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Mastering the
Moving Target
This client resides in over 3,000 domestic locations, and aside from
a few corporate contracts, its billing was not centrally managed.
The corporate telecommunications staff admittedly had no control over
ordering or billing verification for nearly 6,800 individual invoices
and $6,500,000 in monthly expense. Consequently, it was difficult
for the organization to manage its inventory in the field or maintain
proper fiscal control of those locally based facilities. The field
site management staff responsible for reviewing telecommunications
billing often did not have adequate expertise to do so. However, given
the corporate culture, many of these individuals did not wish to change
the current invoice process. They perceived that they would lose control
over telecommunications billing by not approving their monthly invoices.
In addition, the finance group had been unable to quantify what it
recognized as a staggering past due balance, created in large part
by this decentralized invoice approval process.
ISG’s IPV involvement was the answer to many of the client’s
problems. First, ISG was able to create a database of all telecommunications
accounts that could be shared with field facilities. Thus, ISG was
able to provide information that could be updated and maintained.
Next, ISG redirected and consolidated billing, reducing the invoice
count to less than 4,000 per month. The client’s accounts payable
group was able to determine file formats to be used for payment information
transmittal, allowing ISG to automate the invoice remittance process
and track vendor payments. Consequently, both the client and ISG could
view invoice history via ISG’s IPV database. As part of the
database set up, ISG itemized past due balances and quantified the
amount at almost $3,000,000. Using this information to research and
reconcile these past due balances, ISG was able to reduce the number
to $500,000 and eliminated them entirely by the end of the next fiscal
quarter. Through invoice consolidation and redirection, ISG was able
to shorten the review and process cycle, resulting in cost avoidance
of over $450,000 annually in late payment fees. Finally, through monthly
management, and financial and exception reporting, field site management
staff was better able to understand their telecommunications costs
and the impact on the bottom line. |
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About 
