Core Capabilities
Contract definition
Probably a great deal of time and money is spent negotiating contracts for the terms and services required. Those contracts needs to be proactively monitored to
manage spend rate. Expense Management documents the details of service provider contract terms, such as payments, schedules, costs, discounts, assets
and other conditions. These details can be used for verification and reconciliation of service provider invoices and against Expense Management's
asset repository.
Invoice and service data collection
Because many providers offer electronic invoicing, clients can now receive information about their wireless usage that they have always
wanted, such as long distance calling patterns and the details of specific calls. Expense Management supports electronic/automatic
(file/ftp/EDI) and manual invoice importing through the use of pre-formatted digital invoice templates and also collects data from these
invoices as part of the built-in collection and mediation process. The data can then be used for reconciliation.
Bill reconciliation
New services, accounts and features can slowly creep into invoices. Over time, these charges can raise the total invoice amount to levels
that are no longer within a company's service/solution contract goals. Expense Management can address these issues. When monthly invoices
are loaded into the system, it automatically matches invoice details against service provider contract terms for special rates and
discounts, collected usage data, services and equipment supplied.
Baseline inventory reconciliation
Asset management is the backbone of any good expense management tool, and NEC's Expense Management has it. Our tool
helps build a baseline inventory that corresponds to agreed-upon services and assets. As invoice charges are processed, an automatic
matching of the invoice details is carried out against the baseline inventory for any new, missing, or changed assets � including features
and charges.
Dispute management
Billing problems are a fact of life and errors usually favor the service provider. Expense Management provides the support needed for these
issues. When there is an invoice dispute, the processing workflow is determined for each vendor and service using a proactive rule set.
Correspondence with the service provider can be tracked and retrieved for an online history of billing problems for better leverage when a
contract is up for renewal.
An online portal
An online portal, called My Portal, provides different views and provides visibility that leads to accountability. Managers can access their
departmental costs using this resource to see asset, leasing, service and usage charges. This data can be quickly accessed and immediate
investigations regarding calls can be performed, using the My Portal call component with its extensive search capabilities.