AOTMP 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market landscape · 2019. 9. 3. · AOTMP RESEARCH & ADVISORY...

August 2018

By Andrew Hartwyk, Senior Research Director, AOTMP Research & Advisory

Kelly Teal, Editor-in-Chief, AOTMP Research & Advisory

Scott Lawrence, Vice President, Performance Insights, AOTMP Research & Advisory

AOTMP 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market landscape

AOTMP RESEARCH & ADVISORY - 2018 TEM Market Landscape AOTMPRESEARCH.COM | +1.800.860.8608 | 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 How AOTMP Defines the Telecom/Mobility/IT Management Industry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 “Telecom” is Not Outdated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 The Purpose of the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 How AOTMP Research & Advisory Obtained Its Enterprise Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 How AOTMP Research & Advisory Obtained Its Vendor Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 What to Consider When Reviewing the Vendor Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6What Enterprises Say about the TEM Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 What Enterprises Want from TEM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 Vendors Need to Clarify Options, Enterprises Need to Take Advantage of Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Enterprises Need to Understand Vendor Solution Differentiators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Reporting Remains a Work in Progress, But It Has Made Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8 Inventory: Enterprises and Vendors Must Go Back to Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Audit & Optimization: A New Class is Emerging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9 Enterprise and Vendor Focus is Shifting Beyond Telecom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 A Market of Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11TEM Vendor Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 4TelecomHelp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12-14 Accenture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15-17 Alliance Communications Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18-20 Asignet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21-23 Avema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24-26 Calero . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27-29 Cass Information Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30-32 CBI Telecommunications Consultants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33-35 Cimpl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36-38 Dimension Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39-41 ICOMM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .42-44 MDSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45-47 Network Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .48-50 One Source Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51-53 Sakon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .54-56 Tangoe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57-59 TeleBright Software Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60-62 vCom Solutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63-65About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66About AOTMP Research & Advisory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66About One Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 About AOTMP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

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INTRODUCTION

Looking across the enterprise telecom landscape, it is clear there are no like environments, no absolute definitions of what telecom should comprise within the business. Fixed services are a necessity but the components and combinations deployed depends largely on budget, available technologies and leadership decisions, all of which often change. This relative instability puts organizations in the position of needing telecom management guidance more than ever. As a result, AOTMP Research & Advisory often fields questions about which telecom expense management (TEM) vendor is the best. Follow-up questions tend to include criteria such as dashboard and global capabilities. However, answering that question as-is would provide a disservice to the enterprise. Just as no enterprise environment is alike, no TEM vendor is exactly the same either. Finding the right fit requires exploration and deep vetting. Therefore, AOTMP Research & Advisory believes organizations need to assess TEM vendors by how they meet business needs and use telecom as a strategic tool for bettering the enterprise overall. Use AOTMP Research & Advisory’s 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape as the starting point. Through a combination of enterprise feedback and AOTMP Research & Advisory expertise, this report looks at TEM vendors in detail so organizations understand what each is able to deliver to more easily match proficiencies to needs .

In an enterprise intent on evolving, savings should not constitute the primary concern.

— AOTMP's Scott Lawrence

HOW AOTMP DEFINES THE TELECOM/MOBILITY/IT MANAGEMENT INDUSTRY

Telecom / Mobility / IT Management Industry definition:An ecosystem of vendors, telecom / mobility / IT environments and enterprise businesses engaged in providing, managing and consuming network services, carrier services, mobility and IoT solutions, cloud solutions, software, hardware, and emerging technologies.

Telecom / Mobility / IT Management Ecosystemdefinition: The Ecosystem defines the relationship of vendors to enterprise Telecom / Mobility / IT environments and the influence of those environments, including vendor delivered products and services, on business results. The Ecosystem consists of three components that work in harmony to deliver efficient and effective business performance.

• Vendors• Telecom / Mobility / IT Environments• Enterprise Businesses


“TELECOM” IS NOT OUTDATED

Organizations are investing in telecom initiatives at a faster rate than 20 years ago as technology moves to the cloud and lets employees roam where their roles demand. This extension of the enterprise environment puts more responsibility on the telecom/mobility/IT management group than almost any other department. Not only must that unit oversee expenses, it also must administer security controls and other important tasks.

To be sure, that first component, cost, is important but it is not the quintessential element. Even so, many organizations remain hyper-focused on the financial aspects of communications. The majority of executives and line-of-business owners have yet to view telecom as an important enabler that helps generate more revenue, increase market share, solidify customer loyalty and more.

AOTMP Research & Advisory continues to work to shift organizations’ perception of telecom from utility to facilitator of key business outcomes. As enterprises let go of old conceptions and embrace telecom, they understand and champion its contributions. One can find examples in every vertical – think healthcare, where people can visit their primary doctors over video conference or food and beverage, where proprietors can track deliveries through their tablets or smartphones. Across the board, telecom can and should allow enterprises to uncover new opportunities in areas including client engagement and employee retention, ultimately leading to more sales and profits.

That is why it is vital to stop seeing telecom as a commodity. In turn, telecom expense management – or, more aptly, telecom/mobility/IT lifecycle management – is the vehicle through which fixed assets and services are administered to their greatest potential. This encompasses far more than auditing, invoice processing and MACDs. A wider view of telecom lifecycle management embraces everything from accurate inventory from the beginning to using new technologies to elevate the organization. At the same time, these activities can potentially save money. However, in an enterprise intent on evolving, savings should not constitute the primary concern. In fact, done right, telecom management inherently will lead to few, if any, regular expense cuts because accuracy and efficiency will have been established and maintained from the start. This upends the traditional telecom management model, as AOTMP Research & Advisory believes should happen. Done right – and, again, “right” varies from enterprise to enterprise – telecom management brings about and supports business objectives.

THE PURPOSE OF THE 2018 TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT MARKET LANDSCAPE

This report exposes the enterprise to a range of TEM vendors and the changes and enhancements coming from many of them. Because each organization operates in a unique way, no one vendor will fit all. Therefore, enterprises looking for a new provider should use the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape to identify the vendors that best align with their principles and needs .

To aid in that endeavor, AOTMP Research & Advisory has highlighted “need to know” aspects in each vendor profile, including top verticals served, available service-delivery models, to-date capabilities and more.

However, the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape features much more than vendor profiles. The bulk of this report examines enterprise feedback about the industry. Peers can use this input as they evaluate providers and vendors should consider the insight for improvements as they mature. As such, this report targets enterprise decision-makers accountable for performance results, as well as the other influencers responsible for the fixed telecom management


environment within the organization. All the data gathered for and compiled in this report are meant to provide enterprises with insightful, actionable analysis for:

• Understanding the range of TEM service capabilities available to them • Understanding the maturity of the telecom management industry overall • Identifying the TEM services vendors for consideration when selecting a new TEM provider

On the vendor side, the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape targets executives, research and development/product managers, and sales and marketing professionals. Executives will gain visibility into market maturity, enterprise requirements and partnering opportunities. Research and development and product managers will come away with insight into market demand for solution capabilities that will help them set development roadmaps. Finally, sales and marketing experts will learn about enterprise demand and opportunity to accelerate business growth.

Importantly, this report does not rank vendors and AOTMP Research & Advisory reminds readers that vendors are listed in alphabetical order.

HOW AOTMP RESEARCH & ADVISORY OBTAINED ITS ENTERPRISE DATA

AOTMP Research & Advisory gathered its insight from three main sources: enterprise telecom / mobility / IT management and delivery employees; responses obtained during the annual AOTMP enterprise summit; and ongoing enterprise relationships. All of the collected information covers categories including:

• Aspects of telecom management outsourced to TEM providers • Current TEM vendor, if any • Areas of opportunity, if any, within existing services received • Reasons for enterprises to select new TEM vendors

HOW AOTMP RESEARCH & ADVISORY OBTAINED ITS VENDOR DATA

AOTMP Research & Advisory identified qualified vendors and invited them to take part in a two-stage data collection process – an oral discussion and visual presentation of their businesses, service models and technologies. During those briefings, AOTMP Research & Advisory looked for the following core capabilities with the realm of fixed and wireline telecom:

• Inventory management • Contract management • Auditing • Optimization • Reporting • Help desk, including multilingual

Those briefings further covered capabilities including:

• Company history and roadmap • Client case studies • Perceived differentiators • Service delivery methods • Technology

Additional qualification criteria included annual revenue, years in business and active client minimums. Note that some vendors meeting these standards were invited but chose not to participate in the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape. Those vendors were Avotus and IBM.

Finally, vendors that engaged with AOTMP Research & Advisory completed detailed questionnaires addressing details including:

• Company demographics • Enterprise markets served • Geographies supported • Solution services provided • Top vertical markets served

TEM vendors are growing past their legacy roots and extending capabilities to new technologies

such as cloud and SaaS deployments, which require the same management expertise as telecom. — AOTMP's Andrew Hartwyk


WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN REVIEWING THE VENDOR PROFILES

AOTMP Research & Advisory once again emphasizes that the profiles in this report in no way constitute rankings of these vendors. Rather, this report highlights that, despite the M&A within the TEM industry, many providers remain that meet the varying needs of enterprises and their environments.

Here are other takeaways to keep in mind:

1. Each organization must know what it requires from telecom so it can find the best TEM vendor fit. Vendors possess additional capabilities not discussed or highlighted in this report that should be considered against specific business criteria. 2. Integration is a loosely defined term for most telecom/mobility/IT management organizations. Therefore, expect a range of options from providers, including email integrations, API-based integrations and others . 3. Opportunities exist for vendors and enterprises alike to optimize business value in all areas of telecom management operations. Everyone can, and should, keep improving. 4. The size of each vendor – revenue, number of employees, number of clients, etc. – is not indicative of the level of performance customers receive. In many cases smaller, more focused vendors boast delivery capabilities that exceed those of their larger competitors.

Overall, remember, evaluating TEM vendors takes time and effort, both of which will be reduced by using the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape as a guide.

WHAT ENTERPRISES SAY ABOUT THE TEM MARKET

AOTMP Research & Advisory gathered insights from its enterprise panel, conference attendees and customers, then identified and elaborated upon the most critical themes that emerged. Organizations can balance this input against their own experiences and use it to guide further decision-making. Vendors, meanwhile, should apply client feedback to continued enhancements.

WHAT ENTERPRISES WANT FROM TEM

Enterprises tell AOTMP Research & Advisory they are looking for greater efficiency in two key areas – expense analysis and optimization – and a fair amount are thinking about moving to BPO.

When it comes to expense analysis and optimization, enterprises want more and better. During an AOTMP 2018 Summit roundtable, participants already working with TEM vendors said they trust some providers’ automated software more than the details provided by vendor telecom analyst teams. Automated data collection eased concerns over mistakes in data entry, with enterprises stating they believed the data to contain fewer errors than data produced by analyst teams.

