expense management providers, 2016 analyst(s): lisa unden ...€¦ · foundational tem capabilities...

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Competitive Landscape: Independent TelecomExpense Management Providers, 2016Published: 27 June 2016

Analyst(s): Lisa Unden-Farboud, Tom Eagle

The telecom expense management market is mature and evolving, andcomplex enterprise needs are driving demand for managed solutions.Independent TEM provider business leaders can take advantage of themarket opportunities with differentiated service scope, delivery, reach andengagement flexibility.

Key Findings■ Most telecom expense management (TEM) offerings in sourcing management and inventory

management are similar, as are the foundational application platforms: fixed, mobile and,increasingly, managed mobility services (MMS). Differentiation occurs at the user experience,service delivery and broader offerings (for example, at the ordering, provisioning and invoicemanagement level), and in country reach capabilities.

■ Many TEM offerings are expanding beyond traditional TEM services by leveraging theirfoundational TEM capabilities into areas such as cloud applications and technology licensing of,for example, unified communications (UC) and machine-to-machine (M2M).

■ Enterprise sourcing and IT teams have become more experienced in securing and working withTEM providers, which is increasing performance expectations, particularly around ease of useon hosted platforms to enable rapid deployment.

■ Cost optimization, coupled with business process transformation and growing resources indigitalization, is a key focus for many large and multinational corporations (MNCs), which oftenseek ROI within two to three years for net-new contracts on TEM deployments.

Recommendations■ TEM business leaders and product management should expand offerings to cover other IT

expenses such as M2M, cloud and UC as corporations digitalize and utilize these technologiesincreasingly, which will help achieve differentiation and provide scalability and flexibility intothese newer expanding areas.

■ Product development managers and TEM business leaders should ensure full integration of anypartner solutions for additional MMS/M2M/cloud capabilities before launching. To maintaincustomer experience, don't rely on postdeployment work.

■ TEM business leaders should build separate channel programs — possibly with separatechannel partners — for platform and service offerings.

Table of Contents

Analysis..................................................................................................................................................3

Competitive Situation and Trends..................................................................................................... 4

Market Players..................................................................................................................................6

The Future of Competition................................................................................................................ 7

Competitive Profiles..........................................................................................................................8

Asentinel.....................................................................................................................................8

Calero.........................................................................................................................................9

Cass Information Systems........................................................................................................ 10

Cimpl (Formerly Etelesolv).........................................................................................................11

Comview.................................................................................................................................. 12

Ezwim...................................................................................................................................... 13

MDSL....................................................................................................................................... 14

Mobile Solutions Services......................................................................................................... 15

Saaswedo................................................................................................................................ 16

Tangoe..................................................................................................................................... 16

Telesoft.....................................................................................................................................17

VoicePlus..................................................................................................................................18

WidePoint.................................................................................................................................18

References and Methodology......................................................................................................... 19

Definitions.......................................................................................................................................19

Gartner Recommended Reading.......................................................................................................... 22

List of Tables

Table 1. Summary of Independent Pure-Play TEM Vendors.................................................................... 7

List of Figures

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Figure 1. Traditional TEM Services.......................................................................................................... 4

AnalysisGartner estimates the TEM market will be worth about $2 billion globally in 2016. This spend willcome from about 200 vendors. Many are pure-play, independent providers, such as Tangoe, Calero,Asentinel and MDSL, while others are system integrators (SIs) and IT outsourcers, such asAccenture, IBM and Dimension Data, or communications service providers (CSPs), such as OrangeBusiness Services and Telefónica, which have acquired TEM capabilities, partner with TEM vendorsand/or white-label TEM vendor platforms. This document considers the pure-play, independentTEM vendors.

TEM services support end-user IT and finance departments to order, provision and supportcorporate communications services — both fixed and mobile. Gartner's coverage of TEM focuseson software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based applications and associated professional services, asillustrated in Figure 1. Many of the providers in the TEM space are evolving their offerings to includeMMS and other TEM areas, for example, licensing management for hosted applications such asSkype for Business and Salesforce. Partnering and creating differentiated channels to market arecommon practice among TEM vendors. Many are also extending their reach through partnering withMMS and enterprise managed mobility (EMM) software suite providers to meet specific needsassociated with the expanding complexity of M2M and Internet of Things use cases, as well as theincreasing requirements related to mobile estates. These use cases are increasingly seen as animportant part of cost optimization and business process strategies for digitalization in large andmultinational enterprises. When considering a TEM deployment, these enterprises often seek ROIwithin two to three years for net-new contracts on TEM deployments.

