According to Gartner Group, telecommunications costs are one of the top five corporate expenses. However, an average of 8-12% of those expenses are billed in error. It’s no surprise. Telecom-munications has become a complex environment and the industry is in a constant state of flux, especially with the many mergers and acquisitions that have recently occurred. Accurate billing continues to be a major challenge for the communications service providers. Therefore, businesses like yours face the daunting responsibility of managing this expense.

Gartner Group also found it is not unusual for an enterprise to overpay (telecom costs) 5% to 10% each month.  Adds Andrew Backover in USA Today, “Companies spend 5% to 35% more than they need to, experts say, because they pay for services they don’t use.  They miss the hidden charges and fees disguised as taxes on the bill.”

There are many good reasons why businesses are paying more than they should for telecom services and why they may not have taken steps to correct these leakages:

• Their monthly billing statements are lengthy and difficult to read, and even more difficult to audit

• They have multiple communications vendors with different billing systems

• They may have many different business locations

• Telecom staff focuses on other areas

• Someone in the company holds the mistaken belief that the company’s telecom costs are a relatively minor expense and/or a fixed cost of doing business

In addition, as voice and data communications continue to merge and look like a single service, IT Departments in many organizations are increasingly taking over the responsibility for telecommunications. MIS may simply not be familiar with legacy telecom billing and services that are often different from the data equipment and services they are used to supporting.

The Advocacy Group provides a staff of auditing professionals with telecommunications expertise that understand telecommunications carriers – their billing systems and deficiencies, their networks, and their contract terms and conditions. This combination of skills allow the ADVOcacy Group to reduce your telecommunications expenditures. We have the expertise to audit, manage, reduce and control telecommunications expenditures.

The Advocacy Group does not represent any telecom carrier, vendor or service provider.  We are a completely independent auditing and consulting firm that performs an unbiased review of your services.