It speaks volumes that enterprises seem quicker to trust the software built by the TEM vendor before people themselves. In the right environment, with the right vendor partnership, the combined efforts of automated invoice processing and in-depth knowledge via experienced analysts deliver the most optimal outcomes. Where the machine lacks depth – as in emotional and situational circumstances that shift outside of plotted standards – the analyst brings balance and insight. Some software will have the artificial intelligence to learn from these occurrences. But the delivery of messages will still rest on the analysts .

Too many enterprises have told AOTMP Research & Advisory they didn’t think the TEM vendor could handle the

migration of a crucial activity. — AOTMP's Scott Lawrence


Perhaps it is this trust in the right mix of automation and human intervention that has a number of enterprise respondents thinking about switching to a BPO TEM model. In this instance, the TEM vendor handles every single aspect of an enterprise’s TEM needs, leaving the enterprise to focus on strategic initiatives. Of course, this level of hands-on management costs more than other service delivery models, which is discussed in the next section.

In the meantime, enterprises working with TEM vendors should examine their engagement expectations and remember that vendor success is driven by partnerships with clients. Vendors rely heavily on the information enterprises share with them to improve practices and processes. Cultivate more trust with vendors by collaborating with them frequently. When appropriate, include that vendor in strategic telecom initiatives. This will go a long way toward fomenting desired results – not just in expense analysis and optimization but in using telecom to advance the business, which is the ultimate goal of telecom management.

TEM vendors, listen to the challenges enterprises are facing and demonstrate proficiency in bringing about positive change within the client’s environment. Both parties will benefit. Enterprises will gain the tools they need and vendors will bolster their abilities and reputations.

VENDORS NEED TO CLARIFY OPTIONS, ENTERPRISES NEED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THEM

Cost savings and the activities associated with them remain the leading reasons enterprises outsource to TEM vendors. But enterprises are still frustrated by the pricing and delivery model variances among vendors and solutions.

As AOTMP Research & Advisory continues to advocate, however, enterprises must view TEM providers as a larger part of the telecom lifecycle management practice. Many TEM vendors offer strategic services that increase savings and efficiency opportunities – think help desk, procurement, MACD, optimization, technology consulting and implementation and more. Fully managed services and business process outsourcing also are important to consider, although these models

do not fit the needs of every enterprise. Organizations that can afford this level of service delivery – and that are comfortable having a third party in charge – will free internal employees’ workloads for more strategic initiatives.

Regardless of the service delivery method, vendors need to make their capabilities extremely clear to customers. Too many enterprises have told AOTMP Research & Advisory they didn’t think the TEM vendor could handle the migration of a crucial activity. Much of that stemmed from a lack of visibility into the TEM vendor’s processes, leading to missed opportunities for enterprise savings and service optimization.

At the same time, enterprises must remove obstacles that block a vendor from making improvements and adjustments. Too often, people feel they own a particular operation or department and get in the way of changes that would enhance the greater good. Ego cannot play a role in effective telecom management. Rather, the gauge must be what best serves the overall business.

Finally, enterprises frustrated about pricing differences for different service delivery models must understand that these variations reflect how much work the vendor is taking on for the customer. An enterprise will pay more for fully managed services than it will simply to license a TEM platform because the vendor is handling most workloads. Below, AOTMP Research & Advisory lists the standard configurations from which enterprises can choose, noting that not all vendors offer each option:

Technology-Only: The vendor provides software-as-a-service (SaaS) or on-premises software, the enterprise performs all the work.

Technology plus Host-and-Load: Via SaaS, the vendor loads carrier invoices while the enterprise handles all other work .

Technology and Managed Services: Through SaaS or on-premises software, the vendor does everything specified in the statement of work, while the enterprise handles whatever the vendor does not .

Business Process Outsourcing: The vendor assumes all TEM work streams, including bill pay, and the enterprise receives the results.


Professional/Consulting Services: The vendor completes specific telecom management tasks (contract negotiations, technology refresh, project management, etc.) on a project basis.

Typically, technology-only costs the least because the enterprise is handling its TEM needs in-house. However, before assuming that any one approach is best, do some baseline work. Define what TEM assets and services the organization needs. This may require validating existing resources and securing additional budget. Then, compare and contrast those requirements with the capabilities and delivery models of the vendors in this report.

Vendors, AOTMP Research & Advisory once again recommends that all marketing materials avoid jargon and showcase capabilities, features, benefits and pricing in clear language.

ENTERPRISES NEED TO UNDERSTAND VENDOR SOLUTION DIFFERENTIATORS

AOTMP Research & Advisory cannot overstate the need for enterprise to define the engagements they think will help them bring the most efficient management to their telecom environments. Such self-identification tends to ease the headaches associated with unmet expectations, gaps in statements of work and absence of proper engagement and results with the TEM vendor of choice. No vendor is perfect for every enterprise environment out of the box. However, knowing up front how the enterprise wants to engage, and being clear with the vendor about

what it wants from that relationship, will cut down on frustration.

Different delivery methods require different levels of vendor engagement. Thus, define what the enterprise needs and vet what the vendor offers. To start that process, AOTMP Research & Advisory has provided some questions to ask when evaluating vendors, either in this report or in general:

• How many dedicated telecom employees does our organization have? • What are our existing processes for procurement, MACDs, contract negotiations, audits and optimization? • What management platform do we rely on for these processes and their administration? • Are we migrating to any major IT service management platforms? • What strategic results does the organization want to achieve that telecom deployments can enable or support? • Where does our organization need support to fill in gaps in delivery and services?

The answers to these questions will help steer enterprises toward an optimal vendor fit.

Meanwhile, TEM vendors need to be more clear about what they offer and how they engage with enterprises. If the philosophies and approaches do not match, a partnership will not go well.

REPORTING REMAINS A WORK IN PROGRESS, BUT IT HAS MADE PROGRESS

Enterprises want more actionable data in easy-to-understand formats. Oddly, while vendors are rolling out dashboards to meet these demands, enterprises still say they are not getting what they need. This will take time. On a positive note, though, AOTMP Research & Advisory is seeing more enterprises and vendors meeting in the middle in 2018 than in years past. The vendors that are satisfying clients’ needs are raising the bar for what their peers must deliver in reporting and analytics.


On the vendor front, providers are making some positive changes to avoid consistently

large savings that actually indicate poor management. — AOTMP's Andrew Hartwyk

Enterprises appreciate the increased flexibility in reporting that vendors are providing. For example, there is more standard availability of ad hoc reporting, increased flexibility in download formats and more integration with third-party systems. To the last point, TEM vendors must do more. Enterprise executives are investing in reporting systems such as ServiceNow or Remedy that blanket their telecom/mobility/IT organizations, requiring integration from TEM vendors. The TEM providers that can integrate are ahead of the pack and easing the pressure on telecom management teams to consolidate data consumption and action.

AOTMP Research & Advisory has noted growing demand in enterprise reporting capabilities for more proactive solution management. In this scenario, reporting moves from the static data collected from a bill into real-time, activity-based analysis of the enterprise’s telecom environment. Enterprises watch for incident-based activity and spikes in usage and demand, and react without causing a spike in costs or a reduction in customer satisfaction. Vendors investing in this level of automated reporting are delivering exciting opportunities for enterprises to deeply understand and refine their telecom environments. Overall, enterprises are turning up the heat on providers to participate more actively in their environments and one way is by pushing for more detailed analyses of their environments via reporting.

INVENTORY: ENTERPRISES AND VENDORS MUST GO BACK TO BASICS

Expense analysis, optimization, procurement and MACD operations still rank as the core telecom management activities enterprises are outsourcing. However, insight into these areas often remains muddled because of a lack of accurate inventory. This issue goes back years and tends to come about because the enterprise, with or without a TEM vendor’s help, has not established a thorough baseline of all the communications assets and services it owns. Maintaining accurate inventory becomes a struggle, primarily driven by the inability to keep pace with MACD activity. This leads to paying for unused equipment and connectivity and paying too much for services, among other problems. But from a higher level, inaccurate inventory impacts other practices that, not managed correctly, hurt the whole organization. Those areas are:

• Procurement/Service Ordering • Network Design • Help Desk/Break-Fix Repair/Maintenance • Asset/Service Management • Budgeting • End-of-Life/Decommissioning • Contract Negotiations/Vendor Management

Decentralized management of all of these activities also jeopardizes inventory accuracy, stressing the importance of administering all telecom needs from one repository overseen by one department.

Many TEM vendors try to resolve inventory issues by using data collected by the enterprise. However, this tends to fail. Enterprise employees may have to juggle so many tasks that tracking down all assets and services falls to the wayside. Mergers and acquisitions also lead to lost information and resources. So too do network changes and upgrades. Establishing accurate inventory requires time-consuming, in-depth investigation.

AUDIT & OPTIMIZATION: A NEW CLASS IS EMERGING

The TEM industry is rooted in its ability to identify and secure cost savings through the detailed analysis of invoices against contracts. The idea that an organization will obtain a point of optimal operation with zero opportunity for ongoing savings ignores the fluidity that exists within every enterprise telecom environment. Employees leave, strategies change, locations close, parts of the company are bought, sold or consolidated and of course, technology continues to evolve.


Furthermore, variables outside of both enterprise and TEM vendor control highlight the need for continuous evaluation. Our favorite example is the practices of carriers. They may charge the wrong prices, apply the wrong discount, or bill for non-existent or disconnected services. This speaks to their own opportunities as a vendor to simplify their engagements with enterprises and highlights a dominant example of continuous issues managed by TEM vendors on behalf of enterprises. Other examples include credit recovery and the time associated with identifying, requesting, and auditing their implementation. Audits and optimizations will always have a place. However, when these activities are performed correctly, ongoing savings will not, and should not, be large. This means auditing and optimization, alongside other critical TEM practices, are working. Constant big savings indicate the enterprise and/or its vendor is not conducting audits and optimizations in line with Efficiency First® Framework best practices.

On the vendor front, providers are making some positive changes to avoid consistently large savings that actually indicate poor management. Many are automating the variable changes, explained below, that can impact regular audit and optimization. This requires integrating enterprise and service provider data within the TEM platform. For example, such an integration would include locations lists, HR feeds, carrier services and procurement processes. All of this would allow a TEM vendor to identify a change in location status, for example, and automate the workflow that supports that location’s services. Some TEM providers are building the intelligent systems to manage and present the outputs of these changes, eliminating post-billing optimization by fostering real-time action.

ENTERPRISE AND VENDOR FOCUS IS SHIFTING BEYOND TELECOM

Enterprises increasingly understand the crossover between the telecom ecosystem and the emerging, next-generation technologies fueling digital transformation efforts. Unified communications, software as a service, SD-WAN – each represents an example of digital transformation and its interaction with necessary telecom components such as data lines. As a result, more telecom management teams are administering, monitoring and maintaining these services, enhancing the value of what “telecom” means to

organizations. At the same time, TEM vendors are growing past their legacy roots and extending capabilities to new technologies such as cloud and SaaS deployments, which require the same management expertise as telecom.