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Figure 1. Traditional TEM Services

TEM = telecom expense management

Source: Gartner (June 2016)

For detailed descriptions of these component services, see the definitions section below.

Competitive Situation and Trends

The TEM industry is mature, fractured and highly competitive, with ongoing consolidation amongthe providers, and increasing customer expectations for performance. Opportunity for small vendorslies in understanding industry best practices for service delivery, technology features and accountmanagement, as well as go-to-market strategies for partnerships and differentiated valuepropositions.

The TEM market continues to accelerate past the early stages of simple application acquisition, withmost enterprise clients seeking solutions to control their telecom expenses, while also desiringsome level of managed service or full outsourcing. The obvious advantage of this engagementapproach is that it shifts the inconvenience of managing the function, but also represents an


operating expenditure (opex) advantage — as opposed to the capital expenditure (capex) burdenimposed by software acquisition. However, as these engagements tend to centralize theprocurement and management across both wired and mobile services, TEM providers are nowencountering central sourcing/procurement teams more frequently — in addition to IT buyers. Theincreasing role of the procurement department in sourcing is forcing service providers to justify theirvalue proposition for their fees more rigorously than before; Gartner now sees more formalized,detailed RFPs used for vendor selection than in previous years. This is a position that smaller TEMproviders are unaccustomed to since, as gatekeepers of the enterprise purchasing policies, theprocurement function tends to put vendors through a more stringent process of qualification thantheir IT colleagues. Therefore, TEM vendors must adapt their bid approach to meet this challenge.

The global TEM market continues to see steady growth, of approximately a 12% compound annualgrowth rate, led by emerging markets. However, the bulk of the spend, more than 90%, is in NorthAmerica and EMEA. Several factors are influencing the current competitive landscape:

■ Pricing remained relatively stable during 2015; however, we have seen some situations wheremobile TEM engagements have been undercut by as much as 30% in competitive bidsituations. This reflects the ability of larger TEM providers to go into accounts at low pricing,even in managing complex mobile estates, to capture future revenue from other segments.

■ With the proliferation of mobile devices in the workplace, enterprise buyers are increasinglyopen to EMM features such as device management attached to traditional TEM services. Infact, for TEM vendors to operate competitively today, especially in the pure-play providermarket, they must at least support interoperability with a third-party EMM device managementplatform (typically, by opening their APIs to those platforms), or offer fully integrated mobiledevice management (MDM) functionality via a single sign-on with the main TEM application.

■ In 2015, prominent and encouraging acquisitions of companies that operate in the MMS andEMM space point to consolidation between software and services, in addition to consolidationwithin the TEM space itself: Asentinel's acquisition of eMobus and Tangoe acquiring Riverminefrom IBM. In 2016, Tangoe acquired the TEM business from Vodafone and became Vodafone'spreferred TEM partner in April; and Asentinel acquired European TEM provider Anatole at theend of May.

■ Private equity (PE) companies are increasingly involved in acquisitions in this space, enablingTEM companies to expand, combine companies from a geographic and technologyperspective, making them a viable company grouping to target the expanding needs of complexenterprise telecommunications management and cost optimization.

■ The companies involved with PE firms will need to prove a return on the investment made andcontinue to invest in technology and resources as the demands of the market expand andchange. Stable strategic direction and firm leadership will aid this. However, if returns are notgenerated as per the requirements of the investment houses, then PE could prove to berestrictive and hamper longer-term strategic direction.


■ On the fixed side of TEM, Gartner observes buyers asking vendors to provide ordering andprovisioning management of wireline assets, such as circuits. Vendors are responding byincorporating ordering/provisioning capabilities for those assets into their application portals.

■ Large IT outsourcers (ITOs) and SIs, as well as CSPs, are routinely engaging pure-play TEMvendors for service solution fulfillment, often under a private-label arrangement. Partnering withITOs and SIs has opened routes to the larger enterprise buying centers that would otherwise beoff-limits to the independent TEM community.

■ Enterprise clients are increasingly interested in measuring and cost reporting for UC andcollaboration platforms; they would like this management ability to be integrated within the TEMapplication. There is also nascent demand for managing/tracking cloud-related licenses andexpenses, and incorporating M2M tracking. As interest increases in this capability from end-user organizations, so will demand.

