QUOCIRCA INSIGHT REPORT
Total telecoms expense management
Contacts:
Rob Bamforth
Quocirca Ltd
Tel +44 1962 849746
rob.bamforth@quocirca.com
Bob Tarzey
Quocirca Ltd
Tel +44 1753 855794
bob.tarzey@quocirca.com
Matt Atkinson
AKJ
Tel +44 1634 673800
Matt.Atkinson@akjl.co.uk
Aldo Rossi
ttMobiles
Tel +44 1235 829400
Aldo.Rossi@ttmobiles.com
Research Note:
The information presented in
this report is based on a sur-
vey of 120 organisations in
the UK. It was completed in
February of 2008.
Those surveyed included
organisations with an annual
total telecommunications
budget of over £250,000,
with around half of those
interviewed having a budget
totalling over £1m per annum.
These budgets include mobile
and fixed telephony as well as
internet and other data com-
munications costs.
Quocirca would like to thank
all the respondents to the sur-
vey and the sponsors of this
report.
April 2008
…looking beyond cost cutting to gain greater value
Voice and data communications are taking up an increasing amount of organisations’ budgets as more
information is shared between and across more businesses. Person to person contact now includes richer
media, more participants and is becoming increasingly mobile. Historically, telecoms expense manage-
ment has focused on the mechanistic processing of bills, payment and costs of individual items. It is too
simplistic to make blanket cuts or restrict use and opting for cheap alternatives may lead to a loss of busi-
ness value. A better approach is needed for managing telecoms expense, so what best practices should
companies adopt to meet their total communications needs and avoid unnecessary costs?
• Too much focus on just cutting telecoms costs can lead to a blinkered view
It is easier to measure and manage those responsible for cost centres on objective criteria such as meet-
ing or beating budget line items, than assess an individuals’ broader impact on value to the organisa-
tion. However, an overemphasis on targeting separate telecoms costs means businesses run the risk of
missing out on wider efficiencies and benefits.
• Reducing expensive line items does not always translate into reducing organisational costs
More companies perceive that total mobile costs are rising even as individual tariffs are falling, citing
increasing usage and increasing numbers of users. Restricting users or usage is ultimately ineffective,
so growth needs to be factored into planning and procurement.
• Lack of consolidation means that individual bills do not reflect the bigger picture
A diversity of suppliers and services makes life complex to manage at the contract level. This, and
variations in the level of apportionment to cost centres, means that managers will rarely have the full
set of facts they need to make accurate decisions.
• Poor cost centre management practices are reflected elsewhere
Organisations where managers have complete visibility and take action on discrepancies or overruns
are likely to be more proactive and regularly auditing their telecoms needs. Visibility and interest at
senior levels has an impact on motivating those managing costs at a lower level.
• Lack of resources is the main challenge to effective telecoms management
Those companies with total telecoms spend of less than £1m per year are also limited by the tools and
technology they have at their disposal.
• Personal use of business mobile phones is not always tightly accounted for
For almost half of businesses, employees make only a partial or zero contribution to personal calls
costs, and although almost two thirds of organisations fully and accurately account for the personal use
by their employees, the remainder are less strict.
• The format of billing data does not always support the need for precision and visibility
Fewer than half of companies consistently receive fully itemised electronic bills, reducing the timeli-
ness and visibility of information that is necessary to impact employee behaviour.
CONCLUSION: Many companies naively think they are doing a reasonable job managing their tel-
ecoms expenses, but the reality is that most could do more at both ends of the problem—usage and
billing. There is a need to focus on the day-to-day details to make sure billing, invoicing and payment
accurately reflect the services delivered, meaning that those with responsibility for costs understand their
impact and personal accountability. However, these details should not drive the overall strategy. This
has to take a broader corporate view rather than that of individual fiefdoms, looking at the needs of the
business and the value and effectiveness derived from communications, not just the cost. Some con-
verged thinking, combining IT and telecoms budgets as the technologies converge, will help, as will
bringing in outside support with rigorous processes and wider strategic insight. This is not a one off
exercise and, like the careful regular accounting of budgets, has to take place on a sufficiently frequent
basis for the organisation to properly manage and optimise its total telecommunications estate.
Total telecoms expense management Page 2

Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The inexorable rise of usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
The cost / value balancing act . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Naivety and bad practice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Visibility and control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Conclusion—the need for converged thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Appendix A: Interview sample distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
About Aurora Kendrick James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
About ttMobiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
About Quocirca . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

Total telecoms expense management Page 3

Introduction employee, employer and taxman as the line between personal

This report looks at the degree to which today’s UK businesses
adequately manage their total telecommunications expendi-
ture—including fixed line and mobile telephony and external
data communications—and where good practice is lacking.
It is intended to be read by those who carry out this task in their
own organisation, and those who are looking to see how to
get the best value out of telecommunications right across their
business, rather than it simply being seen as a cost.
and work use blurs.
Remote access to IT increases this complexity. Whilst remote
working once might have involved a hotel network connection
for a road warrior’s laptop to dial in to read email, it is now far
more likely to encompass other, faster forms of connection and
other locations, in particular the home (Figure 2).1

The research behind this report involved interviews with 120

UK-based senior managers with operational or commercial
responsibility for telecommunications in organisations with
annual total telecoms budgets of over £250,000.

Quocirca would like to thank all the participants for their time
to take part in the telephone interviews from which the data
for this research was derived. Without their participation such
reports would not be possible.

The inexorable rise of usage

The use of sophisticated information technology has spread
from smallish numbers of isolated powerful computers to per-
vasive information and access to applications almost anywhere
through open and interoperable standards. At the same time,
telecommunications capabilities have grown in speed, capac-
ity and reach, including high bandwidth fixed and low cost
mobile networks, bringing voice and data communications
everywhere.
The IT and telecoms industries have ‘collided’ with a conver-
gence around open standards, and this has increased the avail-
ability and use of technology for both consumer and business
purposes. Each feed off the other. Where once the business
world led with concepts that then emerged into the consumer
marketplace, now the reverse is more often true. All this makes
the business of managing an organisation’s communications
needs—voice, data, fixed, mobile—more complex as a whole
set of different technologies merge.
This further blurs the divide between personal and business
use, especially if an employee is regularly expected to work
in diverse locations, whilst still remaining in an environment
controlled and secured by the IT department. The remote
employee might be using other business-critical applications
in addition to email, or they may be using IP telephony bridged
into the corporate PBX to appear like any other extension,
even when working from home, therefore increasing the need
for quality and security controls.
Even within the office there are new applications to make
further use of the available communications facilities, and to
enhance the simpler methods of communication, such as basic
phone calls or text-based email messages with richer content
and increased interactivity. This is, in part, also driven by the
needs and requests of end users (Figure 3).2

Depending on their job role, many employees have come to

expect to use some form of mobile or remote access device—
phone and/or laptop—and some form of network connection.
Whether provided by the employee or the business, the mobile
phone has become an important part of many people’s lives
and has become a very useful business tool. Also the number
of mobile users continues to grow (Figure 1).

All sorts of collaborative tools are used by consumers for

The initially simple proposition of providing a mobile phone
on a corporate tariff is now more complex as individuals have
their own personal preferences, styles and usage criteria for
mobile phones. The business-supplied mobile phone has also
at times necessitated a more intricate sharing of costs between
social interaction, either by phoning or texting their friends
and family via a mobile phone or sharing photographs and vid-
eos on the internet with increasingly large social groupings of
‘friends’ and network contacts. This widespread use makes it
inevitable that these consumer-friendly technologies will also
move into the workplace (Figure 4).2
As they do, the communications managers in every organisa-
tion will be faced with more users, mechanisms and messages
clamouring for capacity in the network.