A MARKET OF CHANGE

AOTMP Research & Advisory estimates 36 percent of enterprises will change TEM vendors at the end of their current contract term. This estimate is supported by data compiled for this Market Landscape, which considers the average rate of change over the past 12 months and the average rate of change predicted over the coming 12 months, as reported by enterprises.

These observations come amid continued M&A activity among TEM vendors, which many enterprises find concerning. Many of these organizations have experienced poor service delivery, disjointed account management and other problems stemming from past provider M&A. Recent TEM vendor M&A, however, seems more centered on strategic growth and reinforcement of specific provider capabilities.

Much of this shift is being fueled by private equityinvestors looking to fund TEM providers with managementsoftware that touches multiple areas of the telecomenvironment, including mobility and IT infrastructure. AOTMP Research & Advisory will not go as far as to say that these investments have negatively impacted vendors’ service capabilities, but will say the influx of private equity into the TEM sector is driving more automation. On one hand, this is positive because automation reduces errors that arise from human intervention. However, in many cases, too much focus on software development within the TEM sector is coming at the expense of vendors employing knowledge workers, whose expertise enterprises are demanding. TEM vendors ought not sacrifice service delivery in favor of technology. Doing so impacts client perceptions and experiences. The TEM vendors that continue to emphasize service delivery, implementation and account management during the M&A integration period and amid private equity ownership should reduce those fears. Ultimately, though,


delivery will speak for itself. AOTMP Research & Advisory recommends that each enterprise own and act on, from day one, a vendor scorecard for proper goal setting, measurement and satisfaction measurement.

CONCLUSION

The TEM market – both enterprises and vendors – is making some strides but must continue to grow. On the reporting front, for instance, more enterprises are requesting granular detail that ties to key performance indicators, and using that information to make calculated shifts. They also are asking more of their TEM providers in terms of technology consulting prior to deployments. This speaks to a wider array of vendor capabilities and enterprise willingness to rely on that expertise for guidance. In addition, enterprises are understanding that telecom/mobility/IT management without vetted, verified and accurate inventory will not perform as needed.

And while some might argue the vendor side of telecom management still lags behind the likes of IT service management platforms and capabilities, it is catching up. Some TEM vendors are investing in these next-generation areas for efficiency gains, but room for improvement and adoption remains. Yes, automation cuts down on mistakes that happen when people administer processes manually. Yet, at the same time, enterprises will want to stay aware of which vendors are replacing knowledge workers with technology. Ideally, subject matter experts and automated processes will coexist and complement one another; human touch will not be eliminated.

Most importantly, more vendors and enterprises are adopting AOTMP Research & Advisory’s long-held view that TEM encompasses far more than expense management. Rather, telecom management is communications and technology lifecycle management, which requires a deep, holistic approach to administering assets and services.

This changing reality is evidenced by expanded TEM vendor offerings – for example, more providers are talking about and handling activities from pre-implementation technology consulting to equipment decommissioning, and enterprise willingness to manage new technologies through TEM solutions.

This end-to-end strategy should serve enterprises and TEM vendors well. Indeed, AOTMP Research & Advisory has championed the shift from “expense” to “lifecycle” management for years. To see that coming to fruition is nothing short of gratifying – not because it proves AOTMP Research & Advisory right but because the growth elevates the entire telecom management industry, underscoring its importance in promoting, supporting and influencing enterprises’ pivotal business objectives.

TEM VENDOR PROFILES

Before diving into the profiles in this year’s Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape, enterprises will want to understand how AOTMP Research & Advisory gathered its data and landed on its analysis. Refer again to the section, “How AOTMP Research & Advisory Obtained Its Vendor Data,” in the introduction to this report. Note that AOTMP Research & Advisory gave each vendor the opportunity to review its profile for accuracy; edits were limited only to facts, not tone or analysis.

Next, for enterprises in search of a different or brand-new TEM vendor, AOTMP Research & Advisory suggests making a list of “must haves” and “nice to haves” before reading the following profiles. Each TEM vendor in the 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market Landscape possesses a unique history and approach to serving clients. Having a list on hand starts the process of identifying the best potential provider fit.

AOTMP Research & Advisory estimates 36 percent of enterprises will change TEM

vendors at the end of their current contract term.

— AOTMP's Scott Lawrence


4TELECOMHELP WORKS WITH ENTERPRISES HEADQUARTERED IN NORTH AMERICA AND ITS SUPPORT FOR THESE CLIENTS IS BALANCED BETWEEN THE USE OF SOFTWARE AND RELIANCE ON ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT THAT OFFERS TOP-TIER SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE.

VENDOR PROFILE:

To achieve this balance, the consulting and managed services vendor takes a four-pillar approach – inventory, account management, operations and expense management. This philosophy aligns with the principals of the AOTMP Efficiency First® Framework as well as the basic requirements of enterprises seeking to outsource TEM.

The inventory-first strategy is paramount for achieving positive outcomes. Without accurate inventory, an enterprise cannot be certain it is not paying for unnecessary or unused assets or services. 4TelecomHelp’s dedication to practices including managing MACDs and procurement for clients addresses this problem.


When it comes to operations, 4TelecomHelp is willing to integrate with outside systems based on customer demand but that has not yet materialized. That 65 percent of 4TelecomHelp’s staff works in the R&D category speaks to its integration potential.

Half of 4TelecomHelp’s clients use the company for fully outsourced business process operations. This likely boils down to the vendor’s laser focus on flexibility, customization and attention. Account managers not only handle activities including reporting and bill processing,

they also look for services that should be consolidated, negotiate contracts and oversee carrier installations. 4TelecomHelp also recently condensed the TEM platform it uses to manage client data from four systems to one, dubbed Titan. This commitment to a single source of truth serves the vision of enterprise clients well.

A vendor such as 4TelecomHelp is best suited for the agile and technology-centered enterprise aiming for balance in the chaos that can be telecom. In the stable of consistency, one should not ignore 4TelecomHelp.

VENDOR PROFILE:

50%

10%

10%

30%

TEM Client Base

Technology and Data Load

Technology and Managed Services

Fully Outsourced BPO Services

Professional/Consulting Services Only

Ops/Delivery

Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

5%

10%

20%

65%


VENDOR PROFILE:

COMPANY INFORMATION COMPANY ANNUAL REVENUE NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES

EMPLOYEES BY ROLE TOP 3 VERTICALS SERVED MARKET SEGMENTS SERVED

ACTIVE CLIENTS KEY LEADERSHIP TOP 3 SERVICES/SOLUTIONS

Company Name: 4TelecomHelp Inc.

Headquarters Country: U.S.

Year Founded: 1999

Public or Private: Private

Website: 4telecomhelp.com

Efficiency First® Vendor Solution Certification Status: Not Yet Certified

Less than $25 million

• Construction• Mining, Oil & Gas• Retail

• Chad Parnis, Founder• Jill Plouffe, President

& Managing. Partner• Linda Jeffries, VP,

Operations & Provisioning

• Inventory Management

• Contract Management

• Help Desk

• Large/Strategic• Enterprise• SMB

Less than 100

50 to 99

50%

10%

10%

30%

TEM Client Base





Ops/Delivery

Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

5%

10%

20%

65%


RELYING ON PLATFORMS LICENSED FROM STALWART PROVIDERS IN THE TEM SPACE AND COMBINING THEM WITH IN-HOUSE BUSINESS PROCESSING AND CONSULTING, ACCENTURE PACKS A POWERFUL PUNCH FOR ENTERPRISES CONSIDERING A TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGED SERVICES PROVIDER.

VENDOR PROFILE:

With more than $960 million in telecom spend under management, Accenture has delivered $85 million in savings for clients to date.

Accenture seeks to distinguish itself by emphasizing the value of managed services. Thus, its offering incorporates a customizable, four-phased approach that aligns with

each client’s timeline and business objectives for implementing TEM:

1. Diagnostic and Maturity Assessment 2. Transformation 3. Mobilization and Transition 4. Managed Services


Starting clients with three “Consulting as a Service” offerings establishes a smooth transition into ongoing management. The Diagnostics and Maturity Assessment is Accenture’s in-depth, on-site program that allows consulting teams to dig in with clients and fully understand the current practices of the enterprise environment. Identifying key opportunities for improvement and core opportunities for their technology platforms and managed services teams to provide the vehicle for those improvements.

Accenture’s Transformation and Mobilization and Transition phases are the core migration activities that clients must complete when onboarding a new TEM provider or core service. In some cases, Accenture clients will move through a migration of other technology before implementing the managed services component. This may be an SD-WAN transition or a mobility deployment, for example. In either case, the deployment serves as an opportunity for Accenture and the client to collaborate on the creation of an accurate inventory. This approach also helps pinpoint ways to streamline and simplify decentralized TEM processes and technologies for global organizations.

Beyond these core services, Accenture extends its offerings to financial management, rate plan optimization

and advanced audit, telecom contract negotiations and service management.

Based out of the Philippines with delivery centers in Manila, Cebu, Ilocos and Bratislava, Accenture boasts a 24/7 help desk and delivery support that crosses more than 80 countries, 150 carriers and 10 languages. Accenture continuously invests in its TEM support and delivery teams; its highly trained resources hold AOTMP Professional, ITIL, ITAM and Six Sigma certifications.

Accenture’s reliance on third-party platforms has not limited its investments into automation technology or artificial intelligence to simplify repetitive processes. With 80 percent of clients on MDSL’s platform, 19 percent on Tangoe Rivermine and 1 percent using other systems, Accenture has invested in robotic process automation to simplify invoice processes that are redundant and easily scalable. The vendor continues to create even more value for clients by infusing its TEM solutions with automation, analytics and artificial intelligence.

Accenture is an AOTMP Efficiency First® CertifiedSolution Vendor.

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Accenture Inc.

Headquarters Country: Ireland

Year Founded: 1989

Public or Private: Public

Website: accenture.com

Efficiency First® Vendor Solution Certification Status: Certified

More than $100 million*

*Overall company revenue

Not Disclosed• Comms, Media &

Technology• Financial Services• Professional

Services

• Pierre Nanterme, Chairman & CEO

• David P. Rowland, CFO• Jo Deblaere, COO• Omar Abbosh,

Chief Strategy Officer• Paul R. Daugherty,

Chief Technology & Innovation Officer

• Inventory Management• Order Management• Invoice Audit/Dispute

Management

• Multi-Nationals• Large/Strategic• Enterprise• SMB

More than 30,000*

*Overall company employees

Not Disclosed

VENDOR PROFILE:


IN A MARKET WHERE MANY TEM VENDORS PROVIDE SIMILAR SERVICES, ENTERPRISES SEEK DIFFERENTIATORS AND ALLIANCE COMMUNICATIONS MANAGEMENT AIMS FOR ITS CLIENTS TO EXPERIENCE EXACTLY THAT.

