The increasingly complex global telecom operations are driving businesses toward rising costs. Not one but many factors are responsible for this increase in expense, such as growing accessibility to diverse services (cloud, IoT, 5G), intricate billing structures, and massive data consumption. 

Effectively managing these expenses presents businesses with significant challenges, including inaccurate cost allocation, limited visibility into usage patterns, and the difficulty of optimizing contracts amid rapid technological evolution.

For these reasons, using an effective Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution has become more essential than ever. To help you pick the right solution, I have analyzed 22 options and selected the following top Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solutions to help enterprises and SMBs navigate these challenges.

  • 1. Tangoe – Industry Leader TEM Solution
  • 2. Cass – High-Volume Invoice Auditing & Payments for Enterprise
  • 3. Sakon – All-in-one Telecom Solutions
  • 4. Genuity – Best for Small Business
  • 5. Brightfin – Native ServiceNow Integration
  • 6. Calero – Manage Global Network Inventory
  • 7. Tailwind – Trusted by over 40,000 Global Enterprises

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Telecom Expense Management Solutions Comparison

Invoice Management
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Inventory Management
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Vendor Management
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Cost Optimization
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AI/ML Capabilities
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Deployment Model

SaaS

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Cloud-based

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Integrations

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AR, ERP

Saas, telecom, services

ERP, finance

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Now, take a look at the detailed discussion on the features and benefits of the best telecom expense management solutions.

1. Tangoe

Industry Leader TEM Solution

Tangoe One Telecom aims to help businesses of all sizes with an average of 15% savings. It offers a robust suite of IT Expense Management (ITEM) features, including AI-powered tools for end-to-end lifecycle management, automated invoice processing, streamlined order management, and detailed reporting and analytics. 

Its USP is a centralized source of truth for all telecom-related data, leveraging over 70 patents to enhance visibility and control. By using this software, you can significantly save costs through billing error detection and resource optimization. It offers improved transparency with real-time reporting, enhanced security and compliance, and accelerated administrative processes. 

Tangoe One Telecom enables businesses to make informed decisions by providing actionable data-driven insights into spending trends and usage patterns. It reduces manual errors and frees up valuable resources by automating tasks like invoice capture, payment processing, and service order management. 

Tangoe

2. Cass

High-Volume Invoice Auditing & Payments for Enterprise

Cass Information Systems offers a fully managed global telecom expense management platform. Designed to cater to the needs of leading enterprises, it processes 50 million invoices every year in 185 countries.

Their solution encompasses fixed telecom and mobility management, as well as IaaS and PaaS cloud cost management, benchmarking, sourcing, and procurement support that help you with detailed invoice auditing and reporting, systematic invoice management, expert advice, and customer support. 

The USP Class Information System is its secure payment capabilities, facilitated through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cass Commercial Bank. This US Federal Reserve member bank ensures direct electronic payments to carriers, reducing the hassle and inconvenience of other payment methods. 

While using this software, you will get improved visibility and control over your telecom and cloud estates. It frees up your internal IT and telecom departments from time-consuming tasks and ensures accurate billing through rigorous audits and dispute management. It provides complete visibility for the telecom lifecycle management, supporting end-user success by ensuring access to desired devices and locations.

Cass is capable of processing over 240,000 invoices daily with global multi-currency support, along with integrated provisioning and inventory management, eliminating inaccuracies and undetected overcharges. If you own an enterprise with mobility pool plans, Cass helps you with contract negotiations, securing optimal rates and terms, and providing detailed chargebacks based on actual consumption.   

Cass

3. Sakon

All-in-one Telecom Solutions

When it comes to handling telecom and cloud service expenses, Sakon is a reliable Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution for streamlining and optimizing the process. It automates the entire invoice lifecycle, from receipt to payment, significantly reducing manual workloads and errors, resulting in a 20–30% average reduction in overspending. 

Sakon automates the collection and validation of invoice receipts, eliminating common billing discrepancies and minimizing disputes. It is tailored to specific telecom workflows; hence, it streamlines the invoice approval process and replaces generic systems. 

Its USP lies in its comprehensive expense allocation and chargeback capabilities that seamlessly integrate with major AP/ERP platforms to manage complex global taxation and rules.

By consolidating all your bill payments into a single, managed process, it mitigate issues like missed checks and misapplied funds while extending vendor payment terms. It integrates enterprise and vendor data for enhanced visibility and control over real-time spending across diverse parameters. 

Considering the fact that telecom spend often constitutes a substantial portion of IT budgets, Sakon helps maximize the price-to-performance ratio of network investments. Reduced operational costs, improved accuracy, and optimized network performance ensure a guaranteed ROI.

Sakon

4. Genuity

Best for Small Business

Genuity brings clarity and control to the often opaque world of telecom expense management. Its primary goal is to digitize and centralize telecom data, allowing you to manage usage, expenses, network assets, and services across multiple vendors. Besides enabling detailed tracking by location, service type, and specific features, it integrates diverse data sources like SaaS, vendor contracts, and other services for comprehensive cost analysis.

Genuity’s USP is benchmarking rates against a large user base. Thus, it empowers you to identify potential savings opportunities and optimize spending. The platform also automates data imports and cost allocations for better spend visibility, which is better than many spend management tools. As one of the best telecom expense management services, it enables companies to see exactly what they’re paying for and helps them proactively manage provider lifecycles, preventing unnecessary fees.

Genuity provides a transparent, unified system of record that not only facilitates informed decision-making but also aids in efficient planning and accurate telecom cost optimization. Its community-driven pricing model is perfect for price authentication and model transformation. All in all, it brings down the complexities of IT and helps businesses to make strategic technology choices. Genuity even comes with a one-month free trial to test its functionalities before making the final decision.

