TEM Insider

How Is Your TEM Health?

Written by Mike Hobday, Asentinel

  December 13, 2012

We all know that we need to see our doctor on a periodic basis in order to maintain a good physical health.  When we visit our doctor, he checks our temperature, blood pressure, pulse, and other vital measurements.

The same can be said about your TEM environment.  There are several key metrics that your organization should build disciplines around to ensure good TEM health.

In Inventory But Not Paid:  How many inventory items are active that have not billed recently?  This metric will provide a health check of your inventory and the telecom asset management life cycle.

Paid But Not In Inventory: How many telecom assets are you paying for that are not in active your Inventory?  These assets could very well be sources of credits or could indicate a gap in your life cycle process.

Days to Pay: The number of days between the date of receipt of the invoice in the TEM application and the date the invoice is actually “Paid”.  This is a key measurement that indicates the amount of processing time.  A healthy target is 80% of all invoices should be marked “Paid” within 10 days of receipt.

Due vs. Paid: is difference between the invoice due date and the date the invoice was “Paid” in the TEM application.  This metric allows a company to better manage cash flow.  What are your payments terms with each vendor?  Maximize your cash flow by taking full advantage of the negotiated payment terms with each telecom service provider.

Receipt to Pay:  is the date sent to accounting minus (-) the date entered in the TEM application.  What are your accounting cut-off dates?  How often are checks cut or ACHs processed?  Use this metric to measure your efforts to meet these dates.

Days to Receive:  is the difference between the invoice date and the date the invoice was imported into the TEM application. This metric is important to understand as it provides insight to how long it takes your telecom service providers to deliver your invoices to Asentinel.  This information can be used in contract negotiations as leverage with your carriers.

Disputes Opened vs. Closed: is the time from when a Dispute is opened until it is closed.  This will measure how long it takes for your telecom service provider to acknowledge, address, resolve and confirm disputes.  This information can also be useful during contract negotiations with your telecom service providers.

Credits received vs. credits requested: is the measurement of the actual credit amount requested versus the credit amount received.  This metric will show how effective your organization is in recovering monies tied to billing errors identified in the TEM solution.

Cost avoidance:  is the cost avoided if the billing error had not been uncovered.  Most organizations will multiply any recurring credits by 12 to produce the cost avoidance amount.  Whatever multiplier you determine to be relevant in your organization should be used consistently across all vendors and service types.

How healthy is your TEM environment?  If you begin to utilize these few key metrics, you can identify areas of success as well as areas that need attention.  Over time, you can feel confident that your time, efforts and TEM investment are producing great results.

 About Mike Hobday

 Mike graduated from the University of Memphis with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering, and earned an MBA  from the University of Dallas. He has spent more than 25 years in the telecommunications industry, starting with GTE in 1985 as a Central Office Hardware Engineer. Later he worked on global, regional, corporate and national accounts with MCI and Verizon Business. Prior to joining Asentinel, Mike was a Senior Account Manager for Verizon Business. Throughout his 14 years there, he was responsible for growing and managing relationships with numerous Fortune 150 and Fortune 500 companies, a responsibility that earned him the 2007 Southeast Sales MVP. Mike holds a professional engineering license in the state of Texas, and is deacon at Bellevue Baptist Church.