■ In the Asia/Pacific region, MNCs tend to select a global TEM provider with service deliverycapabilities in that region. In Europe, global and regional providers have been successful inmeeting the demand for Europe-based companies.

R&D investments in service innovation, as well as aggressive go-to-market strategies, will help TEMproviders grow. Also critical will be differentiating tactics around account management, and best-practice wireline and mobile SLA features for elevated performance accountability (see "The TopTen SLA Features to Include in Your Telecom Expense Management Offer for CompetitiveAdvantage").

Market Players

The TEM market is highly fragmented. The two main TEM providers — Tangoe and Calero —comprise about 20% of the market. They are followed closely by Asentinel and MDSL, with morethan 200 other providers comprising the remaining market. These vendors range from independentvendors using a platform-only approach, to SIs and CSPs with TEM capabilities. Some have globaldeployment and management capabilities, while others are limited to regional or even country-leveloperations.

Table 1 highlights the independent TEM vendors in the TEM landscape that are capable of operatingat a global and or regional level, and they are the ones that Gartner sees most in client inquiries.Because there are so many providers, market share for most remains low at a global level. For thisreason, we base the share on being small, medium or large, where the following applies:

■ Small = Less than 1% of the global market

■ Medium = 1% to 2% of the global market

■ Large = More than 2% of the global market


Table 1. Summary of Independent Pure-Play TEM Vendors

Vendor Location of Headquarters Main Geographic Coverage Market Share

Asentinel Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. North America and Europe Medium

Calero Rochester, New York, U.S. Global Large

Cass Information Systems St Louis, Missouri, U.S. North America and Europe Medium

Comview Huntington Station, New York, U.S. North America Small

Cimpl (formerly Etelesolv) Montreal, Quebec Canada North America Small

Ezwim Amsterdam, Netherlands Europe and North America Small

MDSL London, U.K. Global Medium

Mobile Solutions Services Denver, Colorado, U.S. North America Small

Saaswedo Paris, France Europe and the U.S. Medium

Tangoe Orange, Connecticut, U.S. Global Large

Telesoft Phoenix, Arizona, U.S. North America Medium

VoicePlus Sydney, Australia Australia and Asia/Pacific Small

WidePoint McLean, Virginia, U.S. North America Large

TEM = telecom expense management

Source: Gartner (June 2016)

The Future of Competition

As the TEM market matures and adoption of TEM services broadens globally, competition willintensify as vendors vie for both "greenfield" opportunities and the renewals open for competitivebidding. As enterprise buyers become more sophisticated and discriminating, they will expect notonly higher-value functionality (such as the aforementioned tracking of nontraditional TEM assetsand sourcing/provisioning of fixed-line assets), but also assistance with bring your own device(BYOD) and bring-your-own-service policy development and enforcement, as well as interoperabilitywith ERP and human resources information systems. Vendors must be prepared to meet theseexpectations. In addition, as communications morphs, enterprises will want to see scalability of thesolution and reporting tools that will enable them to predict, scenario plan and make strategicdecisions based on the data output from the systems. Advanced reporting capabilities will enablebusiness intelligence and analytical benefits, not typically associated with all TEM platforms today.Enterprise clients looking for valuable trending information on their corporate wide telecom


spending will be able to spot anomalous spending events and patterns, then take appropriateaction.

The competitive profiles included within this Competitive Landscape document cover what areconsidered independent pure-play TEM providers/vendors. Pure-play providers are most likely toplay a role in the ongoing market consolidation.

Competitive Profiles

Asentinel

Market Overview

Asentinel, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, is owned by Marlin Equity Partners and recently(on 31 May 2016) acquired European company Anatole, which is based in Paris, to bolster itsEuropean position. The new Asentinel now operates in the U.S., with its own operations andresources in France, the U.K., Germany, Belgium and Romania. With the acquisition, Asentinel nowhas a total of 250 employees, of which more than half are based in Europe. Anatole's operations willbe rebranded as Asentinel. The combined entity now has about $4 billion of telecom spend undermanagement from more than 300 Europe-based MNC clients active across Europe, Middle East,North America, South America, Africa and Asia/Pacific, and 600 U.S. clients, with internationalrequirements globally. Asentinel serves enterprise clients with spend ranging from $1 million annualspend, to multinationals with more than $500 million in annual spend across most verticals,including banking and finance; technology; retail and services; insurance and healthcare; andlogistics and manufacturing, with direct and dedicated resources in key European countries andNorth America.