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

Total telecoms expense management
As further standards emerge, smaller, embedded devices
become more capable of being network citizens, adding further
variety of usage patterns and needs. This machine-to-machine
communication, in both the fixed and mobile domains, allows
remote sensing and monitoring to be extended to many exist-
ing applications, improving their effectiveness, but also adding
to the load on infrastructure.
Together, these all add to an increasing use of communications
technology, with more connections being made, often with
richer media—video, shared applications or collaboration—
and involving more participants.
There seems little doubt that more communication is a good
thing, but with more dispersed organisations and teams, a glo-
bal marketplace and new reasons to communicate more fre-
quently, this increases the risk of rapidly escalating costs. Right
now, many organisations say communications costs are already
a significant part of their budgets and would like to reduce them
or keep them under control. This then has to be balanced against
the benefits that increased communications is delivering.
The cost / value balancing act
Finding the right level between cost control and delivering
value is a challenge because, although it is fairly easy to meas-
ure cost, it is difficult to quantify business value and put it on
a balance sheet.
This affects management behaviour when setting objectives,
which means that hitting budgets (and making savings against
them when finances are tight) is far easier to measure than
adding value or, even, working more effectively. The prob-
lem increases as budgets are split and passed further down the
organisation in an attempt to increase individual responsibility.
While this may have some impact in tackling cost overspend
at an individual level, visibility of overall effectiveness is lost.
Given the personal need for managers to meet individual
goals and the potential impact on remuneration and, perhaps,
progress through the organisation, most are directed to cut
costs as their instinctual or a mandated priority (Figure 5).
The value of increased visibility noted by over a quarter of
respondents is likely to have more to do with its impact on
control—for example by making individuals aware of their
own contribution—than a willingness to build a bigger picture
of spending patterns across the organisation. In other words,
pushing visibility ‘down’ for cost control reasons rather than
‘up’ for a broader view of value and impact.
As well as cost reduction, visibility and control feature high
in importance to the overall management of telecoms services
(Figure 6).
© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com
Page 4
There is also strong concern around the effect of usage, which
in many areas will be growing, even if the number of employ-
ees is static. This could be for many reasons such as the result
of initiatives elsewhere in the business.
For example, a reduction in travel for environmental or cost
reasons might increase the number of phone calls and use of
rich media conferencing services. Or a strategic initiative to
encourage tele-working, but implemented without due consid-
eration to the current inventory of assets or existing infrastruc-
ture, may switch originally fixed-line calls to be made using
mobile phones.
Although low down on the scale of importance, the deploy-
ment of new services, the utilisation of existing assets and new
working modes—mobile, home or remote working—will all
impact total costs as much, and probably more, than programs
simply designed to cut costs in individual line items or re-
negotiate single services.
Taking the lowest cost purchasing route works well for com-
modity products, where apples are compared with apples and
bought by the crate at the best price, or where telephony is
simply paid for by the minute. However, the communications
arena has become more complex. Voice telephony is becoming
tightly bound with other IT needs, and increasingly overlaps
with other carrier data services. The decision-making proc-
ess of telecommunications now not only has to look at direct
costs, but at the broader impact, including value and the cost
of missed opportunities right across the business, just like any
other complex IT project.
For the most part employees have a home life too, and personal
use is increasingly blurring with business. On the one hand,
many now take work home and put up with being called out
of hours, whilst on the other, management of domestic issues,
such as banking and bill payments, are being carried out during
normal working hours.
April 2008
Total telecoms expense management
Employees also have broader social networks and, thanks to the
internet, these are taking even more of their time and attention,
perhaps despite the wishes of their bosses. Managing personal
and business use of communications is a growing issue for many
businesses, affecting voice, data, fixed and mobile needs.
The use of broadband services from home is one particularly
difficult area, where the organisation not only has to balance
control of the connection—which provider, quality of service
and security—but also costs, as the connection will no doubt
be used for family and consumer applications too. Deciding
how to apportion these costs will become harder as even more
consumer services are delivered over the same connection as
those used for business (Figure 7).
Setting policies for use of home broadband would therefore
be very difficult, but it is a different matter when it comes to
an employee’s mobile phone, as this is likely to be an offi-
cial business contact point. Security and standardisation are
often mentioned as important when looking at mobile use by
employees. However, when pressed for the reasons behind
mobile usage policy, cost control and preventing employee
abuse of the phone—essentially also about keeping a lid on
costs—are the main aims (Figure 8).
Competitive pressures, especially from the consumer market
and a maturing of the industry overall, have resulted in mobile
tariffs falling, or at least the size of call minutes, text and data
bundles rising while costs remain static. Despite this emphasis
on telecoms cost reduction and attempts to control usage, most
companies are still seeing costs rise (Figure 9).
Of the reasons given, it is no surprise that the number of users
and the amount to which they are making use of mobile tech-
nology are both growing. Increased mobility and remote access
are widely thought to be improving productivity, competitive
advantage and customer responsiveness, and this has been evi-
dent in previous Quocirca research.3,4
© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com
Page 5
This is an area where the organisation overall is obtaining
broad business value, despite the direct measurable effect on
an individual cost centre. The challenge is to increase the vis-
ibility of the value across the business and, where possible,
assign credible financial sums to quantify the gain and explain
or justify the cost.
A more problematic set of responses are those who believe the
tariffs themselves are rising. While this is not impossible and
may be the case with some carrier offers, it is likely that it is
also due to either a lack of effective negotiation with current
suppliers or not putting sufficient effort into finding what alter-
natives are available from rival suppliers.
Given the strong focus on cost cutting and the breadth of offers
in the market, this is an area where more companies should be
able to feel they are getting a good deal, and, if not, realise they
need to be investigating further.
Naivety and bad practice
In considering what alternatives might be suitable, either for
a lower cost or more effective option, it is first necessary to
understand the structure of current expense. This requires
accuracy, detail and a broader picture of the total combined
telecommunications costs.
At a detailed level, much of the information is thought to be
present, although the managers in procurement, commercial
and finance departments are less satisfied than telecoms man-
gers (Figure 10).
Part of the reason is based on the technical versus business
view of how costs break down. Telecoms managers are more
likely to be focussing on too high a level of split, say between
different providers, and perhaps different technology catego-
ries—mobile voice, fixed voice, internet connectivity, private
April 2008
Total telecoms expense management Page 6

