Telecom Expense Management Industry Association (TEMIA) Highlights TEM as a Green Initiative: Companies that Adopt TEM Save Money and the Environment

    NAPERVILLE, IL, April 22, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Telecom Expense Management Industry Association (TEMIA) (http://www.temia.org), the authoritative voice for the Telecom Expense Management (TEM) industry, is advocating increased adoption of TEM solutions as a way to support Earth Day. TEM programs save money, and they can help save the environment.

Large enterprises that do not have a TEM program, receive most of their bills in paper format. Small bills for enterprises' communications services can run hundreds of pages. Carriers send thousands of these "shoe box" sized statements to each of their clients each week. "One of the first initiatives that MDSL undertakes with any new client is to transition them from paper to electronic billing," says Simon Thomson, COO of MDSL America (http://www.mdsl.com) "For a large multinational with over 80,000 employees, we now process more than 50 percent of their global telecom spend via e-bills," added Thomson.

Clients benefit from TEM solution providers' specialized knowledge of carrier billing and software that allows for these telecom bills to be processed electronically. "Across Asentinel's customer base, over 80% of our collective customer's spend is received via EDI or EDIFACT. This is substantial, considering the significant number of locations and carriers our financial and retail customers manage. The result is that not only does the customer no longer have to deal with paper invoices for the majority of their spend, but generally the invoices are audited and able to be paid before the paper would have previously arrived," stated Jason Fisher, Chief Software Architect, and Co-founder of Asentinel. (http://www.asentinel.com).

From an international perspective, government agencies are also seeking to save the environment by eliminating paper. "One local government authority with 3,000 users in the UK, subscribed to our Wireless Expense Manager service purely for the paperwork reduction, " stated Peter Readman, director of TT Mobiles (http://www.ttmobiles.com). "They had been sending every user a paper bill for declaration of which calls were personal. In addition to the green issues, the processing cost per user bill was estimated by them at GBP50 (approximately 77 US Dollars). This led to annual savings of 3,000 users x 12 months x GBP50 = GBP1.8 million, or about 2.8 million US dollars. It also helped them meet their targets under a central government paperwork reduction initiative," added Readman.

Eliminating paper also helps to reduce energy needed to deliver bills. "ProfitLine helps clients minimize waste and their overall carbon footprint by employing multiple measures, including wireless device recycling and invoice consolidation," said Kathleen Glass, VP of Marketing for ProfitLine (http://www.profitline.com). "For example, through invoice consolidation and conversion we helped one client increase electronic media by over 60%, resulting in an annual reduction of 12.67 metric tons of carbon and 365.7 trees saved annually."

Increasingly, companies are using TEM reports and business analytics to identify redundant and obsolete equipment and items that can be disconnected from the network. What customers do with the savings is up to them, but many of are reallocating savings in the telecom budget to areas that save the environment. Gains from TEM programs are helping fund video conferencing, which reduces air travel. Savings can also support new initiatives that allow employees to work from home.

In today's tough economic environment, enterprises are increasingly seeking outside help from TEM providers. Telecommunications cost management, whether in the form of technology to automate the control processes or a variety of service-based solutions, provides a tremendous savings opportunities for business and government. The market for TEM solutions continues to grow as more organizations learn about this dynamic industry that helps enterprises reduce their carbon footprint by improving supply chain management for telecom services and saving money through optimizing inefficient processes.

TEMIA is developing a series of papers on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), benchmarks and standards written for enterprises, government, TEM suppliers, and other organizations. Many of these materials are available for free. Act now, by downloading a report on inventory management http://tinyurl.com/y48w7vs and accessing webcasts.

TEMIA, the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association, was founded in 2007 by the country's largest Telecom Expense Management (TEM) service providers. TEMIA's mission is to raise awareness and knowledge of the values and benefits of TEM solutions, to improve the quality and value of TEM solutions through the development and promotion of industry standards, and industry knowledge among TEM providers, business partners, telecom service providers, and enterprise clients. For more information about TEMIA, please visit, http://www.temia.org/ or contact [email protected].

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