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.

Telecom industry to boost sales with Business Intelligence :

Telecom industries are faced with the huge challenges of ever changing market conditions. They therefore need information to anticipate these Changes and quickly make informed Smart decisions.
Decision-making in the telecom industry today demands high-quality intelligence. This is where business intelligence (BI) solutions play their critical role.

Any business can be successful only if the sales end is strong.
The same holds good for telecom industry, especially with telecom service providers.
Here with telecom service providers Business intelligence plays a large role in making profit because it deals with large amount of customer data .
Hence getting this customer data in a useful format is “Business intelligence”.

As mentioned previously for any business to be successful sales plays a very prominent role and sales always is supported by strong marketing practices.

Well next question would be how is this possible?

Some of the focus areas are:

· Providing strong marketing support.

· Sales Analysis

· Improving customer loyalty services.

· Building customer retention models.

1.Providing strong marketing support:

To give a good marketing support it is necessary to understand the market well. Having a good strategy is the foundation for a strong marketing.

Two basic Strategies, which can be pursued, are:

. General strategy
. Customer strategy

General strategy

Companies here comes up with a product, which is common, and try marketing to the masses. Advertising plays a major role here. Even though this has been a major practice, profit margin out of this has been very low, because individual needs of the customers are not taken into account.

Customer strategy

Basically understanding the customer needs and tailoring to their individual needs have overcome the disadvantages in general strategy. Thus business intelligence plays a major role here by analyzing the customers that optimize profits by nurturing value added customer relationships.

Thus strong customer relationships are attained by customer centricity: Customers drive business, thus understanding the customers plays a very important role.

· Customers’ requirements
· Customers’ expectations.
· Customers’ changing behavior pattern

Thus by understanding the above points it is possible to build a strong customer strategy model.

This customer strategy model directly influences

· Product pricing / tariff plans

Product pricing plays a key role in pushing business, by understanding
the customers it possible to categorize them into different groups based on their needs . Thus pricing can be decided by striking a balance between customers group needs and profits to the company.
This can also be easily tested with help of business intelligence – by implementing the model for a trial period and comparing the sale figures it is possible to get the profit margin.
By business intelligence useful information can be provided to different departments for making the right decisions with in very little time thus analysis becomes easier and designing the product pricing(tariff plans)becomes efficient.

· Advertising plans

Advertising plays major role because major money is involved in this.
Thus channeling advertising according to customers is very important. Since it conveys the right message to right mass and this can be achieved by profiling the customer’s data and checking their behavior patters.

This can save lot a revenue, thus any saved revenue is profit for the company.

2. Sales Analysis

Analysis can be in terms of

· Customers
· Performance
· Revenue
· Volume
· Margin

This can be viewed in terms of reports or charts thus competitive plan can be developed .
By this analysis any strategic decision taken by management will be based on proof and not by just guessing and thus can also predict the performance of the company for the next quarter or so.

Improving customer loyalty services.

· Fraud control
· Call records
· Billing and other services

Fraud control

With Business intelligence it is possible to track the pattern of calls their duration etc thus any abnormalities in call pattern can be detected.
Thus timely intervention can reduce the loss to the company.

Call records

With Business intelligence it is possible to view call pattern and possible to understand their call history. Thus it becomes easy to get any records of particular customer or a group of customer with common call fashion.

Billing and other services

With Business intelligence it is possible to send e-bills to customer on related dates without any much manual intervention and get customer billing of web will also help customers view their own bills and analyze the same.

Thus by getting in more related services it is possible to get more customer satisfaction thus improving business.

Building customer retention models.

Customer retention is one of the major challenges faced in any industry.
In case of any business it is said that retaining a customer is always cheaper than getting a new customer.
Here with help of business intelligence it is possible to build certain customer retention models basically looking customer data and their call behaviors.
A well-designed customer retention model can reduce customer churn to greater extend .The positive impact of this can be huge ie a small increase in customer loyalty can deliver a large increase in profitability. Businees intelligence can also identify the behavior looking at the customer data and business analysts can say who are customers likely to leave and take the appropriate action in advance.

On a conclusion we can say that business intelligence if properly implemented and used in the telecom industry it can help in boosting the profits to greater extent.

Training for a marathon requires athletes to diligently condition their bodies to run 26.2 miles, which can be incredibly intimidating for some individuals. It begins with increasing your stamina and improving your efficiency by planning runs where your distance gradually increases in intervals, until you can reach your optimal goal: completing the marathon. By focusing on your stamina and efficiency, you are less likely to suffer injuries, burn out from fatigue and fail to complete the race.

Although not physically intimidating, choosing a TEM solution can be a straining and confusing process that requires similar discipline. Since Gartner coined the term telecom expense management (TEM) a few years ago, TEM solutions have gained considerable momentum, along with considerable complexity. This added complexity has led to growing frustrations in the marketplace because the fundamentals of a TEM solution are often being overlooked. Much like stamina and efficiency – the fundamental pillars of running a marathon – centralizing the management of telecom spend and utilizing electronic billing data are the distinguishing factors of a successful TEM solution and recent research supports this statement.

The findings from the 2008 Telecom Expense Management Benchmark Survey, conducted by Edge Research, revealed that successful companies using TEM adhere to the most fundamental aspect: centralization. The survey results were gathered from over 400 organizations, which showed that among those satisfied with their organization’s TEM solution, 88% centrally managed telecom spend. Furthermore, those that have centralized management of telecom spend are more likely to know their true network costs. The end result is that that the majority of companies that centralize spend indicated that they have attained TEM savings of greater than $1,000,000 and overall, are more satisfied with their TEM solution.

It is not guaranteed that all TEM solutions will accurately and efficiently process telecom billing data, that is why companies need to ‘go-the-extra- mile’ to ensure that the fundamentals of their selected TEM solution is continually adhering to best practices in processing that data. The ability to load complex billing data, from multiple sources and formats into the application is the zenith of a TEM solution. If the solution cannot process data, it is like entering a marathon with pair of worn out running shoes, which eventually, will lead to pain. According to the TEM survey, if this core competency is lacking, dissatisfaction is the end result.

There is no doubt that centralized management of telecom spend and receiving data electronically are integral parts in choosing a TEM solution. Having these fundamentals in place sets the stage for realizing the benefits of a total TEM solution that includes provisioning, inventory, invoice processing, and advanced analytics. Just like undergoing the proper training for a marathon, maintaining strong fundamentals regarding your TEM solution significantly increases the likelihood of success. It establishes a firm foundation for further process improvements that will have a direct impact on bottom line performance for your organization and will help you reach your TEM finish line.