circuits etc. The commercial managers, however, will be look-

ing further down in the details of the individuals and depart-
ments that are involved in the business process. For this reason
they are also more likely to want to see costs against the right
budgets and cost centres (Figure 11).

An alternative, especially for those with a lack of resources in

Neither approach is perfect, as too much emphasis on the
detailed apportionment of cost will mean that opportunities to
combine or consolidate (thereby, perhaps, making larger cost
savings) will be missed. Insufficient attention to detail, from
not checking and obtaining sufficient accuracy to take action
when problems or cost overruns are spotted, could be charac-
terised as a naive assumption that all suppliers have always got
things right or are always acting in the best interests of their
customers.
terms of people and time, is to outsource the work and have
someone else take care of the problem. Some of this can be
pushed back to the suppliers with requests for more detailed
breakdown of costs by cost centre, and online access to bills to
ensure broadest visibility, but each additional supplier adds to
the difficulty in doing this.
The problem for most organisations is that they have too many
suppliers, and the complexity of dealing with them can be a
challenge (Figure 14).

The best way to ensure that maximum value is being achieved

is to frequently take a broad, business level view of the posi-
tive impact of communications and audit the usage and costs
across the entire telecoms estate. Those that take a more pru-
dent approach to cost centre management, in that they make
detailed bills visible to cost centre managers and empower
them to deal with problems, do embark on more frequent
audits (Figure 12).

However, the bigger picture of total telecoms expenses will

only emerge when the details from multiple suppliers can be
examined and compared by whatever means is useful at each
level within the business. This might be the board member
trying to understand how telecoms plays a role in boosting
productivity and reducing environmental footprint, or the indi-
vidual employee trying to discriminate between their personal
and business usage.

