Creating a Telecom Inventory – Why a Tone and Test Inventory May Not Be Worth It

Establishing a telecom inventory has always been difficult. In the past, a wiring technician would be engaged, sent to each location and test then inventory each business line or T-1. The telecom technician method is not only expensive, but with the advent of telecommunications competition, the amount of confusion in the wiring closet has increased. Telecom technicians now spend much more time trying to sort through mis-tagged or no-tag circuits. So, rather than getting an accurate inventory of services, the telecom or IT department frequently receives a “fairly” correct inventory.

Well, a relatively accurate inventory is better than nothing. However, you just spent a lot of money (much more than in the past) to have a technician visit a site. You have also taken service down from your users at the site for testing. Third, you have spent valuable time yourself to coordinate the activities, as well as site personnel to provide a local contact. All for what – a partially accurate telecom circuit inventory?

I’d like to suggest a better way. Today, the physical telecommunications inventory of a particular site is not as critical as it has been in the past. First, telecommunications service providers have become much more accurate in their billing – gone are the days when it was anyone’s guess if the telecom bill was correct. Second, with the advent of affordable PRI and T-1 service, most locations to not have the 10s or 100s of lines that they had in the past. The inventory for an internet T-1, PRI and a dozen analog lines and trunks is much more manageable.

To establish a baseline telecommunications inventory, a better use of energy is to conduct a telecommunications billing inventory. A telecommunications billing inventory will reveal what the location is actually paying for – not what they are supposedly using. With a telecom bill inventory, you can determine whether the expenses are appropriate for the location. By conducting the billing inventory first, you can compare similar sites and narrow down the locations that appear to have sharply different service configurations than their peers.

Further, a physical audit will not show telecommunications services that were disconnected but are still appearing on the bill. It is not unusual for sites to have moved to a different service provider or upgraded from lines or trunks to a PRI and have the older services still billing.

A telecom invoice inventory is the quickest and easiest way to identify where to reduce costs. Once the telecommunications inventory is finished, inexpensive or free telecom expense management (TEM) solutions can be used to keep the inventory current.