Telecommunications service and expense management in US businesses : an analysis of the telecom supply chain and the impact of Internet tools

Abstract

Spending on telecommunications services is the second largest non-production expense in most industries, the first position being taken by IT expenditure. Despite this, US businesses face several problems in managing telecommunications services and expenses due to the dynamic telecom environment, voluminous and numerous bills received from several carriers across geographically dispersed client company locations, difficulty in implementing internal cost tracking mechanisms etc. This thesis opens with a detailed description of these issues, highlighted through the results of a market survey of telecom managers. A case study of telecom management practices within the Boston location of Manulife Financiai, a large insurance firm with several locations in the US and Canada is also used to provide a real-life example of a large business plagued with these issues. We then proceed to probe for the sources for these problems through a detailed analysis of the telecommunications services supply chain. The impact of information flows in such supply chains, the players operating in each segment, their roles and outlook for the future are discussed. Based on all of the above, a new service is proposed to solve some of the issues mentioned in the initial section of the thesis. This service is intended to drive optimization in telecom procurement and management for US businesses. We conclude by providing a detailed business plan for the rollout of this service.