O2 unveils telecoms expense tool to beat recession


2 Mar 2009

Mobile and fixed operator O2 has launched a new expense-management tool for Irish businesses, which aims to reduce bill headaches for financially beleaguered businesses.

According to O2, it is the first mobile operator in Ireland to introduce such a service, and has teamed up with Irish voice-management software and hosted services company Soft-ex to roll out O2 Analyser.

“The O2 Analyser tool will enable business customers of O2 to have full visibility of their telecoms costs across their organisation, allowing them to make substantial savings and improve efficiencies,” explained John O’Regan, chief operating officer at Soft-ex.

Analyser works by delivering information direct to the user’s desktop. It provides complete visibility of telecoms usage across the business, and has the ability to handle large numbers of telecom bills from different carriers and suppliers for fixed and mobile communications.

It can generate automated cost and usage reports, analysing costs down to a department or specific user level at the touch of a button. It also offers control over telecoms inventory management, including the number of mobile devices held in the business.

O2 Analyser can also protect against fraud and hacking through near real-time security alerts on unusual activity on company assets such as ISDN lines and international lines.

“O2’s own customer insight research has told us that people in business want more control to enable them to manage their operations more effectively,” explained Jude Lynch, business sales director at Telefonica O2 Ireland.

“In today’s market, where cost control is paramount, our new online tool will prove to be invaluable, providing businesses with the necessary information to reduce costs, improve control and introduce greater corporate efficiencies,” Lynch added.

According to Gartner, companies can make savings of up to 35pc by implementing telecom expense-management systems, while leading analyst Aberdeen has found that 52pc of companies are unable to capture their mobile expenditures, with lack of usage visibility cited as the main challenge.

Gartner has also stated that telecoms expense management is one of the hottest growth sectors in telecoms, with compound annual growth rates of 40pc to 2010.

By John Kennedy

Pictured (l-r):Billy D’Arcy, head of ICT and Enterprise, O2; John O’Regan, chief operating officer, Soft-ex; and
Jude Lynch, business sales director, O2