This past October marked the first time in the history telecom expense management industry a telecom carrier has acquired a TEM vendor. Actually, make that two TEM vendors.
Vodafone Limited, a large, publicly traded telecom carrier announced the acquisition and consolidation of two established telecom expense management companies: Quickcomm and TnT.
This acquisition really speaks well of Vodafone’s corporate strategy. Marrying these two “opposing” businesses makes a lot of sense. Considering the fact that the two businesses traditionally work “against” one another to neither the carrier’s, nor the end customer’s benefit, this arrangement provides not only internal expense management expertise, but also an additional (and profitable) revenue stream.
Wireless and telecom expense management can provide high levels of cost avoidance, as well as, transparency among enterprise mobility programs. Often reaching high levels of cost avoidance, usually shaving anywhere between 15-35% when compared to previous billings.
So Why Don’t More Corporations Acquire TEM/WEM Vendors?
One reason present in many U.S. and overseas organizations is the lack of knowledge on the practice of outsourcing their telecom and wireless communication expenses. Many executives are not aware that an outsourced communication service exists, much less the proven business case that TEM and WEM providers have built their industry on.
This acquisition also marks another highly successful acquisition to Vodafone’s growing portfolio, starting with last year’s launch of Vodafone Telecoms Management. As a growing number of multinational companies – both telecom and other industries – becoming aware of the value telecom and wireless expense management bring to enterprise mobility, we expect more TEM/WEM vendors to be acquired during 2011 and beyond.
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