Provision of a Telecom Expense Management (TEM) Solution

⁠⁠⁠There are currently 4 different vendors providing telecommunication services, including voice, data mobile plans, telemetry services, web based SMS capability etc. to Ausgrid. On a monthly basis, invoices are received from all those telecommunication vendors / carriers, in many different forms (paper based bills, digital records, direct access to raw data through vendor portals).

The validation and processing of invoices is currently handled manually by a single in-house Telco Analyst. Although some of the services are based on fixed contract rates, the value of a significant number of invoice items do vary from month to month. The variations could be due to change in data usage pattern, change of the status of devices (e.g. movement, addition and deletion) as well as any discrepancies / errors that may arise from invoice details. In addition, a number of asset items (e.g. mobile devices) are lumped into one single invoice entry to attract higher discount rate, hence making the validation process laborious and complex.

Ausgrid requires the following key outcomes on efficiently processing monthly telecom invoices:
* Automate the processing of monthly validation and cost allocation of telecom invoices;
* Visibility of how and what we are being billed for (based on various plans and product offerings);
* Automate the generation of dashboard overview, trending analysis and exception reports of our monthly spend; and
* Capability to provide charge back reports and data transfer to Finance for processing.

An automated invoice validation and reporting system (Telecom Expense Management (TEM)) system is required.

A technology assessment has identified that the most appropriate delivery mode of implementing a TEM solution for Ausgrid is to implement a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution. With this delivery model and fee based service subscription, the solution as well as its monthly operations will be outsourced to a TEM service provider.