Asentinel's global TEM solutions are deployed as a self-managed SaaS, managed service orbusiness process outsourcing (BPO) offering, with like deployment from Anatole's operations. Theplatform and services support life cycle communication management functions for fixed, mobile andequipment assets. Asentinel's approach focuses on the combination of platform, process andpeople to deliver solutions. In October 2015, it acquired eMobus, a mobility management company,to enhance its position for global TEM and managed mobility requirements. Asentinel's EuropeanTEM capabilities via the Anatole acquisition extend beyond traditional TEM to include real-timeTEM, integration with MDM and mobility management applications with platform improvements toenable service delivery to MNCs, enhanced CSP and SI channels and an Authority on TelecomManagement Practices (AOTMP) Efficiency First certification.

How Asentinel Competes

Asentinel markets its technology and services to enterprises via both direct and affiliate salesorganizations. It has partnerships with value-added resellers (VARs), SIs, ITOs and CSPs, whereAsentinel white-labels its TEM application platform and/or fulfills TEM engagements on behalf of itspartners. The Anatole acquisition enhances its partner strategy with partnerships that allow for theprogressive expansion of TEM and mobility services to multiple countries. Such partners include BT,


Orange and SIs that use the application as part of their own solution to end customers, morestrategic partners such as Finer Solutions in the Middle East and Asia/Pacific, and fellow TEMprovider Econocom. These assist in the more complex deals within the mentioned regions.

Global support is provided through operational facilities in both the U.S. and Europe. The Asentinelportfolio addresses all elements of life cycle management. Asentinel has also made enhancementsto its TEM software to provide better reporting and business intelligence, greater flexibility oncustomer-defined fields, optimization in allocations and payments, and enhancements to its invoiceand audit to support complex requirements. Asentinel focuses on a number of distinctcompetences. It has global invoice management (irrespective of carrier, language, currency or billingmedium.) It has a single logical platform to support wireline, mobility and equipment service types. Itoffers extensive, flexible and monitored enterprise integrations for real-time knowledge transfer andupdates, as well as a specific focus on inventory management to help drive telecom asset visibilityand actionable analytics. Its comprehensive audit and optimization engine helps enable costreduction and ongoing budget management.

The addition of eMobus puts Asentinel in a good position to target complete TEM engagements,manage mobility requirements for enterprises. With the Anatole acquisition, the combined companyis in a strong position to serve the expanding complex needs (notably, in mobility) of MNCs acrossNorth America, in multiple European countries and via its above-mentioned strategic partnershipselsewhere. While acquisitions can have a challenging element in integration, Asentinel hasexperience from the eMobus acquisition, and both Anatole and Asentinel have healthy platforms.Clients will remain on legacy platforms. Where integration of platforms is required for global deals,the addition of Anatole's capabilities in Europe will enhance this, and will be done on a case-by-case basis, aided by strong in-region resources.

Asentinel claims client retention of greater than 95%.

Calero

Market Overview

Calero was formed in December 2013 through the merger of three U.S.-based companies —Veramark Technologies, Pinnacle and Movero — established providers of communications expensemanagement, MMS, MDM and usage management.

Calero relies on a revenue mix supported by 80% recurring revenue. Calero has more than 2,500customers in the U.S. and supports customer locations spanning more than 40 countriesworldwide, including large global corporations, universities and government agencies. Calero'sheadquarters are in Rochester, New York, and it has additional offices in Atlanta, Georgia;Cincinnati, Ohio; and Nashville, Tennessee. Calero is wholly owned by Clearlake Capital Group.


How Calero Competes

Calero competes by applying Lean Six Sigma principles to its solution development and servicedelivery training program. Calero's Value Acceleration Process methodology (based on Lean SixSigma principles) provides a framework supported by structured templates for consistent,repeatable and measurable process execution and automation.

Calero goes beyond traditional invoice processing, bill payment and optimization services byallowing users to interactively analyze the details of communications transactions. Monitoringconsumption is becoming increasingly important as users shift from premises-based solutions thatare capitalized over multiple years to cloud-based solutions, where monthly charges are driven byactual utilization and subscriptions. In 4Q15, Calero announced its embedded business intelligencecapabilities, branded as "InSight Analytics." Calero's InSight Analytics visually transformscommunications data into actionable insights to help organizations make better decisions aboutuser consumption in a timelier manner.

