Bankruptcy And Debts

Category Spend Management Initiatives Supported by Information Technology Boost Returns by 7.5%, According to Aberdeen Report

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2004--Aberdeen's benchmark report, "Spend Under Control Key to Cost Savings -- The Category Spend Management Report Series 2004: Telecom," revealed that telecommunications cost management initiatives leveraging technology provide 7.5% greater savings in overall telecom budgets than manual improvement efforts on average.
"Companies seeking to control costs and reduce risk are increasingly turning to category spend management initiatives to monitor complex expense items like telecommunications, however manually managing spend can be expensive and less effective," said Christa Degnan, director, research at Aberdeen and author of the report. "Aberdeen benchmark survey respondents clearly showed that augmenting personnel expertise with an information technology platform to provide spend visibility and automate routine compliance checks and significantly improve telecom cost management performance."

The report identifies the successful strategies companies use to manage telecommunications costs in today's complicated environment of bankruptcies, mergers, and proliferation of new and varied services like mobile devices, digital subscriber line (DSL), and Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP) networks.

While the report showed companies with manual spend management initiatives in place seeing average savings of 18.8% in rates and 18.6% savings in overall telecom budgets on average, this rose to average savings of 23.4% rate reductions in companies that used a technology platform to support their efforts, and 26.1% overall telecom budget savings as well.

Applying the 7.5% differential in overall telecommunications budget savings to the aver-age telecommunications expenditure of a large organization, large enterprises not lever-aging a systematic technology-enabled telecom spend management strategy are leaving $8.7 million on the table. Midsize companies are forsaking $1.95 million.

For a copy of the full report, visit www.aberdeen.com/ab_company/hottopics/telecomspend/default.htm

About Aberdeen Group

Founded in 1988, Aberdeen Group is the trusted advisor to the Global 5000 for value chain strategies and technology advice.

Contacts


Aberdeen Group
Christa Degnan, 617-854-5304
Christa.Degnan@aberdeen.com

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