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Symphony SMS Enhances Telecom Expense Management Software
 TMCnet Contributing Editor
Symphony Spend Management Solutions (SMS) has announced enhancements to its Expense Management System (EMS) 11 Telecom Expense Management software program.
This provider of software and outsourcing solutions to help clients effectively manage expenses, assets and workflow processes, enhanced the program in three key areas: adding a tool for automating electronic and manual data requirements; a self-service portal; and additional features to help clients manage expenses on a global level.
Designed as a Web-based application, Symphony SMS’s EMS 11 is available through a licensed, hosted or fully outsourced delivery model that enables clients to streamline costs and gain greater insight and control over enterprise voice, data (fixed) and wireless (Mobile) services.
“With the broadest, longest-standing patent in the telecom expense management industry, Symphony SMS has been able to continually enhance and update its EMS product to provide solutions for the latest client needs, such as mobile management, international management and data automation," said Alan Harlan, president of Symphony SMS, in a Monday statement.
"These recent enhancements will enable clients to more efficiently and effectively manage their indirect telecom and technology costs--leading to improvements in the bottom line."
The company’s telecommunications expense patent, "Customer Oriented Telecommunications Data Aggregation and Analysis Method and Object Oriented System" (U.S. Patent No. 7,136,467) is the core of the EMS 11 solution.
The patent encompasses over 90 claims regarding telecom expenses management intellectual property, such as the areas of data collection, processing of external carrier data (invoice and usage), adjudication methods for invoice reconciliation, inventory methods, costing methods, financial allocation and reporting methods.
With this far-reaching patent, Symphony SMS has been able to continue to build upon the most technologically-advanced telecom expense management solution on the market today, adding new features and functionality as client needs demand. The EMS Data Processor ( News - Alert) is a new feature that enables automated processes of different kinds of electronic feeds received for service providers and carriers. The feature assists in extracting vendor data from complex CDs and EDI feeds and includes a sophisticated rules-based data transformation and normalization engine.
EMS Data Processor can be run as a stand-alone Java application or as a daemon which can constantly poll for incoming electronic vendor feeds and automatically load the data into EMS 11. To report any processing errors, the solution also includes configurable error handling and alert mechanisms. As a result, clients have seamless control of enterprise telecommunications data and Ebonding is provided to interface with the leading carriers to streamline business operations. Another feature offered by Symphony SMS is the Symphony SMS Self Service Portal, which provides users with mobile rate plans, mobile devices and other assets with configurable approval workflow technology that offers the ability to request, update and remove equipment and services based on employee levels/authorizations and security provisioning. The optional front-end to the service desk functionality provides a streamlined ordering technology to follow pre-determined business rules for provisioning.
In the Aberdeen ( News - Alert) Group's recent benchmark study, "The Conundrum of Managing International Telecom Expenses," findings indicated that some 30% of enterprises are failing to capture gains from their international sourcing initiatives because they do not have the proper technology systems in place to ensure contract compliance.
"Best-in-class enterprises centralize invoice management to drive contract compliance and consistent business accounting rules for how expenses are managed and reported," said Joe Basili, research director at the Aberdeen Group, in a Monday statement. "Approaching spend management from a global viewpoint is the best way to control costs and realize savings." Capturing expenses is essential for any organization, especially one that is considering outsourcing or expanding its operations overseas. If the company is taking a cost-savings approach, there is no way to justify any moves or technology placements if they cannot capture current situations or expected returns.
Symphony SMS appears to understand these challenges facing companies today and has not only introduced a solution to address these issues, but also works to enhance these solutions so that continued changes in the industry can be anticipated and addressed before they become a problem.
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