VENDOR PROFILE:

The 21-year-old managed services provider focuses on execution and simplicity by offering white-glove service blended with an emphasis on cost optimization. These traits can be difficult to find in a consistent manner across an industry that struggles with service delivery missteps and loose organizational communication.

Alliance provisions all TEM and MMS needs for its clients and supports IT-side requirements with integrations to platforms including ServiceNow. The vendor relies on its proprietary, internal-only platform, SIMIS, to achieve this. As a result, it provisions procurement, monitoring, MACD and trouble tickets and more.


Client consultants, the quarterbacks who manage each enterprise’s telecom estate, further provide reports to clients. These can detail everything from HR feed and carrier data to MACD and inventory changes. But the value of these consultants goes much deeper. Organizations can lean on the expertise of these delivery teams for transformational environmental deployments into areas including, but not limited to, SD-WAN and mobility. These teams are crucial to client environments, championing deployment and delivery for the enterprise and its end users.

Alliance provides 24x7 help desk support in-house and has in-region support for global customer demand. Clients drive Alliance’s global expansion and the company’s efforts on that scale likely will continue to rely on partners for best results.

When it comes to fees, Alliance avoids complexity. It charges flat rates rather than costs that change

depending on volume under management or percentage of savings. And, again, the vendor does not represent any third parties via resale or white-labeling. All of this speaks volumes about Alliance’s belief that its team is as important, if not more so, than any management platform the company could deploy.

Alliance balances its services in many areas by knowledge base and ability to be a chameleon, adapting to the requirements of individual clients – without pushing a software platform that does not provide equal value in efficiency and/or execution. As such, Alliance serves a specific customer profile: the enterprise that seeks a sense of total control over its telecom environment, assets and costs without worry or question.

Alliance Communications is an AOTMP Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor.

TEM Client Base



R&D

Management

Ops/Delivery

10%

15%

75%

95%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Alliance Communications Management


Year Founded: 1997


Website: alliancemanaged.com



• Business Services• Engineering• Healthcare

• Robert Hunter, CEO• Scott Davis, COO

• Fixed and Wireless Integration

• Cost Optimization• Process/Project

Outsourcing

• Multi-Nationals• Large/Strategic• Enterprise

Less than 100

Less than 50

MMS Client Base



R&D

Management

Ops/Delivery

10%

15%

75%

95%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:


ASIGNET REMAINS SOMEWHAT NEW TO THE U.S. MARKET.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Based out of Argentina with offices in the United States, Mexico and Spain, Asignet houses its nearshore operations center out of Uruguay. As it grows, Asignet continues to balance its investments and find ways to automate processes – something many of its competitors are still working to achieve by funneling money into R&D. This gives Asignet somewhat of an advantage. Its leaders understand that mergers and acquisitions, including private equity activity, among U.S. TEM vendors have created a measure of chaos and reduced some innovation. Determined not to get caught up in the frenzy, Asignet is focused on making the most of its strengths as it expands. From a technology perspective, Asignet has created a low-code platform as a service solution called WAYFAST.

WAYFAST is Asignet’s core technology for creating BPM, web and mobile applications 10 times faster than traditional development. The platform is tied directly to Asignet’s patented “robot” process. The RPA Engine is integrated with Asignet’s WAYFAST workflow process, allowing for automation and integration with any device or web portal with or without a service-oriented architecture interface .

Asignet’s process allows the enterprise to obtain detailed circuit inventory and line items charges for every invoice. This facilitates direct contract compliance and dispute management integrated with parsers to all global vendors.


Asignet’s nearshore BPO tied to its platform-as-a-service approach enables enterprises to engage at any level from pure host-and-load to full managed service to oversee telecom spend with automation that remains rare in today’s market. Enterprises can integrate the Asignet platform with existing internal systems and take advantage of the various formats Asignet systems already support beyond traditional TEM lifecycle management.

Meanwhile, Asignet provides account management teams to maintain strict processes based on client needs. This largely applies to wireline, which still poses the greatest automation challenge. Wireline provisioning leans toward the complex, given the potentially thousands of circuit configurations and customization requirements, depending on the enterprise. Nonetheless, Asignet is investing to address this issue.

In terms of desired capabilities, Asignet comes highly rated by clients, based on the AOTMP Efficiency First® Solution

Certification scoring questionnaire (Asignet is an Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor). Asignet’s key strengths lie in its built-in, multi-lingual help desk; its multi-location strategy, which includes South America, Central America, North America and Europe; and its managed services flexibility beyond the TEM lifecycle, including managed mobility services. Overall, Asignet is increasing its footprint among global enterprises.

Enterprises engaged with Asignet would be well served to push for more analytics and ask for help in moving from reactive to proactive positions. Asignet is up to the task. The vendor is investing in analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence to discover new opportunities for clients. These investments have yet to yield game-changing results, but the ever-expanding data lake available to Asignet will provide the company many opportunities to steer enterprises from tactical to strategic telecom deployments.

TEM Client Base



Fully Outsourced BPO Services50%

30%20%

Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

6%

10%

40%

44%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Asignet

Headquarters Country: Argentina

Year Founded: 1994


Website: asignet.com



• Finance• Technology• Telecom

• Claudio López Silva, CEO

• Jason Koenigsberg, Managing Director, Asignet USA

• Multilingual Help Desk• Contract/Inventory

Management• Automated Wireline

Provisioning


Less than 100

Less than 50

MMS Client Base




30%20%

Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

6%

10%

40%

44%

VENDOR PROFILE:


FOUNDED IN 1995 AS A TELECOM CONSULTING FIRM FOCUSED ON AUDITING, TORONTO-BASED AVEMA CONTINUES TO EMPHASIZE VALIDATION OF VOICE, DATA AND WIRELESS THROUGH ITS END USER-FACING PLATFORM, ADVANCED VENDOR MANAGEMENT (AVM), WHICH HOUSES DATA FOR ALL THREE TECHNOLOGIES.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Avema also operates a managed services arm. The company targets mostly mid-market to large enterprises with 2,000-25,000 employees. The vendor manages costs by exception and pushes relevant information to clients on an automated basis. For clients who do not want to shoulder tasks such as contract management and carrier

refunds, Avema will handle those activities. The solution also can be white-labeled for partners or end users who want their logos on the platform. Avema further offers wholesale telecom services; this gives clients access to more competitive rates and vendor consolidation.


Avema prides itself on having built AVM to support global billing, multiple languages and currencies. With that in mind, AVM features a dashboard users may customize to their liking. AVM further enables deep-dive explorations of invoices, employee usage, pooling and cost allocations and more. The platform can allocate charges down to the item level, including taxes and service funds. In addition, users may set alerts such as usage thresholds within AVM and pull and create and distribute a wide range of reports. An activity log tracks all revisions for legal, security and productivity reasons.

Avema can provide in-house help desk services with additional multilingual mobility device support through a third-party. When it comes to billing in foreign languages, Avema handles this in-house via translators built into AVM. These translators not only upload the data, they also address data privacy and security concerns by region.

It should be noted that while Avema does not yet offer carrier ebonding, it does integrate with a variety of ERP/ASA systems such as PeopleSoft and SAP with minimal effort.

Coming changes to AVM include integrations with cloud services and more emphasis on visual reporting and analytics. These upgrades will allow for more custom items such as IoT and non-telecom invoices such as utility bills. Avema said its more detailed reporting capabilities will improve how it conducts audits and does optimization and reporting.

As of early 2018, Avema primarily sells through the indirect channel, but still offers a direct model as well. The vendor had signed two channel partners at the time of its briefing with AOTMP Research & Advisory, and was on the verge of adding a third.

TEM Client Base




30%20%

Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

10%

10%

15%

65%

50%

15%

35%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Avema Corp.

Headquarters Country: Canada

Year Founded: 1995


Website: avema.com



• Finance• Healthcare• Retail

• Roger K. Yang, Founder & CEO

• Brian O'Donoghue, Vice President


• Validation/ Optimization

• Bill Processing/ Payment


Less than 100

Not Disclosed

TEM Client Base




30%20%

Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

10%

10%

15%

65%

50%

15%

35%

VENDOR PROFILE:


AS THE TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT SECTOR GROWS TO ENCOMPASS ALL FORMS OF TECHNOLOGY AND EXPAND GLOBALLY, CALERO HAS KEPT ITS EYE ON ACHIEVING BOTH GOALS.

VENDOR PROFILE:

First, it has continued to hone its platform to oversee the whole communications lifecycle, not just telecom. Second, the company has purchased Netherlands-headquartered A&B Groep and UK-based Veropath to strengthen its reach in Europe. Backed by Riverside Partners, a private investor with a reputation for supporting its portfolio companies’ expansion, Calero has the resources and strategic support to keep broadening its expertise and coverage in both TEM and IT expense management.

Calero continues to enhance its platform offerings beyond traditional TEM, leveraging communications and cloud lifecycle management (CLM) to address the challenges of subscription-based software, IoT device management, cloud services/infrastructure and usage-based services such as unified communications.


While client demand remains ever-present, Calero is investing in technology to advance its existing solutions, ensuring the platform can automate tasks and understand the vast amounts of data being collected for clients. This means investing in several areas: robotic process automation, enterprise and vendor APIs and advanced analytics. Calero’s proprietary approach to analytics provides a guided, multi-dimensional visualization for end users and scenario planning for visibility and control over expanding IT, cloud and communications usage and costs.

When it comes to global expansion, Calero is smart to start with a focus on Europe. As AOTMP Research & Advisory noted in its report, What to Expect from TEM/EMM Services: 2018-2020, Europe represents possibly the fastest-growing region in the world. More enterprises are expanding within Europe and realizing the need to control expenses and contribute to strategic outcomes via management platforms and expertise. In addition, Europe’s enactment of General Data Protection Regulation will require more in-depth, and proactive, management of data handling, end-user mobile policy and compliance. Operating in Europe further requires local assets, people

who know compliance. Calero has gained this inherent expertise with A&B Groep and Veropath and is well positioned for growth in that region over the next five years .

Meanwhile, even though mergers and acquisitions can come at a cost – compromised service delivery and greater chance for disruption – AOTMP Research & Advisory has not seen this happen as Calero has brought other companies, including U.S.-based Comview, into its fold. The Calero leadership team is experienced in M&A and in mitigating the subsequent technology and delivery challenges that can arise. One of the reasons is that Calero has positioned its acquisitions as having value beyond financial gain and name recognition. These factors do matter but even more to the point, Calero has acquired knowledge and leadership that help ensure growth while maintaining service delivery levels for enterprises.

Overall, Calero is well suited to lead organizations through communications and cloud lifecycle management and into the broader practice of IT lifecycle management.