In some circumstances there are outside organisations that

This more regular checking means that better deals can be
negotiated, errors can be spotted earlier, and unexpected costs
from those who have already moved to another employer but
not had their services properly closed, should not arise.
Even for those with the knowledge and skills to know how to
address this, it all comes at a price. It takes time and resource to
be thorough, and with a diversity of suppliers and billing sys-
tems, it also requires the right tools, technology and systems
in place. These tend to be in short supply in organisations with
lower levels of expenditure because of the significant up-front
investment that this would require to bring the right tools in-
house (Figure 13).
have an interest in telecoms billing details, such as tax authori-
ties, which can be critical to the good governance of the busi-
ness. This is a particular area of focus concerning the personal
use of mobile phones and how this affects both the individual’s
income tax liability and that of the organisation for VAT.
This is still an area where many companies demonstrate a
naive approach, lacking rigorous processes for dealing with
the issue, presumably on the assumption that it will never hap-
pen to them. This poor attention to regulatory issues is particu-
larly prevalent in those companies with a lax approach to cost
centre management (Figure 15).

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

Total telecoms expense management
While poor cost management can simply reduce profits, a poor
attitude to tax law and tax issues can be far more damaging,
and ignorance is no excuse. Companies not aware of their
responsibilities should call in external advice to ensure they
comply.
Visibility and control
In addition to taking a more pro-active approach to the stra-
tegic issues of telecoms cost management, there are several
other basic aspects that can be dealt with more immediately by
improving the visibility of existing information at lower levels
and acting upon it.
The first thing is to check that suppliers are billing correctly.
Many of the potential problems need someone who can exam-
ine the details, whether it is a line manager checking that only
the right team members are being billed against their cost
centre, or a telecoms manager checking that only the lines
connected are appearing on the bills. For those in IT used to
identifying discrepancies in larger or aggregated bills—only
five servers delivered instead of six—the real error rate might
be underestimated (Figure 16).
It might be that many of the errors missed are financially small
and seem relatively inconsequential, but it does highlight the
need for visibility at the right level, individual call details for
the employee, grossed up by person for the line managers, and
so on. It also requires someone to be specifically tasked—
internally or externally—with the responsibility on a supplier-
by-supplier and service-by-service level to check and validate
the consolidated bills. In order for this to be cost effective,
there has to be the right balance between how much time is
spent and the cost saving.
© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com
Page 7
While that might require external or additional support, deal-
ing with the details of individual employees is something any
organisation could address immediately internally. Personal
use of mobile phones is potentially one of the most rapidly
escalating costs, especially with international use. The precise
scale of this should be visible to the business, yet over a third
do not check and account thoroughly (Figure 17).
More businesses should follow the approach of the others who
do check, as there are many who may take advantage of a lax
attitude, either deliberately or accidentally. In any event, per-
sonal use of mobile phones is high and growing, and there are
taxation and regulatory issues to consider.
These also are affected by what level of contribution the
employee is expected to make. Companies are fairly evenly
split in their approach between whether they do or do not sub-
sidise their employees’ personal use of a business mobile phone
(Figure 18). For those who are also not checking specific use
or are relying solely on employee estimates, any subsidy could
be a relatively unknown quantity.
The person with the most visibility as to whether personal use
is fair and reasonable or has strayed into an area that might
be labelled ‘misuse’ is the manager with responsibility for the
cost centre, and those who work within it.
While telecoms costs may be seen as high or significant else-
where in the organisation, they may only form a small frac-
tion of a cost centre manager’s budget after salaries, travel
and other costs. For the manager, the relative balance between
these different costs might be more of an issue than the abso-
lute levels of each.
April 2008
Total telecoms expense management
They may also regard the time taken to investigate the details
of telecoms costs as not worth the return for them personally.
After all, they will probably be measured on meeting a total
budget, not on each line item, and so might not take respon-
sibility for checking telecoms costs as seriously as those in
charge of the total telecoms estate might prefer (Figure 19).
This may not always be their fault, as it will depend on what
format bills are available in and at what level of detail. Elec-
tronic fully itemised bills available via a portal allow for access
with a degree of control, whereas those still delivered in paper
form carry the risk of being lost, inappropriately copied and
sent to the wrong individuals. Further analysis through sort-
ing, searching and filtering is also difficult to accomplish with
paper records.
The use of different formats for billing varies somewhat from
service to service and carrier to carrier, but the majority still do
not get the most useful form or level of detail (Figure 20).
The need to consolidate multiple bills from several suppliers
is sometimes dealt with by calling in outside specialist help.
While this is often termed telecoms expense management, the
real scope of the term should be viewed as much wider, since
billing management is only one part of a broad set of telecoms
management services that are available from a wide variety of
specialised suppliers.
Not everyone likes to ask for outside help, no matter how
specialised the requirement, but those companies where tel-
ecommunications costs form a greater percentage of their
total IT spend are much more inclined to use external support
(Figure 21).
© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com
Page 8
However, in many instances this is not part of an ongoing pro-
gram but simply a one off exercise to address a particular pain
point. While this may have satisfied an individual manager’s
need to fix a budget overrun or cost problem, it might have had
a broader negative impact on the business value gained for the
organisation. Point solutions do not often address strategic or
wide-ranging issues, and will often result in returning to the
problem once again.
Those companies where telecommunication costs are a smaller
percentage of their overall IT spend are less likely to have called
on any external help. However, as we have seen, this is an area
where usage will continue to grow and, as a business places
greater emphasis on tightly managing its costs, more attention
will need to be paid to ensure that communications projects are
not simply cut without realising the value they might bring to
the wider organisation. Often, only an external perspective can
make the organisation aware of the wider impact.
In deciding where to go for information, many companies take
the simple route of going back to their current suppliers, or
perhaps other competing suppliers (Figure 22).
This is a good route for negotiating on a service-by-service
basis, but will not help provide the broadest perspective. While
industry peers can also provide some wider experience, as can
be seen from earlier figures, many companies are in a similar
position, and so to get a real external perspective it is necessary
to go further.
There are specialists in the area of telecoms expense manage-
ment, and consultants who also focus on the area, but further
broad knowledge is often to be found among the membership
of relevant industry bodies, perhaps in this case, the Communi-
cations Management Association (www.thecma.org).
April 2008
Total telecoms expense management Page 9

