Mala Telecoms Cost Management Services

Mala’s product portfolio is encompassed by our trademarked management service that provides Telecommunications Cost Management (TCM). malaTCM™ has been specifically designed to ensure operational efficiency and to provide quality analytical and financial information through a complete, managed service.

The service provided by Mala ensures complete administration of telecommunications, from order through to bill. This means that at every point in the telecommunications lifecycle we can ensure control and validation of costs.

Mala Xtract^®

Inventory and analysis managed service. We provide reports and data to allow thorough understanding of the entire communications provision. We do the work so you don't have to. There are typically three phases that occur during the implementation of a TCM solution:

Phase 1 - Inventory Creation

1. Create an accurate inventory
2. Confirm accuracy of bills
3. Removal of duplicate bills
4. Bill reconciliation against inventory

Phase 2 - Telecommunications Administration

1. Understand which services are provided at each location
2. Speedy resolution of issues
3. Track spend
4. Automate processes

Phase 3 - Business Intelligence

1. Cost optimisation
2. Cost and usage trending
3. Highlight cost misuse
4. Recommend cost savings
5. Highlight abuse
6. Holistic view of all services (voice, data, mobile) viewable on a single database
7. Create support data for network optimisation
8. Organisational cost breakdown to reflect hierarchy
9. Validation of discount schemes

Mala Xcavate^®

Mala Xcavate^® finds problems and resolves them! Historical cost recovery service. Provides a means of reclaiming money that has been lost through duplicating billing, incorrect or inappropriate invoices.

Mala Xplore^®

Your whole team will understand the communications estate mala Xplore ^® provides all the information provided by mala Xtract ^® (the inventory solution) in a desktop lookup. This enables any member of staff within the organisation to be able to analyse at top level, down to individual circuits what charges are in place and what they relate to.

The mala Xplore ^® service integrates perfectly with the MalaTCM™ solution and will ensure the best level of organisational understanding relating to company wide communications inventory and costs.

Mala Xtension^®

Mala Xtension ^® will solve the problems before they arise! Telecoms ordering is a complex process and is rarely taken into account by integrated company financial and order management systems. It has been shown in a recent CMA survey that “failure in the ordering process accounted for the majority of billing errors”. To combat the errors appearing in the billing part of the order life cycle, Mala has developed a managed telecoms ordering service – mala Xtension ^®.

Telecoms Ordering

The ordering of telecoms services is unlike any other purchase engagement. The complexity and interlinked nature of telecoms together with the failure of many of the order management processes deployed by telecoms suppliers, put the emphasis on the customer to ensure that orders are raised correctly, delivered on time and are correctly billed. Mala has many years of experience in managing this process together with early warnings for jeopardy incidents (jobs not issued on time, lead time errors or just failures in process) that will cause a job to fail.

mala Xtension ^® is a comprehensive ordering system that is designed around the normal work flow of raising an order for telecoms services. It is menu driven and will remove the errors of entering data using free text but also ensures orders are completed with all the necessary information. Additional safe guards include being unable to cease circuits that are not owned and a complete audit trail of actions including data stamping when orders are emailed to the supplier.

End-to-end Process

To ensure successful completion of every order, time must be allocated to monitor each step, including determining whether the order was actually completed on the correct date and for the expected cost. The Mala managed ordering process monitors all the stages of order creation through to completion.

Mala ZeroDial^™

Why pay for lines that you either do not need or no longer exist?

Zero dial is an investigative service into:

All lines that have rental but no call charges. It is expected that a proportion of these lines should be ceased as they are no longer required or are located in part of the organisation that no longer exists.

You cannot just cease them because many lines could be used for backup, emergency services or just infrequently used emergency services like lift phones.

Each line would be subject to a number of tests before a recommendation is made as to whether each line is kept as a valid service or that it should be ceased. All subject to final sign off by you.

It is our experience that typically 20% of nil and low usage lines are no longer required with a significant proportion of the reminder actually being faulty or re-justifying their need.