TEM Client Base



50%

30%20%

Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

1%

8%

25%

66%

10%

90%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Calero


Year Founded: 2013


Website: calero.com


Not Disclosed

• Finance• Retail• Technology

• Joe Pajer, CEO• Justin Estvold, CAO • Andrew Taylor, EVP,

Global Sales• Albert Spell,

VP, Operations



• Help Desk (Multilingual)


100 to 499

More than 1,000

TEM Client Base



50%

30%20%

Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

1%

8%

25%

66%

10%

90%

VENDOR PROFILE:


CASS INFORMATION SYSTEMS INC. HAS BEEN A STABLE PLAYER SINCE IT ENTERED THE TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT SPACE IN 2004.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Its more robust background as an expense management provider of broader strokes since the mid-1950s only balances its aggressive growth in a market that has struggled with transparency and delivery. Yes, Cass owns a bank, and yes, it boasts revenue that cleared $140 million in 2017, but what is it doing in telecom?

Telecom has proven a natural evolution for Cass’s business. Consider the typical telecom environment and

the frustrations associated with processes, variabilities and challenges. These include having a clean inventory, collecting invoices and reconciling them before making payment, and ensuring that allocations and chargebacks are accurate and accessible. Cass, during its growth as a bank, faced those same frustrations. Then leaders realized their expense-management knowledge would serve Cass in evolving into a banking institution with a telecom-centric managed services arm for businesses.


To that point, Cass is extremely confident of its abilities in bill pay and client satisfaction. Industry-wide, bill pay services have grown more popular over the last 20 years but really picked up steam in the last five years. Cass’s position with its banking counterpart gives it with some stability that may not exist for other TEM vendors, and its processes and benefits are equal to other offerings. The company’s biggest differentiator may lie in its global bill-pay capabilities; AOTMP Research & Advisory heard from other providers that they do this as well. However, Cass can make local currency payments anywhere in the world while receiving funding in a single currency, making the global bill payment process simple and efficient for global enterprises. It also monitors currency conversions in real-time. That way, it supports cost-effective and validated payments as markets fluctuate day to day.

Enterprises indicate that expense analysis, optimization procurement and MACD operations/asset management comprise the top reasons they outsource to TEM

providers. These are the same reasons they switch providers. Cass delivers within the aforementioned areas. When speaking with enterprises, stability emerges as a common theme. Enterprises want stable relationships with TEM service teams, and stability in accuracy and in response. These aspects ultimately define end-user happiness in an engagement with any service provider. Cass is focused on being a complete lifecycle services company and, as such, offers managed services and BPO offerings that are paired with its proprietary ExpenseSmart portal. This means that all Cass clients use a combination of technology and managed services, or just managed services. These hands-on approaches deliver the stability and consistency that lead to Cass’s high customer satisfaction.

Cass is a member of the U.S. Federal Reserve, is publicly traded and is an AOTMP Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor.

TEM Client Base





44%

46%

9%

Management

Sales/Marketing

R&D

Ops/Delivery

3%

3%

12%

82%

1%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Cass Information Systems


Year Founded: 1906


Website: casstelecom.com


More than $100 million

• Healthcare• Manufacturing• Retail

• Eric H. Brunngraber, President & CEO

• P. Stephen Appelbaum, EVP, CFO

• James M. Cavellier, • EVP, CIO• Gary B. Langfitt, President,

Expense Management Services

• Mobile Help Desk (Multilingual)

• Fixed/Mobile Inven-tory Management

• Fixed/Mobile Contract Management


1,000 to 4,999

100 to 249

TEM Client Base





44%

46%

9%

Management

Sales/Marketing

R&D

Ops/Delivery

3%

3%

12%

82%

1%

VENDOR PROFILE:


IN THE TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT SPACE, FEW BUSINESS LEADERS EXHIBIT THE ENERGY AND EXCITEMENT FOR THEIR WORK AS DENISE BOOMS-PEPIN.

VENDOR PROFILE:

And as CBI Telecommunications Consultants has demonstrated over the last 25 years, the team shares her enthusiasm. CBI’s clients indicate an ease of working with the company that speaks to the value of relationships in what can be a frustrating technology area for businesses. With the many platforms available, CBI makes sure to take a client-first approach with its emphasis on white-glove service. The vendor will work with most platforms a client may already have in place or might want to deploy. In fact, CBI is a strategic partner for some of the providers listed in this report, providing a strong managed services arm with decades of knowledge and practical delivery experience in multiple capacities.

This flexibility in offerings puts CBI in a small class of providers that does not rely on their own software platform for service delivery. While some may see this as weakness, the strategy plays well for CBI when negotiating with an enterprise about which services to deploy. The cost and time of implementation with a new provider creates a pain point for any business. CBI has solved this issue by licensing third-party tools that complement and integrate with customers’ existing processes and systems. This tactic allows CBI to deploy the right technology for the right client, wrapping it all together with the same managed service arm that offers stability and balance where technology itself cannot reach.


It is important to know that CBI has a robust global offering because of its work as a partner to other TEM vendors. CBI has practical delivery experience with multi-national organizations and actively supports clients in all major regions across the world. While CBI clients do not go to the company exclusively for technology, CBI’s knowledge and expertise help it deliver on both long- and short-term engagements. The company reports that almost all its clients use it for business process outsourcing, technology and managed services.

CBI has shown delivery excellence in its ability to help clients. Beyond meeting basic needs, CBI delivers its

services in alignment with the Efficiency First® Framework, creating optimal program delivery methods across all areas of the enterprise telecom ecosystem. AOTMP uncovered this finding in CBI’s recent Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor re-certification process. What CBI has achieved is extremely difficult, as no enterprise client is identical. CBI has cultivated a culture whereby customers of all backgrounds gain equal support regardless of the solutions they choose.

CBI is an AOTMP Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor.

TEM Client Base



25%

75%

Sales/Marketing

Management

Ops/Delivery

20%

20%

60%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: CBI Telecom


Year Founded: 1991


Website: cbitelecom.com



• Finance• Government

(Local/State/Federal)

• Manufacturing

• Denise Booms-Pepin, President & CEO

• Larry Garver, GTEM® Solutions Program Manager

• Vince Cobb, Director of Global Product Management

• Fixed Inventory Management

• Mobile Inventory Management

• Fixed Contract Management


Less than 100

50 to 99

TEM Client Base



25%

75%

Sales/Marketing

Management

Ops/Delivery

20%

20%

60%

VENDOR PROFILE:


WITH MORE THAN 7.5 MILLION ASSETS UNDER MANAGEMENT ACROSS 170 SERVICE TYPES, CIMPL IS AN EXPENSE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION OF NOTE.

VENDOR PROFILE:

The Montréal, Canada-based vendor has served some of the most recognized enterprises in the Great White North for almost 20 years and is out to capture management of the entire enterprise digital footprint, beyond telecom. As such, Cimpl has spent the last five years pushing into the United States and across Europe, and that expansion continues.

At the same time, Cimpl has developed a multi-tenant software-as-a-service platform that supports its vision.

The all-in-one system oversees all telecom, mobility and IT assets deployed within, and maintained by, the enterprise. It also integrates with leading carrier platforms, ITSM providers including ServiceNow and much more. Cimpl ultimately aims to enable true enterprise self-service. This means the enterprise actively engages its users in managing assets and services, from deployment to decommission.


This self-service – or self-accountability – philosophy is key to bringing about technology success within any organization. When adoption of tools such as telecom and mobility rests on the user, awareness grows. In turn, the individual takes on more ownership and understanding of usage and its impacts. Meanwhile, Cimpl takes care not to limit the client experience. The vendor updates its platform as requests dictate and it offers managed services .

Cimpl also releases upgrades based on its customer-driven roadmap. These releases push to all users simultaneously. The company deploys these tools in alignment with its overall objective of enabling more automation while

increasing immediate visibility and reporting. One example is showing users their “soft dollar” savings, or the money saved through efficiencies gained. As organizations seek to understand the true cost of managing their environments, this continuous ROI calculator should prove useful.

As Cimpl ties together its services with its platform and delivery capabilities, enterprises will find an experienced, reliable and forward-looking partner for fueling technology implementations and strategic usage. The Cimpl team is poised to deliver throughout North America and Europe, and AOTMP Research & Advisory is watching in anticipation to see the results of these efforts.

TEM Client Base

Technology Only


Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

4%

15%

35%

46%

36%

64%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Cimpl

Headquarters Country: Canada

Year Founded: 2000


Website: cimpl.com

Efficiency First® Vendor Solution Certification Status: Pending

Not Disclosed

• Finance• Government

(Local/State/Federal)

• Insurance

• Christopher Thierry, President• Carrie Davis-Sydor, VP, Sales &

Alliances• Naga Nagasundaram, Finance

Director• Youssef Ikram, VP, R&D• Vincent Parisien, VP, Technology

• Multilingual Help Desk




100 to 499

100 to 249

TEM Client Base

Technology Only


Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

4%

15%

35%

46%

36%

64%

VENDOR PROFILE:


IN A MARKET WHERE TOO MANY TEM VENDORS – NOT NECESSARILY THOSE IN THIS REPORT – FOCUS JUST ON SAVING ENTERPRISES MONEY OVER FACILITATING KEY OUTCOMES, DIMENSION DATA SHOULD STAND OUT TO ORGANIZATIONS SEEKING TO TAKE THEIR TELECOM, MOBILITY AND IT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES TO NEW HEIGHTS FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE BUSINESS.

VENDOR PROFILE:

That is because Dimension Data has built a communications lifecycle management practice that encompasses consulting, technical and support and managed services, all with the goal of helping enterprises use their connected assets and services to fuel revenue, market share and other results. One primary way the company achieves this is by relying on metrics and key performance indicators, something AOTMP Research & Advisory believes all vendors must do to advance the TEM industry.

Indeed, Dimension Data’s approach meshes with the philosophies of AOTMP’s Efficiency First® Framework, making the vendor a prime candidate to consider for implementation, management and maintenance of fixed, wireless, IoT, cloud and other technologies. Yes, Dimension Data offers the standard expense management activities – inventory, auditing, optimization, reporting, allocation and so on. However, given the capabilities of its NexTEM platform, its cross-client analytics dashboard used by the operations team, and its access to global experts, the vendor does even more.


NexTEM is a multi-tenant SaaS platform, which means clients receive upgrades and enhancements at the same time. Dimension Data rolls out updates each quarter. NexTEM is end user-facing for clients who opt to manage their technologies on their own. In the full managed services model, Dimension Data handles all needs, including bill pay. NexTEM goes so deep, into so many relevant areas, that it is impossible to cover all of that detail here . AOTMP Research & Advisory can safely say NexTEM is one of the most complete TEM systems available. It integrates with carrier systems, a feature that includes ordering ebonding and ebilling portals, as well as client systems, including: • Accounts Payable: SAP, Oracle, Infor Lawson • eProcurement: Ariba, Coupa, ServiceNow, DD Direct • ITSM: ServiceNow, Remedy • HR: PeopleSoft, Workday, AD • IoT: AWS, Microsoft Azure, others • SSO: SAML 2.0, Okta • Business connectors: Apptio, Power BI, Tableau

NexTEM further has open APIs for payment solutions, IoT platforms, ticketing systems and CMDB and Dimension Data will oversee everything from procurement to decommission for a range of assets and services.