In 3Q16, Calero will release its new unified communications and collaboration (UCC) managementsolution to help organizations, managed service providers and CSPs rapidly create multidimensionalvisualizations for all forms and vendor platforms of communications services, including voice, video,instant messaging, conferencing and email. Calero's UCC management solution allows users todissect data, identify used and underutilized services, reveal connections and explore performanceimprovement opportunities from every angle by delivering quantifiable business insights into howemployees leverage UCC technologies to drive sales, resolve customer issues and delivery theirservices.

Calero pursues a multichannel approach to reaching its target markets. The direct sales team leadsconsultative selling for communications life cycle management programs and professional services.The company also sells via VARs, partners with carriers and SIs, and develops other innovative andcollaborative marketing and sales programs. Its direct sales team sells to enterprises andgovernment agencies, and supports the sales efforts of partners for large opportunities. Calero'sbusiness development managers lead the onboarding process, managing incentive programs andproviding management oversight on issues that arise. An inside sales team works day-to-day withthe VARs to support sales activities, RFP responses, product demonstrations, proposals, andconfiguration of products and services.

Calero uses Net Promoter scores and quarterly business reviews to monitor and enhance servicedelivery performance. Quantifiable data is measured from the customer's perception of reliability,cost, accuracy, timeliness, quality, business relations, personnel, customer support andresponsiveness.

Cass Information Systems

Market Overview

Cass Information Systems, based in St. Louis, Missouri, is a federally regulated bank holdingcompany that provides a broad range of expense management services and manages more than


$40 billion in spend annually. In 2004, Cass Information Systems started its TEM offering, leveragingits capabilities from other bill payment areas. Its TEM offering covers both the fixed and mobilespace, and it has a patented BYOD management service offering, as well as a global direct payoption for customers. Cass Information Systems is capable of offering services in North America,Latin America, Europe and Asia/Pacific, either direct or via partners. Cass Information Systems hasoffices in Amsterdam, a processing facility in Ireland and most recently, a service delivery teamoutside of London. It has opened an office in Brazil and has plans for another in Singapore during2016. With a long heritage in bill processing and payment, Cass Information Systems processesmore than 225,000 invoices and $154 million in payments every day for its expense managementcustomers. It has more than 800,000 corporate-owned mobile devices and 300,000 individuallyowned devices under management. Cass Information Systems has more than 1,100 full-timeresources, of which approximately 120 are in its telecom division. There is an additional pool ofabout 450 head count within its shared-service division that provides foundational invoiceprocessing and payment services.

How Cass Information Systems Competes

Cass Information Systems sells mainly in North America, to North America-based enterprises andMNCs. It also has a channel partner strategy to extend its sales reach into the EU. Cass InformationSystems manages complex expenses for large clients, including multicurrency payments. Itoperates a 24/365 help desk, has ServiceNow integration and is capable of integrating with leadingHR, general ledger and single sign-on systems.

It is expanding its channel partner pool and go-to-market relationships throughout 2016. It has abidirectional partnership with SI CompuCom to deepen its MNC capabilities and extend itscustomer base in North America, leveraging CompuCom's relationships in the MMS and end-usercomputing spaces and providing TEM fixed and mobile services to clients. Cass InformationSystems also has relationships with a major mobile device manufacturer and MobileIron, and it isleveraging those relationships to build further reach into Europe and elsewhere.

Cimpl (Formerly Etelesolv)

Market Overview

Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, privately owned Etelesolv was founded in 2000, and currentlyhas 100 employees. As part of moves to go beyond TEM, it has recently rebranded to Cimpl. Itincreased international distribution and partnerships during 2015 and now has about $2 billion in ITand telecom spend managed and about $1.5 billion in assets and services managed.

Since 2011, Etelesolv/Cimpl has been developing service features beyond TEM, to includeadditional business automation processes — such as policy enforcement (around areas such asusage, logical flow anomalies, thresholds and many more), order fulfillment, Day 2 requests and ITcost management.


The company uses an integrated portal interface to provide visibility into both telecom assetinventory and usage, as well as additional types of IT elements, such as software licenses, routers,switches, desktop PCs and others. It has an increasing focus on cloud-based environments andapplications, investing in R&D on Salesforce, Concur, Workday, GoToMeeting, Cisco WebEx andDropbox. The platform provides cost allocation of all these assets/elements by user-definedcategories, such as cost centers, departments and so on. Complex information is connected andreorganized so that users can clarify their telecom and IT expenses, as well as link services andassets. The company invested in third-party integrations with ServiceNow, Remedy and MicrosoftAzure, among others.

