Vermark’s Big Telecom Expense Management Ambitions

One of the fastest areas of growth in the communications market has got to be telecom expense management as TEM solutions are needed to better manage corporate telecom spend levels. The sheer variety of communications services like PSTN, SIP trunking and wireless account for billions of dollars of cost each year. In many cases, companies are unsure how to make heads and tails of disparate bills from various providers which oftentimes overlap with one another.

I often come across new vendors in the TEM space and the latest one is Veramark Technologies, a company who has its roots in call accounting. According to President and CEO Tony Mazzullo, Veramark is 25 years-old with seven thousand installations and over 200 resellers.

They recently rolled out Communications Management Suite software, version 7.0 which has enhanced user-configurable dashboards, as well as more seamless integration with Microsoft solutions and the ability to deal better with disparate business groups and carriers.

Today, the company’s software manages telecom TCO including maintenance and service levels. In addition, there are tools allowing costs to be billed back to departments and or job functions.

I was curious how the company might be dealing with the flat rate wireless plans becoming so popular today. I wondered for example if such plans may not be good for the TEM business. To this Mazzullo explained that there are still users that are over and under their minute levels. In addition, the company’s software provides analytics via dashboards and thresholds allowing corporate decision-makers to compare plans and make decisions accordingly.

Mazzullo emphasized the ability to make instant decisions… "You don’t need to wait months to make a change or see a trend," he exclaimed.

In addition, the company’s solutions allow you to see dialing patterns and determine for example if workers are calling the corporate 800 number or directory assistance and subsequently racking up unnecessary charges.

On the software compatibility side of things, the company has its own UI/Portal and can also push data to other reporting engines. The Pittsford, NY-based organization has an integration team if needed and will soon have a SharePoint version allowing companies to easily share TEM with workgroups.

Perhaps the biggest news of all is that Veramark is looking to expand into all networks, not just those dealing with voice. They will subsequently marry this data with BI, analytics and reporting tools which should allow corporations to have a holistic view of their voice and data networks.

There is a major need for better data and voice management in organizations and as companies realize vendors in the TEM space are expanding to meet their needs, I expect more growth in the space. In addition, we can expect service providers and other vendors to stay on their toes as more and more of their customers get a better handle on their data and voice costs.

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