Beyond the platform, Dimension Data provides services including infrastructure design, implementation and support. The vendor leads each phase, adhering to customer needs and input, but also providing recommendations as merited. After that, if the client opts for full managed services, the vendor takes over day-to-day operations. Through it all, fully managed service or not, Dimension Data tracks adherence to internal service level agreements such as loading invoices within three days and acts on the resulting metrics accordingly. This keeps the vendor compliant with its own standards and reinforces customer satisfaction.

Dimension Data is notable for its focus on managing the communications lifecycle, not just expense. That it employs specialists in 58 countries also speaks to its dedication to going beyond typical TEM practices. Overall, Dimension Data gives organizations all the aspects of telecom, mobility and IT management they need without having to use multiple vendors or adding employees.

Dimension Data is part of the $105 billion NTT Group and serves 70 percent of the Fortune 100 and almost 60 percent of the Fortune 500.

TEM Client Base




Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

4%

10%

20%

66%

15%

52%

33%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Dimension Data

Headquarters Country: UK

Year Founded: 1983


Website: dimensiondata.com



• Finance• Healthcare• Retail

• Jason Goodall, CEO• Dave Spofford, CEO – CLM• Rob Smith, CTO – CLM• Dave Snow, VP - CLM • Doug Matia, VP Ops – CLM• Joe Baroudi, VP Solutions -CLM

• Multilingual Help Desk




15,000 to 30,000

More than 1,000

TEM Client Base




Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

4%

10%

20%

66%

15%

52%

33%

VENDOR PROFILE:


THE TEM INDUSTRY IS CHANGING MORE NOW THAN IT HAS IN 20 YEARS AND ICOMM IS FULLY AWARE OF THIS EVOLUTION AND THE IMPACT ON CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENTS.

VENDOR PROFILE:

The company understands that, from its inception in 1987 to today, client expectations have changed. ICOMM, based in Illinois, has adjusted with the times and provides a high level of service on multiple fronts, including TEM lifecycle management.

To that point, consulting once stood out as ICOMM’s most prominent offering. While this practice remains strong, it now accounts for just 10 percent of services provided.

Over the years, customers have asked for more and ICOMM has responded accordingly. For example, nearly half its clients use its help desk and procurement support. While ticket levels are higher with mobility, 80 percent of ICOMM’s business still comes from wireline. Overall, ICOMM backs its clients with full telecom management lifecycle activities including contract negotiations, procurement and end-of-life processes.


ICOMM is investing in the appropriate areas to meet the maturing needs of the market. With a larger development team and a focus on data transfer automation, ICOMM is not positioning its platform as the center of the ecosystem, but as an enabler of the larger enterprise ecosystem. Increased enterprise demand for streamlined data consumption through one platform has sent many TEM vendors scrambling. Yet, for ICOMM, maintaining an agnostic approach to systems integration has proven the key. The company does not intend to take over other complex technology deployments within the enterprise. Rather, it wants to be the easiest vendor to work with in the ecosystem.

As part of that goal, ICOMM supports IT services including mobility and cloud. However, clients should not sit

passively if they need more from ICOMM. The vendor has proven its desire to increase footprint within client environments and if lateral services are needed, ICOMM is well positioned to meet the demands.

ICOMM’s customer base lies largely within North America. Still, like many of its peers, ICOMM serves multiple regions throughout the globe in response to customer requirements. Almost three-quarters – 72 percent – of ICOMM’s clients use the vendor for fully outsourced business process management. Enterprises exploring TEM vendors should know that ICOMM continues to invest in automation and explore how to provide proactive analytics and evaluation of client environments.

MMS Client Base





Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

3%

12%

15%

70%

72%

8%

15%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: ICOMM


Year Founded: 1993


Website: icomm.co



• Consumer Goods• Finance• Mining, Oil

& Gas

• Jim Price, CEO• Dave Russie,

President & CRO• Michael Fitzgibbon,

SVP, TEM Services• Eddie Smith,

VP, Mobility Services• Mei Wah Kessler,

EVP, Analytics & DevOps

• Help Desk• Inventory

Management• Telecom Financial

Management


Less than 100

50 to 99

MMS Client Base





Management

Sales/Marketing

Ops/Delivery

R&D

3%

12%

15%

70%

72%

8%

15%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:


THE NEW MDSL HAS FOUND STABLE PASTURES TO CONTINUE DRIVING EXCELLENCE FOR ITS CLIENTS

VENDOR PROFILE:

After joining forces with Telesoft thanks to the Sumeru Equity Partners deal in 2017, the market waited for the ripple effects that tend to come of merger and acquisition activity. However, under stable leadership and tenured delivery teams, the combined MDSL is delivering smoothly across both the Vision and Connect platforms. MDSL operates in the traditional TEM and MMS spaces and is ramping up capabilities in other areas. As many of its peers are seeing, the need for additional service management is pushing MDSL’s development efforts toward being more IT-inclusive as well as housing some standard non-TEM/MMS assets and services. MDSL’s direction aligns well with customer demand and the overall shift of the TEM and MMS industries.

Development across multiple platforms begs for balance and success shows in client satisfaction. MDSL is managing this practice much like its merger. Traditional services – the core of this industry – are at the foundation of MDSL’s products and delivery. The company’s platforms provide access to critical business data and give executive leadership information for strategic deployment of assets and spend. Changes in data availability, i.e., higher amounts of data available from traditionally inaccessible endpoints, have led to high demand for ad hoc reporting capabilities and increased the types of data providers are being requested to deliver. MDSL platforms handle each domain well and were awarded the AOTMP Business Intelligence award in October 2017 for displaying these critical capabilities.


MDSL support teams provide follow-the-sun multilingual help desk agents from 11 offices across the globe. These teams manage services in 102 countries, with more than 430 carriers with billing interfaces deployed. This allows MDSL to offer global solutions for enterprises headquartered both in North America and other regions around the globe. MDSL does work closely with its partner network; it is a Bronze ServiceNow partner and has channel relationships in place with variety of carriers and major systems integrators.

To enable success among customers and delivery teams, MDSL takes an API-first approach to workflow. Here, it identifies the most efficient process for any task, but also seeks to minimize human touch in mundane areas such as procurement requests and MACDs. MDSL has built a simplified implementation team and process with leadership from Josh Sokoloff. This has improved software and service deployments across multiple technology types and regions, and within complex enterprise organizations.MDSL acquires new customers through both direct

and indirect sales channels. From Q2 2017-Q2 2018, it reported 15 new client logos, including 11 global deals, five partner deals and 11 competitor takeaways. Enterprises tell AOTMP Research & Advisory that expense analysis, optimization, procurement, MACD operations and asset management comprise the top five reasons they outsource telecom, mobility and IT management to providers such as MDSL. Therefore, MDSL’s investments in automation should draw potential clients as existing customers take advantage of new analytics and deeper strategic guidance from the company itself.

Overall, MDSL clients and prospects should be encouraged by the company’s investment in technology and people. The API-first approach to workflow development is driving efficiency and optimizing strategy, a trend that is ultimately measured by results. With more than $12 billion in spend under management, the results are encouraging.

MDSL is an AOTMP Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor.

TEM Client Base

Technology Only





Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

6%

6%

20%

68%

50%

20%10%

15%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: MDSL


Year Founded: 1982


Website: mdsl.com


$50 million – $75 million

• Finance• Technology• Services

• Charles Layne, CEO• Simon Mendoza, CTO• Tamara Saunders, CFO• Daman Wood, COO• Don Luby, SVP

Worldwide Sales

• Fixed/Mobile Inventory Management

• Fixed/Mobile Expense Management

• Managed Mobility Services


100 to 499

250 to 499

TEM Client Base

Technology Only





Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

6%

6%

20%

68%

50%

20%10%

15%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:


TWENTY-YEAR-OLD NETWORK CONTROL IS NOT ONE OF THOSE TEM VENDORS THAT HAS RESTED ON A LONG LEGACY TO FURTHER ITS REPUTATION AND ATTRACT MORE CUSTOMERS.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Instead, the company has continued to enhance its proficiencies and reach, especially since Mark Hearn took over as owner in 2011. Since that time, Network Control has worked vigorously to increase its technology capabilities and maintain competitiveness in a tight market. Bullish in the belief that a balance of technology and managed services provides the best practical outcomes for enterprise telecom management, Network Control is in alignment with AOTMP Research & Advisory’s principles as well.

Network Control’s platform, TEMNet, delivers powerful centralized management of clients’ telecom environment. TEMNet’s service management features are of note, as they are on par with those of organizations with much larger development teams and resources. Network Control’s dedication to this level of technology enhancement makes it well suited to compete against bigger peers.


The TEMNet platform offers invoice audit and loading; standard and ad hoc reporting; system integrations with platforms including ServiceNow; optimization and optimization operations management; procurement and MACD operations; and bill pay for services including mobile and cloud.

Additional capabilities include diving into location-specific usage and spend trends; automated reporting dashboards that facilitate discovery on issues such as unusually high spend; and the seamless ability to transfer data collected in a custom view to an external PDF infographic for executive analysis. TEMNet also offers clients mobility and cloud management, extending the capabilities of its traditional TEM services to two other core service areas for enterprise IT teams.

TEMNet platform also is a recognizable force in the delivery services of the Network Control team. Beyond software, Network Control highly encourages clients to use its team for full lifecycle managed services. Here, the vendor supports enterprises with strategic planning and project management resources. This allows the Network Control team and TEMNet to maintain an accurate inventory as changes are implemented and new

assets procured. Network Control’s ability to strategically align organizations’ initiatives with relevant data lies at the core of the company’s strategic planning and project management teams. The more engaged Network Control becomes in service delivery management and execution for clients, the better the outcomes.

For example, Network Control’s managed services team uses TEMNet’s automated reports to identify key issues before engaging the enterprise’s telecom management team. Clients can expect Network Control to address deviations outside of standard permissions with swift and detailed analysis, identifying the core issue that led to the anomaly and the steps taken to mitigate that issue moving forward.

This level of efficiency can only be achieved when the enterprise has fully engaged with its TEM vendor. Network Control must be among the providers considered for organizations that seek a strategic partner to deliver results beyond standard cost savings.

Network Control is an AOTMP Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor.