How Cimpl Competes

Cimpl has evolved its platform capabilities to encompass wider IT asset management and workflowautomation. With IT services, infrastructure services and almost 4 million mobile devices undermanagement directly and via a newly established global network of partners, the companymaintains a strong presence in the financial, insurance, energy, engineering/manufacturing,government and, increasingly, healthcare vertical industries. It is also active across all verticals.

Beyond its core TEM services and IT asset management, the company holds patented technologyfor real-time service management and has sustained its growth through automation of invoiceloading and other repetitive processes. Cimpl has automated the support of more than 75 invoicingformats from more than 150 service types, from IT assets and cloud subscriptions, to traditionalfixed and mobile TEM services. In addition, clients can configure their platform and choose tointegrate from more than 30 data exchanges from third-party API feeds of IT and service systems.The reporting capabilities are flexible, scalable and intuitive, as they can be manipulated, saved andfiltered easily. The company's account performance is increasingly transparent. In August 2015, itimplemented a new ROI center to its Cimpl platform, which enables ROI performance calculationsfrom automation to be clearly visible on an ongoing basis. It also identifies actual and potentialsavings, and hours recovered from IT staff, and provides enhanced inventory accuracy throughsnapshots of assignments and IT and telecom assets. Through its self-validation program,employees can confirm their assigned technology from their bill of IT.

Comview

Market Overview

Comview is based out of Huntington Station, New York, with offices in Chicago. Its fully integratedmanaged solution includes a modular cloud-based platform for full TEM and wireless management,to which IT asset management and call accounting modules can also be added. It offers both fixedand mobile management covering the full TEM life cycle, and has more than 250 reporting areas.Comview is a privately held company. Its approximately 50 employees serve about 150 NorthAmerica-based customers, typically large nationals/MNCs or North America-based regionalcompanies. It can support more than 40 global carriers, serving 16 countries with mobile services,but does not have its own dedicated resources outside of North America. It also partners with Unifyand Black Box.


How Comview Competes

Comview targets large North American nationals/MNCs, with an annual spend ranging from $2million to $100 million, on both the fixed and mobile side (although it can serve as much as $500million annual spend, and from 500 to an unlimited number of mobile devices).

Comview's high-touch approach to account management means performing a comprehensive,upfront audit, and maintaining all inventory with ongoing audits to identify/implement savings andoptimizations throughout the customer engagement. It can optionally negotiate new contracts withCSPs to avoid going into a transactional model. It delivers guaranteed savings upfront to give acontrolled but solid ROI, and does not charge separately for audit.

Comview has many long-standing customers, and retention rates are high from its engagements,driven by its "customer for life" philosophy. The fully integrated hosted platform provides real-timeor near-real-time PBX and voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call accounting, as well as e-bondingto Verizon currently, and AT&T in 2016. It has two-way integration with AirWatch, and it is selling theWandera application in the mobility space. Comview is also expanding its IT asset management bymanaging expenses on a license and per-seat basis for cloud IT services.

Ezwim

Market Overview

Based in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and with offices in Denver, Colorado, U.S., Ezwim provides TEMservices to more than 720 customers, with over 187 carrier implementations in over 55 countriesworldwide. It has been providing TEM solutions since 2001. Ezwim manages $360 million in annualtelecom spend (fixed and mobile) and 380,000 mobile devices.

With origins in wireless expense management services, over the years, Ezwim has supplemented itsservice capabilities to include a full range of fixed and mobile expense management services. Thisincludes TEM BPO services, in addition to consulting. It also offers a zero-risk Quickscanengagement to identify short-term savings opportunities. Ezwim supports both direct and indirectsales models. More than 60% of services are offered through partners that benefit from Ezwim'smature TEM platform and international reach. Partners include Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile brands),a number of U.S.-based TEM providers and other mobile operators. The company emphasizes dataprivacy and data protection, and is ISO 27001 certified for information security.

