A few weeks back I wrote a post called the Telecom Audit Guide. I had a couple comments on the post that expanded my vision on the subject a bit (a special thanks to Hollie Clere, owner of Clere Communications, for her wealth of knowledge on the subject). Anyways, I’m finding this area of audit to be especially intriguing because it appears to be the type of audit that is a value-added activity instead of a burden. A beautiful mix between consulting and auditing. First allow me to indulge myself on why telecom audits are interesting, then I’ll try explaining what I’ve learned about them.
I’ve worked for one of the Big 4 accounting services firms; which means I’ve ate, drank, and slept auditing. During this experience I often caught myself wondering “Am I really creating anything of value or am I just a leach to this company that I’m auditing that by-the-way is creating value?”. Accounting auditors charge huge sums of money to come in, look at your work, tell you what you did wrong, and leave knowing that you’ll have to have them back again next year.
Telecom auditors are quite different. Sure they come in and tell you what you’re doing wrong, but the difference is they are trying to help your company save money. The best news is that you don’t have to have them back next year if you don’t want!
Telecom auditors provide a wide array of services. I’ve categorized these services into the following areas: Bill versus Contract Recovery, Fine Tuning, Compliance, and Social Media.
Telecom Bill Audit (Bill versus Contract Recovery)
This service is what you might expect if you hired out a telecom auditing company. The company comes in looks at your bills, finds where the telecommunication company has been overcharging you, and helps you recover the money. These auditing companies have done this hundreds of times so they know where to look for problems and they know how to negotiate with the telecom companies.
Normally when people think of a telecom bill audit, they think that the auditors will be looking at simply the telephone bills. The truth is you might want to have them look at the contracts and bills for your Internet, phone systems, website hosting, and in some cases the power to these systems.
Fine Tuning
In this case “fine tuning” refers to working consistently with the telecommunication auditing organization to find the best deals on phone systems, Internet, and other data communications. You lay out to them what you need and they know where to get it at the best prices. The fact that they work with communication companies all the time means that they stay abreast of the latest deals. In some cases because they can refer multiple customers they can get your company better deals than are listed publicly.
Compliance
Nobody likes being audited for compliance, but it might not be a bad idea for your company. There are taxation and tariff issues that can be problematic. In addition there are Federal Communication Commission (FCC) regulations that your company might need to be in compliance with. Telecom auditing companies can help you with the nitty-gritty of all of this.
Social Media Management
An interesting area of communication to manage is social media. It is becoming more and more important to manage your company’s brand online. Managing your brand online is more difficult than it appears and some large companies have made mistakes. One common mistake is known as astroturfing (being fake). Basically marketing departments thought that they could just sign on under different user names to promote their products online. People quickly identified these fake users and company images were damaged.
It is not as simple as setting up a FaceBook and Twitter account; you’ll need to learn a different culture if you are going to communicate effectively online.
That sums up my discussion on the different types of telecom audit services. Note that not all companies will offer all of these services, but whether you’re looking for a traditional telecom bill audit or help with your company’s online appearance a telecom auditing firm might be a great place to start.
As always, feel free to add comments, additions, and tools below.
Thank you so much for the mention!
Do most telecom audits include wireless broadband access (like 3G aircards from VZW, Sprint, AT&T, T-Mobile etc.) or would that be handled through a datacom audit? I recently started working with Rovair.com and one of their first steps in helping a company reduce their mobile costs is to have them conduct an audit of their 3G wireless broadband costs. I was surprised at how many (large) companies had not done this.
@ Kevin. Thanks for bringing up 3g aircards. The data communiations field and the telecommunications field are very intertwined. In fact, I don’t know of of many companies or people that call themselves datacom auditors. I would look for a telecom auditing company to do the type of auditing your mention, but make sure you let them know what you want before signing any agreement. Thanks for bringing up a great point.