TEM Client Base



Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

1%

6%

6%

87%

95%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Network Control


Year Founded: 1998


Website: network-control.net



• Business Services• Technology• Wholesale

• Mark Hearn, President & CEO

• Tanya Seda, Chief Strategy Officer

• Tonya Schmidt, Director of Operations

• Multilingual Help Desk• Inventory Management• Contract Management


Less than 100

50 to 99

TEM Client Base



Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

1%

6%

6%

87%

95%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:


TO UNDERSTAND 30-YEAR-OLD ONE SOURCE COMMUNICATIONS AND ITS APPROACH TODAY, YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THE COMPANY’S EVOLUTION FROM TRADITIONAL TELECOM/WIRELESS EXPENSE MANAGEMENT TO A FULLY MANAGED COMMUNICATIONS LIFECYCLE MANAGEMENT PROVIDER.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Founded in 1989, One Source started by providing traditional expense management solutions for clients in the mid-market, an often-overlooked segment for TEM providers. As One Source evolved, its clients pushed for capabilities in addition to core TEM. Thus, One Source expanded into procurement, sourcing, contract management, portfolio optimization, bill payment and 24/7 help desk. Thanks to all of that, One Source now offers full communications lifecycle management.

A once-silent assassin in the mid-market, One Source is emerging as a strong contender with a broader audience of potential clients than ever before. What has driven the company is a track record of success in delivering valuable

results. Transitioning the enterprise perspective of TEM from utility to strategic asset requires measuring beyond savings, and more. Therefore, One Source prides itself on delivering fully managed wireline communications lifecycle management as well as managed mobility services, all supported by its trained specialists.

When it comes to capabilities, One Source’s focus on service delivery is rare among telecom lifecycle providers. In addition to its telecom and mobile solutions, the company provides IT expense management and on-demand field services that includes next-day dispatch in all markets.


Historically, One Source has seen its greatest success among North American firms – banks, property management organizations, retailers, food services and so on. In recent years One Source has identified a contingent of global enterprises with large North American divisions that prefer to operate these regions on a standalone basis. These organizations see the value in realizing hard- and soft-dollar savings through high return on investment and multiple headcounts by using One Source’s fully managed solutions.

To that point, all One Source clients use the company’s business process outsourcing for telecom and mobility. Many mid-market organizations report that using partners

to manage full lifecycle execution and support frees them to focus on critical daily operations. Relying on a managed services provider leads to levels of optimization the enterprises have not previously been able to achieve. AOTMP Research & Advisory sees One Source as one of the few pure-play BPO providers in this report.

One Source recently earned the AOTMP Efficiency First® Certified Solution Vendor designator, completing the process in less than four months and receiving the highest marks in customer satisfaction. This speaks to the strength of the company’s solutions and its value-add in its efforts to deliver white-glove service.

TEM Client Base


Sales/Marketing

R&D

Management

Ops/Delivery

2%

6%

8%

84%

95%100%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: One Source Communications


Year Founded: 1989


Website: ostcm.com


Not Disclosed

• Financial Services

• Healthcare• Retail/Food

• Tim Meng, CEO• Kirk Waddell,

EVP, Technology• Jeff Strickler,

EVP, Operations• Steve Cobb, Sr. Technology

& Security Fellow• Eric Gressel, EVP,

Business Development

• Communications Lifecycle Management

• 24/7 Local Help Desk• Bill Payment


100 to 499

1,000 to 5,000

TEM Client Base


Sales/Marketing

R&D

Management

Ops/Delivery

2%

6%

8%

84%

95%100%

VENDOR PROFILE:


SAKON MAY HOLD ONE OF THE MOST STEALTH POSITIONS WITHIN TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT.

Until early 2018, the 15-year-old company was known as GSG and provided software and services to other TEM vendors and directly to enterprises. When GSG rebranded as Sakon, it continued that mission but changed up a couple of approaches and came out from under the radar. First, the leadership team – one of the most stable in the industry – converged multiple platforms into a single, sleek version also called Sakon, providing core and leading-edge functionality for enterprise IT, procurement and the largest global systems integrators. Second, Sakon expanded its direct sales efforts, notching several noteworthy Fortune 500 wins, while expanding its indirect channel program to reach even more end users. Now, with three distinct

areas of focus – technology expense management, hybrid mobility and SaaS management – Sakon is charging ahead.

Many enterprises already interact with Sakon because of the vendor’s breadth of partnerships. IBM stands out as its most strategic partner; Sakon holds Global Alliance status with Big Blue and manages the wireline component of the internal IBM ecosystem. Other significant Sakon partnerships include Unisys, Honeywell, DMI and more. Sakon’s experience within the channel ecosystem has provided its team with copious amounts of insight into the challenges enterprises face in efficiently managing their telecom environments.

VENDOR PROFILE:


Like all providers in this space, Sakon is not limiting its solution set to telecom. The company firmly states that it serves as a technology expense management provider, echoing a common theme across the sector this year. However, a unique aspect comes in Sakon’s Network Service Management feature. Network Service Management integrates with Google Maps and identifies building locations with deployed assets. Thinking of the enterprise need for asset management, this feature represents a key differentiator to the AOTMP Research & Advisory team.

Another area of note is the Sakon platform’s reporting capabilities. Based on role, enterprise users can drill down into extensive detail. All levels of management can understand clearly where cost resides, where overages originate and decide how to make changes within the environment. Enterprises indicate that expense analysis and optimization are the top two reasons they deploy a provider such as Sakon, and the platform’s in-depth reporting supports those needs. Overall, Sakon clients

have a robust tool for pinpointing where spend is egregious and where spend is strategic. Ultimately, Sakon clients will determine the success of these features by demonstrating willingness to log in and use the tools. In the meantime, Sakon has built, and continues to develop, several integrations with common enterprise systems including ServiceNow, Salesforce and others.

Sakon scales and supports clients globally with exceptional understanding of regional needs, making the company a sure consideration for complex telecom and mobile environments. As a result, more than 95 percent of Sakon clients deploy the vendor’s technology and managed services. The opportunity exists for Sakon, as it does with other vendors, to increase the value of automation by providing deeper analysis and proactive ecosystem scenario models. Yet as the Sakon team indicated to AOTMP Research & Advisory analysts, this could very well be coming as the company continues finding value for clients in the data it processes.

TEM Client Base



Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

5%

5%

10%

80%

95%95%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Sakon


Year Founded: 2003


Website: sakon.com


Not Disclosed

• Financial • Healthcare• Technology

• Andy Goorno, Co-founder & CEO

• Amine Doukkali, Co-founder & COO

• Sudhir Bapat, Co-founder

• Dan Hughes, President• Chris Martin,

Vice President, Sales





100 to 499

100 to 249

TEM Client Base



Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

5%

5%

10%

80%

95%95%

5%

VENDOR PROFILE:


WHEN DISCUSSING PROVIDERS THAT HAVE EVOLVED WITHIN THE TRADITIONAL TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT SPACE, TANGOE IS A NAME THAT COMES TO MIND.

VENDOR PROFILE:

For the last several years the Tangoe team has worked to bring the company back from the de-listing of the company from the NASDAQ. Now, with stable new leadership, some intelligent investment and the new Tangoe Atlas platform, the formula seems right for Tangoe to be in the mix for every enterprise engagement, especially organizations needing a global provider.

Earlier this year, Tangoe introduced the Tangoe Atlas platform after realizing its platform range was too vast. This brings Tangoe to a centered focus on Tangoe Atlas, Rivermine and Asentinel, providing clients with flexibility and clear insight into their immediate future with Tangoe.


Tangoe’s new leadership recognized the challenges the company has in service delivery and the lack of consistency in its support teams. While these have remained issues through 2018, the Tangoe team has brought on a new head of operations whose key focus is to identify and align the best resources for clients and provide automation for improved delivery. Tangoe continues to identify the type of employee who both loves what they do and sees growth in the relationship with the client as key to growth within Tangoe. This serves both the enterprise and Tangoe well, as Tangoe employees are driven by the results of their clients’ initiatives.

To better aid these employees, Tangoe’s focus on technology over the last 18 months and for the foreseeable future will benefit its internal teams and its clients. Tangoe Atlas is built for integration and automation, even as Tangoe has promised to maintain its existing platforms and the native integrations and automations already in place. Additionally, Tangoe has built an intermediary user platform for navigation to and

through various sources of data. This will also serve as a dashboard for clients querying reports, inventory updates and more.

This increased automation will further improve the accuracy of inventory, MACDs, invoices and more. Like much of the industry, Tangoe’s greater emphasis on automation will lead to an advancement in analytics. Tangoe will look to provide clients with more proactive data analysis and advanced opportunities to prevent overspend, process failure and lack of awareness into, for instance, difficult-to-identify but highly impactful billing errors .

To aid in this effort, Tangoe recently launched ServiceNow across its global ecosystem, allowing for the seamless management of service tickets within a single platform. Clients using ServiceNow at the center of their IT environments will find a new and compelling level of interest and capability within the Tangoe platforms.

TEM Client Base

Technology Only





Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

3%

6%

27%

60%

95%70%

20%

5%3% 2%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: Tangoe


Year Founded: 2001


Website: tangoe.com



• Healthcare• Manufacturing• Technology

• Bob Irwin, CEO• Rick Young, CFO• Sidra Berman, CMO• Yaakov Shapiro, CTO• Mark Desautelle, CRO• Mark Troller, CIO• Ivan Latanision, CPO• John Nelson, COO

• Invoice Processing• Inventory Management• Managed Mobility

Services


1,000 to 4,999

More than 1000

TEM Client Base

Technology Only





Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

3%

6%

27%

60%

95%70%

20%

5%3% 2%

VENDOR PROFILE:


TELEBRIGHT SOFTWARE CORP. HAS BROUGHT SOLUTIONS TO BUSINESSES FROM ITS MID-ATLANTIC HEADQUARTERS FOR MORE THAN 30 YEARS, AND CONTINUES TO ADD INNOVATIVE ANALYSIS AND DEPLOYMENT METHODS TO ITS PRACTICE.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Primarily working with clients in the United States and Canada, TeleBright’s domestic expertise in telecom shows through its understanding of evolving client needs, its transitions to more advanced MPLS or SD-WAN solutions and the ability to deploy services with accuracy and understanding. TeleBright is a great resource for environments with complex wireline and wireless ecosystems.

The company’s leading solution, ManageRight, is targeted at the primary functions of enterprise telecom expense

management. TeleBright can procure, deploy and manage the services and hardware selected by clients, and actively advises clients through consulting engagements about the appropriate solutions for their environments. This is a growing trend among providers seeking to be the client’s “trusted adviser” in the technology decision-making process. Further, this trend has top-performing vendors expanding partner networks to support changing enterprise needs.


Where enterprises lean on vendors for expense analysis, optimization and basic MACD processing, TeleBright has proven its ability to deliver. The company completes dispute initiation and management and is working toward more detailed predictive analytics to provide proactive ecosystem scenario mapping and support. Given the data at hand and TeleBright’s investment in artificial intelligence, AOTMP Research & Advisory expects TeleBright to be on the verge of delivering a more comprehensive evaluation of client environments soon.

While TeleBright may not be at the same level globally as some of its better-known competitors, enterprises should consider its solutions for domestic business. TeleBright’s position within North America and its Amazon Web Services-based infrastructure allows the company to scale clients up or down as needed. TeleBright is one of the few vendors profiled with true comfort in the SMB market that balances its larger engagements. The company is focused

and dedicated to providing a level of support that few organizations have been able to attain: dedicating one account manager to every three accounts.