How Ezwim Competes

Following the "Lean Operations" principles, Ezwim has developed "Lean TEM" based on threepillars — technology, policy and people — to help companies excel in communications life cyclemanagement. Ezwim services both national and multinational customers, which include a number ofprofessional services organizations. Ezwim configures its platform based upon individual customerrequirements and uses automated processes to gain operational efficiencies. It goes to marketunder both a managed service and a BPO engagement model. The core of all Ezwim's offerings,


whether technology or managed service, is the integrated Ezwim TEM suite, consisting of self-service cost management from company to employee level with ad hoc reporting, policyenforcement and call allocation. The suite also includes a workflow application with role-basedcatalogs for ordering, service requests, ticketing, SLA management and process automation. Alsoincluded is a rating engine for automatic invoice validation, what-if analysis and RFP business casecalculation. The platform also has a single, aggregated global spend and SLA management featurewith currency conversion. Finally, the suite includes Ezwim's Quaestor (rTEM) for on-device, real-time rating of mobile data and voice usage.

MDSL

Market Overview

MDSL is headquartered in London, U.K., with offices in Hong Kong, Sweden, France, U.S. andJapan (via long-term partner Tokyo Tanshi doing business as MDSL Japan). Privately owned,MDSL's international office network provides local support to customers worldwide, with 20% of itssales in the Asia/Pacific region and the remaining 80% split equally between the Americas andEMEA. The business manages more than $2 billion in fixed and mobile telecom expenses annually.

MDSL's TEM portfolio covers fixed line, wireless, VoIP and conferencing from a single portal. Itprovides a framework for managing the communications life cycle, including inventorymanagement, contract management, invoice processing, auditing, usage analysis, chargebacks,order and provisioning workflow, dispute management, reporting, and business intelligence. It hasrecently added limited, but expanding, M2M support. MDSL expanded its international operationswith the launch of a complete TEM life cycle system and managed services in Japan in October2015.

How MDSL Competes

MDSL targets MNCs with an annual telecom spend of at least $5 million and deployments acrossmultiple countries. It also supports enterprises that require M2M expense management and hasinvested in enhanced R&D capabilities into IT areas such as hosted applications and cloud licensingmanagement. MDSL also offers enhanced tracking and financial management of IT assets and e-bonding with telecom carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. It has extended automation and improvedvisualization (including calendar views and near-real-time analysis) for various TEM functions, alongwith enhanced inventory data feeds from vendors, and rate benchmarking of carriers across NorthAmerica and EMEA.

MDSL offers a global SLA, with multicurrency and multilingual capability, and a 24/365 "follow thesun"-type approach for help desk support. It maintains a focus on compliance with the differentdata protection and privacy regulations in its operations worldwide.

Delivered either as SaaS or a BPO/managed service, MDSL's business is currently 80% direct, buthalf of new sales — and growing — are via its network of international VARs and SIs.


MDSL's open architecture allows customers to integrate their TEM solution with products fromother MDM, mobile application management and MMS vendors to provide a comprehensivecommunications life cycle management proposition.

Mobile Solutions Services

Market Overview

Mobile Solutions Services is a privately held North American pure-play TEM provider based out ofDenver. It has about 500 customers and serves the MMS space exclusively. It offers a full life cycleservice, including procurement, staging and kitting, near-real-time expense management, businessanalytics and reporting, EMM, repair, and disposition. While it focuses on all verticals, the companyhas carved out a niche in the construction space, with more than 150 clients. It currently supports21 North American carriers and two U.K. carriers. Mobile Solutions Services has more than 200,000mobile devices under management, of which currently 5% to 7% are M2M.

Through its 24/365 help desk, Mobile Solutions Services delivers on 24 move, add, change anddisconnect (MACD) tickets, with service levels ranging from 5 minutes to end of business. Withdedicated account management for all its customers, it manages usage daily, and makes necessaryadjustments to carrier plans and pools within the bill cycle, insuring full optimization monthly. Todate, it has just over 50 employees and has grown 634% during the past three years, all organically.

How Mobile Solutions Services Competes

Mobile Solutions Services believes one of its key differentiators is offering potential clients theopportunity to try its service for 60 days at no cost. At the 30-day mark, it presents the prospectwith a self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology report (self-monitoring, analysis andreporting technology [SMART] report) that details optimization and efficiency opportunities. Othermarket differentiators are its software, which provides near-real-time account management andactionable business intelligence, and its commercial terms, which emphasize guaranteed savingsand a customer's ability to cancel the contract if Mobile Solutions Services doesn't meet its statedmonthly savings. Customers may also cancel if Mobile Solutions Services misses on its service-level guarantees. Customers have the ability to choose month-to-month, one-, two-, and three-yearcontracts. Discounts are provided for term contracts. Customer satisfaction is highlighted by MobileSolutions Services' 97% client retention rate.

