In an era of digital transformation and flexible work, cutting edge mobile solutions hold the key to organisational productivity and agility. But along with the gains in flexibility and efficiency, mobile devices and connectivity have introduced a range of unexpected costs and risks to the average business.
With many companies relying on Excel spreadsheets and other manual methods to track telecoms expenditure, their IT and finance teams are often working off inaccurate data. This makes it difficult for them to get a clear view of who is using devices and services, and to identify sources of overspending and wastage.
A range of domino effects may follow from inaccurate data or a lack of visibility into mobile spending:
Budgets and forecasts may be wrong: If your finance and procurement team is working off inaccurate data about mobile expenses, they will not be able to draw up accurate budgets and forecasts. This could result in overspending in mobile services in future financial years, or conversely, in a lack of budget to cover real spending needs.
Wastage and overspending could become endemic: Most smarter companies know that there is at least some overspending in their mobile environment due to factors such as employee abuse of company resources, needless usage of out-of-bundle data, vendor billing errors, and proliferation of unused or underused contracts. But they can’t quantify overspending and identify sources of wastage if their mobile expense data is wrong or incomplete.
Auditing headaches: A lack of an audit trail for mobile spending or consistently inaccurate or unexplainable spending will be a red flag for external auditors. Companies that can’t account accurately for mobile expenses across their bring your own device (BYOD) and corporate-owned mobile estates may need to explain themselves to their auditors.
Loss of credibility and trust: As any knowledgeable financial professional knows, inaccurate data about one spending or revenue metric can affect organisational trust in all financial reports and information that cross employees’ and leaders’ desks. Tight management of mobile expenses and the related data is key to building credibility with the company’s stakeholders.
Employee satisfaction may be affected: In an environment where data about mobile expenses isn’t trusted, much of the work involved in tracking expenses and charging them to the correct cost centres may be allocated to end-users. They may resent the need to manually sift through monthly bills. It could also affect employee morale if reimbursements are late or wrong, or if their fringe benefits on a company-liable mobile contract are incorrectly taxed.
Getting locked into the wrong contracts or deals: One of the keys to optimising mobile spending is ensuring that employees are matched with a suitable mobile package as well as access to all hardware and software required to get their jobs done. Without accurate data about mobile expenses, it will be more challenging to identify and negotiate the best deals with mobile providers, based on end-users’ voice and data requirements.
More manual work for managers and finance teams: Inaccurate mobile data means that the finance team and line managers will need to manually reconcile telecoms bills to ensure accuracy. This wastes resources that could be diverted to strategic business opportunities.
Turning it around with a smarter approach
It’s not necessary for any company to allow spiralling telecom costs or a lack of visibility into the mobile environment to impede its digital transformation strategy. Smarter automation of mobile expense management processes can help organisations with large workforces to get an accurate view of mobile spending.
These cutting edge tools and practices can simplify operations and save time, as well as give the business more visibility into and control over voice and data costs. They give teams and leaders the confidence to manage and optimise telecoms usage, expenses and performance, knowing that their decisions are based on accurate, up-to-the-second data.
At 1Nebula, our knowledgeable team of FinOps and DevOps experts has years of experience in helping enterprises to accelerate digital transformation. Contact us to learn how we can help you implement smarter cloud expense management and mobile expense management practices in your business.