TeleBright is best positioned to serve SMBs and large and strategic domestic organizations. To that point, it recently introduced a bill payment service for clients spending approximately $2 million per year on telecom. Dubbed PayRight, the solution handles invoices including those not related to telco bills, and requires no capex or opex to implement. AOTMP Research & Advisory sees this offering as contributing to a well-rounded portfolio.

Existing clients likely will push the company to provide more support in Central America and Europe, where its reach remains limited as of this report’s publication. Yet as that projected growth comes to fruition, TeleBright will continue to climb the depth charts for enterprises that seek reliable providers.

TEM Client Base

Technology Only





Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

1%

2%

20%

77%

95%

25%

5%5%

15%

50%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: TeleBright


Year Founded: 1989


Website: telebright.com



• Finance• Healthcare• Utilities

• Chet Thaker, CEO• Raymond W. Smith,

Board of Advisors & Investor

• Julie Dobson, Board of Advisors & Investor

• Richard J. Bove, Board Member & Investor





Less than 100

50 to 99

TEM Client Base

Technology Only





Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

1%

2%

20%

77%

95%

25%

5%5%

15%

50%

VENDOR PROFILE:


SOFTWARE AND MANAGED SERVICES PROVIDER VCOM SOLUTIONS MAY WELL BE PROVIDING AN AUTOMATED TECHNOLOGY SOURCING TOOL THAT ECLIPSES MANY OF TODAY’S PLATFORMS.

VENDOR PROFILE:

Released in 2007, vManager walks clients through the telecom/mobility/IT cycle, from designing requirements and consulting with service delivery managers to decommissioning services and changing service providers. vManager stands out as a single source of engagement for all processes, including choosing circuits, services, security measures and providers, and conducting the monitoring and management of each domain.

All of that applies to technologies including cloud and infrastructure. vCom upped the ante, too, six years ago by taking vManager mobile via an app that allows for service order signature processing and environment management on the go. On the whole, AOTMP Research & Advisory is watching to see how vManager fares, as its early capabilities exhibited to date place it in a unique category among market players.


To be sure, some people in the industry may contend that vCom’s capabilities are skewed by its status as an aggregator – a company that resells the services of the providers it manages – because vCom receives commissions for services sold. They may question whether vCom will optimize an organization’s telecom environment without bias. What separates vCom from many of its aggregator peers is its transparency and its willingness to offer options. vCom further manages client accounts for providers it does not resell. Certainly, vCom would prefer to consolidate an enterprise’s invoice to a single logo, but the provider knows the value it brings in providing flexibility, openness and expertise.

vCom’s ideal client lies in the sub-Fortune 2000, in the North American mid-market. This size of organization spends less than $5 million each year on telecom /mobility/IT and tends to lack the resources, knowledge

and capital to invest in teams and infrastructure to support evolving technologies. vCom specializes in helping those enterprises. It reduces their load by handling tasks including device sourcing, moves/adds/changes/disconnects, and invoice coding and payment, for example. Still, vCom sees opportunity in the Fortune 1000 and higher as those firms shift from traditionally owned infrastructure to more outsourced, as-a-service strategies.

AOTMP Research & Advisory expects vCom’s advances with vManager to spur its mid-market competitors to play catch-up. Many of them have placed technology innovation on the back burner. They may want to reconsider as they watch the tools coming from this San Francisco-based software and managed services provider, and as they track its simultaneous client successes.

TEM Client Base


Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

20%

20%

20%

40%

95%100%

VENDOR PROFILE:





Company Name: vCom Solutions


Year Founded: 2001


Website: www.vcomsolutions.com


$25 million – $50 million

• Finance• Healthcare• Legal Services

• Gary Storm, President & CEO

• Sameer Hilal, COO• Joe Condy, CRO• Adam Shawley, CTO• Audrey Bold,

VP, Marketing

• Planning and Procurement

• Operations Management • Expense Management

• Enterprise• SMB

100 to 499

250 to 499

TEM Client Base


Sales/Marketing

Management

R&D

Ops/Delivery

20%

20%

20%

40%

95%100%

VENDOR PROFILE:


ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ABOUT AOTMP RESEARCH & ADVISORY

AOTMP Research & Advisory and its division, Blue Hill Research, support enterprise and vendor telecom, mobility and technology management initiatives and objectives with actionable data and insight. To that end, AOTMP Research & Advisory focuses on the management of multiple practice areas, including IoT, cybersecurity, enterprise mobility, telecom expense, mobile application development, BI/data analytics, enterprise telecom/mobility/technology environments, telecom/mobility/technology ecosystem and IT services. Enterprises take advantage of AOTMP Research & Advisory's targeted research, analysis and advisory services to boost telecom/mobility/technology management efficiency, performance and productivity. This brings greater value and impact to the overall business – including reducing costs. For vendors that impact the performance, productivity and efficiency of an enterprise’s telecom, mobility or technology environment, following AOTMP Research & Advisory's proven approach leads to higher revenue, more market share, competitive differentiation and happier customers.

One key distinction about AOTMP Research & Advisory stems from our extensive reach and relationships with telecom, mobility and technology management business professionals. Thanks to a variety of sources and advanced statistical methods, we extract information from end users that helps enterprises measure themselves against their peers and gives vendors unprecedented views into their clients’ and prospects’ business pains and goals. Overall, AOTMP Research & Advisory, with the Blue Hill Research division, sets the standard for telecom/mobility/technology management expertise, guiding enterprises and vendors alike to positive, measurable outcomes.

Andrew Hartwyk specializes in mobility. He has worked for Mobile reCell and MOBI Wireless, among others. Over the past decade, Andrew has executed sales and marketing strategies across several verticals. He also holds experience in operational delivery, solution engineering and architecture, product development, and direct and indirect sales .

ANDREW HARTWYKSenior Research Director

Kelly Teal authors many of AOTMP Research & Advisory's reports, from Analyst Perspectives and Market Landscapes to vendor whitepapers, Anatomy of a Decision insights and more. Thanks to a background diverse in technology journalism, Kelly is able to write with versatility across AOTMP Research & Advisory's practice areas. This has cultivated a skillset that allows her to speak to the range of issues enterprises and vendors face amid the ever-changing telecom, mobility and IT management climate.

KELLY TEALEditor-in-Chief

Scott Lawrence, Vice President, Performance Insights Scott Lawrence leads the business analytics team as part of AOTMP’s Efficiency First® Engine and helps organizations understand trends and performance in their fixed and mobile telecom environments relative to industry peers. He also serves as subject matter expert, and consultant for both enterprises and vendors in the industry.

Scott LawrenceVP Performance Insights


ABOUT ONE SOURCEOne Source Communications helps businesses simplify a complex technology world. It is the leading provider of fully managed Communications Lifecycle Management (CLM) and Managed Mobility Services. Today, One Source manages more than 1,000 customers, 20,000 business locations, and over 1,000,000 assets throughout North America.

In addition to traditional Telecom / Wireless Expense Management services, One Source provides 24/7 local helpdesk, procures and provisions telecom / IT, and handles all service requests. One Source frequently generates triple-digit ROI for customers through contract negotiation, portfolio optimization, and ongoing expense management. Our approach empowers businesses to focus on customers and revenue-generating activities. Please learn more at http://www.ostcm.com .

With One Source, clients have achieved the following:

Streamline Workflow & Increase Employee Productivity • Reduce demands on IT staff by offloading routine CLM operations to our dedicated specialists • Increase productivity and boost morale by relieving your team from repetitive and low-value tasks • Optimize operational uptime and employee satisfaction by providing 24/7 help desk services through our US-based communication Specialists

Centralize Management & Improve Decision-Making • Establish single-source-of-truth of corporate devices, services, contracts, and SLAs • Protect and control corporate assets by enforcing procurement, usage, disposal, and security policies • Maintain compliance with industry and government regulations

Optimize Communication & Technology Expenditure • Optimize investments in devices, services, and software by balancing cost-effectiveness and service quality – “pay for what you need” • Reduce costs by effectively managing contracts, enforcing SLAs, and eliminating erroneous charges – “pay for what you use” • Promote financial accountability through reporting of indiscriminate use of company resources One Source’s Communications Lifecycle Management manages all aspects of telecom from procurement to bill payment to helpdesk

Expense Management / Bill Pay • Simplify invoice management • Audit services monthly to identify billing anomalies and control expenses

• Improve employee productivity by streamlining invoice management through a consolidated repository for all services • Ensure on-time payment of invoices with advance bill payment, eliminating rushed invoice validation

Portfolio Optimization / Sourcing and Procurement • Identify and eliminate unnecessary services through inventory centralization and visibility • Avoid unnecessary rate hikes through end-to-end contract lifecycle management • Utilize our carrier-agnostic approach to ensure you receive best-in-class services to drive operational excellence • Fully managed commissioning and deployment of telecom/network services and mobile assets

Usage Optimization / Cost Recovery • Translate usage trends and business needs into executed services, optimizing activities • Prevent indiscriminate usage through granular reporting • Recover billing errors via our fully managed bill dispute process • Provide visibility to end-users and management through shared services charge-back reporting • Confirm appropriate credits are received through fully managed enforcement of SLAs

Service & Support / Help Desk • Access our well-trained help desk specialists with extensive vendor / hardware / service knowledge • Obtain real-time updates associated with all service and repair issues • Reduce downtime by going through our dedicated carrier escalation channels • Lean on our team for moves, adds, changes and disconnect activity, reducing time spent on low-value operational tasks


ABOUT AOTMPTelecom/Mobility/IT Management Best Practices and Industry Standards

AOTMP is a leading global information, services and advisory firm for next generation Telecom / Mobility / IT Management best practices and industry standards for organizations and the vendors who support them. Best practices cover network services, carrier services, mobility and IoT solutions, cloud solutions, software, hardware, and emerging technologies that impact the performance and business value of technology. Using information, data and compiled analytics from thousands of enterprise environments worldwide, AOTMP solutions help enterprises drive performance, efficiency and productivity while significantly reducing costs and help vendors provide a new level of value to their customers. AOTMP’s solutions are based on its patented Efficiency First® Framework methodology and are the foundation for Telecom / Mobility / IT Management Centers of Excellence being built across the globe.

AOTMP Business Units include:

• AOTMP University – courses, certifications and assessments

• AOTMP Tools – tools portal and certified vendor directory

• AOTMP Research & Advisory – research portal, custom research and analyst advisory sessions

• AOTMP Analytics – scoring, measurements, analytics and recommendations

• AOTMP Services – services for enterprises and vendors

• AOTMP Events & Programs – annual conferences, webinars and the AOTMP Industry Council

AOTMP 2018 Telecom Expense Management Market landscape · 2019. 9. 3. · AOTMP RESEARCH & ADVISORY...

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