The Mala Telecoms MOT

Drowning in billing paperwork and admin? Looking to save money on your telecoms bills? At Mala we recognise the problems and issues facing you every day and that’s why we’ve developed the Telecoms MOT. Not only will it save your organisation money but our Telecoms MOT will also minimise the volume of bills you receive and increase the control you have over your telecoms costs. We’re so confident that the Mala Telecoms MOT can save you money that we are offering this guarantee: if we can’t reduce your telecoms costs by 10%, we will return your fee.

What is it?

The Telecoms MOT delivers a thorough and detailed analysis of all your telecoms bills that will:

• Consolidate and reduce the number of invoices received from each supplier
• Convert paper invoices to media (CD or other electronic format)
• Recover incorrect or inappropriate payments
• Highlight and implement savings to reduce your expenditure
• Create an inventory of your services

Can you benefit?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Is your telecoms estate delivered by multiple suppliers?
• Do you still operate in a paper and manual billing process environment?
• Is there a degree of bill consolidation and automation but still confusion over the charges for your telecoms services?
• Does your organisation have high annual telecoms expenditure?
• Is there limited resource available to actively manage your telecoms costs?
• Is there a requirement for centralised control of billing costs as a result of managing multiple sites?
• Does your organisation require further understanding of the cost of your telecoms?

How long does it take?

The Mala MOT will typically take between 1 to 4 months to deliver depending on the billing formats and information we receive from both you and your suppliers.

How much does it cost?

The savings we deliver through correction of inaccurate bills covers the cost of the Mala MOT. If, during the Telecoms MOT, we can't identify savings of 10% or more of your annual telecoms costs, our guarantee will apply; we will return your fee. Moving forward we can develop an ongoing ‘service’ programme tailored to meet your cost management requirements.

Typical results

• Annual savings of up to 15% with immediate reduction in costs
• A complete, consolidated inventory
• Historical recovery of overcharging from suppliers
• Expert support and advice; a virtual team working on your behalf
• Improvement to and increased efficiency of business processes
• Detailed and easy to understand telecoms management information
• The Mala MOT does the work so you don’t have to

About Mala Communications

Mala Communications is an independent specialist Telecommunications Cost Management company. Clients include FTSE 100 and 250 companies, US listed and Private Equity companies as well as Local Government and Health sector organisations.

What Should I do next?

All you have to do is contact us today and we can book you in for your Mala Telecoms MOT and remember no savings over 10%, no fee!

One phone call to Mala today and we could rescue you from drowning in a sea of paperwork and telecoms admin.
It's as simple as that.

Other Services

Budget+ ™

In order to accurately create budgets it is essential that a review of the previous year’s expenditure is conducted. In addition it is important to look forward and plan implementations and cost increases. The Mala budget+™ service simplifies the process of tracking current budgets as well as helping to plan for the future. In a commercial environment where numerous groupings, categories and divisions exist it is often necessary to review costs and expenditure performance against each specific entity.

Group+™

Where there is a need to drive out unnecessary cost and ensure that telephone call costs are optimal for the business there is also a need for intuitive reporting. By taking cost reporting to the users and ultimately managing those users, tighter control can be exercised. The ability for area mangers to see detail and comparative performance will take the cost reduction focus to the next level.

Ledger+ ™

Provision of a verified, accurate direct ledger data feed to the organisations accounting or payments system. The system takes billing data from multiple suppliers and converts it into specified file format for automatic entry into the accounts payments systems. This saves personnel time and reduces data entry errors that could occur during a manual process.

Order+™

The mala order tracking service will enhance control of the ordering process, highlight potential unauthorised orders and charges appearing on the bill that were not for officially requested services.

Tender+™

Creating a tender for telecoms services that will meet client goals and ensure all aspects of supplier offerings are compared in your favour and not the suppliers. Mala’s process will assist in the key areas of base line data collection, tender construction, verification of the responses and monitoring the implementation of the chosen solution. This process is time consuming for any communications related project and can involve a number of people. the service ensures that the tender process is productive and will result in the correct implementation based on real data from the organisation with the addition of continual support and guidance.