Genuity Pricing

The entire Genuity platform, including the telecom expense management module, costs $29.99 /month.

Genuity

5. Brightfin

Native ServiceNow Integration

Brightfin is a telecom expense, asset & inventory management solution built on ServiceNow. Its top features include automated invoice processing, cost-saving audits and optimizations, contract management, dispute resolution, and hassle-free service request processing. Its core USP is to centralize and normalize telecom inventory data within ServiceNow. 

It contributes to significant cost recovery by offering a single source of truth for all assets and services. Using Brightfin, you can eliminate manual effort in telecom invoice tracking, identify and correct billing discrepancies, automate dispute resolution workflows, and improve service request response times. 

Its automated telecom bill pay services ensure on-time payments and prevent late fees and service disruptions through robust ERP integration. Moreover, it simplifies telecom quote management by quote request automation, side-by-side comparisons, and seamless provider communication. It keeps procurement processes on track with proactive alerts and notifications.

Brightfin

6. Calero

Manage Global Network Inventory

Calero’s SaaS spend management solution focuses on visibility, control, and optimization of global telecom network services so that you can reduce expenses, increase security, and maximize asset value. 

Its top features include network visualization tools for complete estate visibility, inventory management across the entire lifecycle, and optimization through identifying and removing redundancies. The biggest benefits of using Calero are workflow automation and granular insights that facilitate better business decisions. 

As it automates telecom data exchange through wireline e-Bonding, your network efficiency improves a great deal. Additionally, this software performs thorough telecom auditing with automated dispute management and benchmarking. 

Its robust features simplify invoice tracking, validation, and bill payments, enabling your businesses to effectively govern the global telecom network and ensure cost optimization throughout the digital transformation.

Calero

7. Tailwind

Trusted by over 40,000 Global Enterprises

TailWind makes managing telecom expenses for multi-location enterprises effortless. Their expertise in the enterprise IT market makes them a strategic partner instead of a service provider. 

It provides dedicated support throughout the entire TEM lifecycle, acting as a single point of contact to streamline operations. End-to-end billing automation, inventory management, service usage analysis, contract management, dispute resolution, and management of move, add, change, and disconnect orders (MACDs) are some of its notable features.

TailWind’s strength lies in its ability to consolidate and validate invoices and analyze service usage for optimization. It also manages contract data effectively and addresses common challenges like cost savings, expert guidance, and overspending.

TailWind significantly reduces revenue leakage and overspending, helps you avoid early termination penalties, and handles disputes with providers. Its customized approach proactively seeks optimization opportunities. 

TailWind

Honourable Mentions

In addition to the above, the following telecom expense management solution deserves honorable mention.

8. Clearview: Clearview is a customized cloud-based software with inventory management, invoice auditing, payment processing, cost allocation, reporting, and AP integration. Its multi-user, permission-based access makes it ideal for SMBs and enterprises.

9. One Source: One Source supports full-lifecycle expense management through features like audits, usage tracking, dispute resolution, vendor coordination, and transparent insights. It even handles bill processing and payment to keep your accounts accurate and timely.

10. Orange Business: If you want to control your international costs better, Orange Business is the ideal choice. It offers invoice management, inventory, central ordering, profiling and optimization, and reporting and analytics

11. Peak Technologies: Peak Technologies supports end-to-end telecom expense management by processing and paying bills every month. Its top features include vendor management, inventory management, invoice management, audit & optimization, expense reporting & analysis, and help desk support.

12. Cimpl telecom: Cimpl telecom is a trusted advisor that also offers order processing, inventory management, managed reporting and analysis, dispute management, ap showback and chargeback, multi-vendor communications integration, invoice loading, and professional training.

13. Datagate: Being a simple yet powerful software, Datagate makes telecom billing quick and easy. It integrates with PSA, Accounting System, and Telecom Tax Engines of your current tech stack.

14. Tellennium: Tellennium makes the TEM easier with invoice tracking and collection, AP process management, audit, dispute management, network & service Optimization, invoice, and bill aggregation.

3 Benefits of Using a TEM Solution

A Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution offers several key benefits, including the following:

  1. Reduced telecom overspending: The primary advantage of using a TEM solution is to get detailed insights into usage patterns and billing discrepancies. It enables businesses to identify and eliminate unnecessary costs. Moreover, it lets you optimize contracts, eliminate unused services, and identify billing errors for significant cost savings.
  2. Improved IT and telecom inventory visibility: TEM solutions offer a comprehensive view of all IT and telecom assets, even if you don’t use inventory management software. Thus, you can have improved visibility to track inventory, understand usage, and ensure accurate cost allocation.
  3. Simplified invoice reconciliation: TEM systems, often integrated with AP automation software, automate the process of reconciling invoices from multiple telecom providers. This automation minimizes errors and ensures accurate payment processing, reducing the time and effort required for manual reconciliation.

Future Trends in Telecom Expense Management

Due to the increasing complexity of telecom environments and the need for greater efficiency, the future of Telecom Expense Management (TEM) will be shaped by several key trends, such as AI analytics integration. It enables predictive cost control, anomaly detection, and optimized usage patterns, allowing businesses to proactively manage expenses and identify potential savings. 

Another crucial move would be the prevalence of unified IT-TEM platforms. Here, telecom expense management will integrate with broader IT management systems to provide a holistic view of all technology-related costs. There has also been the rise of remote work and mobile-first strategies, leading to real-time monitoring and management of mobile device usage and associated expenses. 

Finally, you can expect to see a growing emphasis on eco-friendly telecom cost management, with businesses seeking to reduce energy consumption and minimize their environmental impact. In summary, all future trends point towards a more automated, intelligent, and sustainable approach to managing telecom expenses.