Conclusion—the need for converged thinking

Convergence is a term often applied to several current technol-
ogy trends in IT and telecommunications, but it applies equally
well when looking at cost management. The many different
services and providers need to be aggregated together into a
broad strategy of total telecoms management, not just identify-
ing expense but also value. This has to correctly identify and
allocate the relevant charges to the appropriate budgets at the
right level of detail as well as provide an abstracted view of the
implications to the business overall.
This requires a strategy that takes a wider view than just line-
by-line costs and not only at one moment in time, but as part of
an ongoing process, including the following considerations:
• Bring business objectives into the communications strat-
egy. Whether the organisation is looking to move or expand
office locations, encourage flexible working, or reduce its
environmental footprint, these business decisions will have
an impact on the use of communications technology. This
impact goes far beyond simply accounting for costs, but will
also significantly affect decisions made early on in supplier
and service selection, during procurement and ongoing sup-
port and service levels.
As has been shown, all too often companies are taking a nar-
row view of telecommunications services, regarding each as
separate line of budget cost items. In many cases different
managers will be responsible for different services or suppli-
ers—an IT manager for the internet and wide area network
connectivity, a facilities manager for the fixed line telephony
and a telecoms specialist for the mobile phones, and perhaps
their data tariffs.
This is increasingly inefficient as the technologies and provid-
ers converge. Sometimes this may reduce the number of suppli-
ers, but many new specialists are emerging to deal with the new
opportunities and technical services available from dual mode
Wi-Fi converged phones and IP telephony to hosted email and
outsourced mobile device configuration management.
This increase in complexity adds to the challenge of keeping
track of individual costs and, more importantly, makes strate-
gic decisions about the impact and value of changing working
practices—mobile and remote working—harder to assess. This
is where the impact of effective and total telecoms expense
management will be most keenly felt.

• Identify and quantify value gains as well as cost savings.

This might mean efficiencies that come from combining
otherwise separate services, consolidating resources across
multiple departments and sharing a combined, but lower,
total cost. It will also include ‘softer’ benefits such as the
impact on staff, organisational structure and external partner
relationships.

• Outsource processes where internal knowledge adds little ex-

tra value and which require repetitive and consistent check-
ing, for example in the consolidation and error processing in
the billing and invoicing processes.

