positioning.

Pay Per Click

This provides you with high search engine positioning, perhaps even the #1 spot for the terms you have chosen, but at a very high cost. What happens here is that you get a high ranking in the search engines but you are charged every time someone clicks your link. It does not matter if the clicker is a 12 year old kid or perhaps even your competitor trying to drain your marketing budget, a click is a click and you are charged for it. Recent studies indicate that the number of “actionable” sales resulting from these clicks is less than 2%. So how much is it really costing you per click that generates revenue for your company?

Now the change that I referred to earlier. In an ideal world, you would have a site that gets very high search engine ranking and positioning but not because the page PAID to be there, it is done with search engine optimization. The pages are ranked very highly (usually within the top 4 non-sponsored listings for most telecom terms). And the code behind the page does as much as it can to weed out the bogus leads so that what you are left with is a laser-targeted lead specifically looking for the products and services that your company can provide.

Best of all, there is no cost to you unless a lead results in a sale. How much positive impact would that have on your marketing budget?

That ideal world is here now. Embrace the change that is here in terms of how leads are obtained and the change in not paying for a lead unless it results in a sale of your telecom related products and services, and discover how this can make a tremendously positive impact on your marketing budget and your bottom line. Visit VAR Sales Partners to get all the details.