• P
resent billing and usage information in a way that can be
granted controlled and secured access from anywhere. If this
is also consolidated into a single portal it makes personal
and departmental level management processes simpler, and
provides the necessary visibility.

• P
ush cost visibility down to the level where the informa-
tion has the clearest meaning. This means personal call cost
records should be visible to the individual employee so that
they can understand their own impact, and departmental
costs are rolled up so that managers can take effective and
immediate action where it affects their budget.

• E
ncourage personal as well as managerial action. Making
individuals aware of costs allows them to decide what and
when is most appropriate. This has to go along with an in-
formed and supportive management approach with does not
compel employees to switch to cheaper options to the detri-
ment of their work or the business overall, but allows them
to make informed choices.

• B
ring in independent, external perspective. Internal struc-
tures and departmental or personal agendas can cause fric-
tion that can be minimised by using an outside agency of
some kind. These external partners can also bring a differ-
ent point of view, allowing experiences and good practices
learned elsewhere to be shared.

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

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Appendix A: Interview sample distribution

The information presented in this report was derived from 120 interviews with senior decision makers, who have responsibility for their
company’s telecommunications financial or operational control, during a survey completed in February 2008.

The sample distribution was split as follows (Figures 23 to 26):

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

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References
Reference Title Author Published

1 Convergence or Confusion Quocirca 2007

2 Visual Impact Quocirca 2007

3 Commodity or Value add ? Quocirca 2006

4 Web-enabled applications and the internet Quocirca 2007

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

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About Aurora Kendrick James

Aurora Kendrick James (AKJ) is one of the UK’s leading providers of telecoms billing and management information services. We com-
bine industry leading technology, benchmarking, best practice management techniques and market knowledge to help our customers to
unlock significant cost and efficiency savings from their telecoms estates.

Established for over 10 years and with over 50 experienced staff, our customers include organisations in both the public and private
sectors, including McDonald’s Restaurants, Alfred McAlpine PLC, Mencap and NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde. From initial audit
and benchmarking projects through to ongoing monthly management reporting and monitoring, we can offer the support that your
organisation needs to understand and gain control of its telecoms cost base, effectively manage inventory and optimise usage. We call
this process Telecom Expense Management (TEM).

AKJ’s Telecom Expense Management (TEM) Services

AKJ’s services start with an Insight Review; following an initial fact finding meeting and based on your recent supplier billing data, this
initial audit is designed to help your business to fully understand its current costs and to highlight opportunities to reduce costs from
within the estate. Using our best practice guidelines and exception rules that we agree with your business, we will highlight examples
of where your organisation could optimise their telecoms costs in the short term and avoid costs through improved management and
processes in the long term.

This review looks at supplier pricing, billing accuracy, usage trends and policy, utilisation of services and equipment as well as a range
of service-specific issues and processes to highlight operational improvements and opportunities to reduce cost. AKJ will then present
these headline findings to your business with qualified examples of where issues currently exist.

Following the Insight Review, and with a clearer picture of the opportunity available to your business, you can choose to either manage
your own internal telecom expense management programme or work with us to support a detailed Optimisation Audit to drive down
costs and reduce wastage.

For organisations looking to tackle specific issues such as managing mobile usage and inventory management, our Ongoing Report-
ing and Mobile Management Reporting services take away the challenges of processing large volumes of billing data, and provide
your business managers and users with a streamlined process to manage costs and make users and cost centres accountable for their
expenditure.

Finally, where resources are limited, AKJ’s Telecoms and Mobile Manager services offers a managed service where we can proactively
manage some or all of your telecoms estate (voice, data, mobile) on your behalf based on the guidelines that we agree with your busi-
ness. As part of this service we can take responsibility for cost management, validating supplier’s invoices, managing service meetings
with suppliers, right through to order management and ongoing device and inventory management. Again this service can be tailored
to support your specific requirements.

Find out more…

Whether your organisation works with a partner like AKJ to support its fixed and mobile telecoms management or has an internal team
to manage this area, having a sound TEM strategy is an essential aspect of telecoms management. Typically a well implemented tel-
ecom expense management program will quickly deliver cost savings of in excess of 10–15% per annum, and will streamline inefficient
processes to help you avoid costs and cut down on wastage.

There is no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution when it comes to telecoms management and your policies must be tailored to the
way your business operates and your own business culture. At AKJ we have over 10 years of experience of working with large organi-
sations to tackle the issues they face in managing telecoms resources. We are totally independent and will always work to identify the
simplest and most cost effective solution to a problem.

To find out more about how AKJ could help your organisation, please contact us to arrange a confidential introductory meeting:

Aurora Kendrick James, 7 Sherwood House, Walderslade Centre, Chatham, Kent ME5 9UD

Tel: +44 1634 673 800

E-Mail: info@akjl.co.uk
Web: http://www.aurorakendrickjames.com/tms.html

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

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About ttMobiles
ttMobiles is Europe’s leading provider of mobile phone management services to organisations in both the public and private sector.
Independent of all mobile networks, ttMobiles stand alone in the market place as the only company where the management services are
their core business and not an add-on to other more important business streams.

Specialising in all aspects of the total administration of mobile phones, BlackBerrys, data cards and home broadband, management
complexities surrounding the spiralling costs associated with a rapidly growing wireless user community are simplified and best prac-
tices ensure organisations achieve ongoing cost avoidance and genuine savings.

The service solutions delivered by ttMobiles remove the ‘burden of doing’ from overstretched departments and allow organisations to
focus on their own core business and areas of expertise. The ttMobiles’ suite of services enables organisations to gain control of their
wireless fleet whilst still complying with internal policies and external VAT and tax legislation.

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008

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About Quocirca
Quocirca is a primary research and analysis company specialising in the business impact of information technology and communica-
tions (ITC). With worldwide, native language reach, Quocirca provides in-depth insight into the views of buyers and influencers in
large, mid-sized and small organisations. Its analyst team is made up of real-world practitioners with firsthand experience of ITC deliv-
ery who continuously research and track the industry in the following key areas:

• Business process evolution and enablement

• Enterprise solutions and integration

• Business intelligence and reporting

• Communications, collaboration and mobility

• Infrastructure and IT systems management

• Systems security and end-point management

• Utility computing and delivery of IT as a service

• IT delivery channels and practices

• IT investment activity, behaviour and planning

• Public sector technology adoption and issues

• Integrated print management

Researching perceptions, Quocirca uncovers the real hurdles to technology adoption—the personal and political aspects of an organisa-
tion’s environment and the pressures of the need for demonstrable business value in any implementation. This capacity to uncover and
report on end-user perceptions in the market enables Quocirca to advise on the realities of technology adoption, not the promises.

Quocirca research is always pragmatic, business orientated and conducted in the context of the bigger picture. ITC has the ability to
transform business and business process, but often fails to do so. Quocirca’s mission is to help organisations improve their success rate
in process enablement through better levels of understanding and the adoption of the correct technologies at the correct time.

Quocirca has a pro-active primary research programme, regularly surveying users, purchasers and resellers of ITC products and serv-
ices on emerging, evolving and maturing technologies. Over time, Quocirca has built a picture of long-term investment trends, provid-
ing invaluable information for the whole of the ITC community.

Quocirca works with global and local providers of ITC products and services to help them deliver on the promise that ITC holds for
business. Quocirca’s clients include Oracle, Microsoft, IBM, Dell, T-Mobile, Vodafone, EMC, Symantec and Cisco, along with other
large and medium sized vendors, service providers and more specialist firms.

Sponsorship of specific studies by such organisations allows much of Quocirca’s research to be placed into the public domain at no
cost. Quocirca’s reach is great—through a network of media partners, Quocirca publishes its research to an audience possibly measured
in millions.

Quocirca’s independent culture and the real-world experience of Quocirca’s analysts ensure that our research and analysis is always
objective, accurate, actionable and challenging.

Quocirca reports are freely available to everyone and may be requested via www.quocirca.com.

Contact:
Quocirca Ltd
Mountbatten House
Fairacres
Windsor
Berkshire
SL4 4LE
United Kingdom

Tel +44 1753 754 838

© 2008 Quocirca Ltd www.quocirca.com April 2008