Mobile Solutions Services goes to market directly and uses a small channel partner program toserve its clients. Expanding the channel program is a 2016 initiative. All channel partners are givenspecific direction to be able to qualify an opportunity, and then Mobile Solutions Servicesdemonstrates the software and closes the business. The channel partner gets paid monthly for aslong as the client is a Mobile Solutions Services client.

While this company has been primarily North America-focused, it recently announce the addition ofsupport in the U.K. with select carriers and has plans to expand into other English-speakingcountries as part of its 2016 and 2017 roadmap.


Saaswedo

Market Overview

France- and U.S.-based Saaswedo is a TEM software management company and an aggregator ofpricing of just over 25 operators currently to control telecom policy, and manage telecom assetsand operational costs within its TEM platform. The company has acquired two competitors over theyears and has a significant ownership interest in Tec-Ker, which provides managed services andother IT/BPO-type services to larger French and MNCs. Saaswedo has about 50 employees — halfof which are dedicated to R&D — about 10,000 customers (from small office/home office, to largeEuropean) and revenue of less than €10 million.

In 2015, it received further funding from Ardian to reinforce its position in the French market andsustain growth to support its international development in Europe and also the U.S. It manages 3.5million lines, of which approximately 60% are wireless and 40% are fixed.

How Saaswedo Competes

Saaswedo offers a SaaS-based approach to TEM, targeting mainly France- and Europe-basedenterprises. It offers both fixed and mobile telecom life cycle services on a single platform, cloud-based service called "mytem360." Saaswedo also supplies Datalert!, a real-time alerting solution forboth fixed and wireless networks.

Saaswedo uses a channel/partnership strategy for both technology and go to market. During 2015,it announced strategic partnerships with U.S. providers Citrix (XenMobile) and Peak-Ryzex (ManageMobility), which marked its entrance into the U.S. market. Saaswedo integrates with AirWatch EMMand takes advantage of AirWatch's multitenancy management capabilities to monitor telecomroaming and data usage across organizations in real time. This ensures telecom spend is optimizedand prevents bill shock. Saaswedo has also aligned with MobileIron, where it uses that company'spolicy management and integrates it with both Saaswedo's mytem360 and the Datalert! platform.

Tangoe

Market Overview

Based in Orange, Connecticut, U.S., Tangoe is a publicly traded company, and it is the largest of theindependent TEM providers.

In the past year, it has acquired Rivermine from IBM (June 2015) as well as Vodafone's TEMbusiness in April 2016. As part of the Vodafone TEM business acquisition, Tangoe became thepreferred supplier to Vodafone for TEM-related services for Vodafone. The company's IT expensemanagement technology platform, Matrix, is designed to help companies transform themanagement of IT assets, services, expenses and usage to create business value, increaseefficiency and deliver positive impact to the bottom line.


How Tangoe Competes

Tangoe has more than 90 communications invoice receipt centers, 21 offices around the globe, withlocal support, including in Latin America, China, India and Australia, and a total telecom spendunder management of $34.2 billion. Tangoe helps enterprises manage and optimize theircommunications environments in every major global region. It has more than 6 million devices undermanagement.

Its solution is implemented in 11 data centers worldwide, providing service coverage in variouscountries and territories. The solution is capable of reporting in over 125 currencies, with support formore than 3,100 communications carriers and approximately 1,800 billing formats. Tangoe's Matrixsolution is translated into nine languages, and the solution supports compliance with therequirements of 63 regulatory committees worldwide. Its global operations run 24/365 and process1.2 million invoices per month, 72,000 mobile fulfillment orders per month and 72,000 payments permonth in more than 45 currencies, with its 140 global agents speaking 18 languages supporting37,000 mobile help desk transactions per month. In addition to its acquisitions, it has struckpartnerships with ServiceNow, MobileIron and AirWatch, among others, which act as technologypartners, service partners and additional channels to market.

Telesoft

Market Overview

Based in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., Telesoft is a privately held fixed and mobile TEM software andservice provider.

Telesoft's platform supports full life cycle invoice management (including invoice receipt, billvalidation, contract management, approval flows and invoice payment), mobility management fordevice procurement, plan optimization, help desk services and MDM integration. Also included arecall accounting for fixed, mobile and UC usage management, call costing and chargeback, andnetwork/traffic management. Finally, the asset management module provides physical assettracking, workflow, trouble ticketing and cable/wire management.

It supports multiple engagement models, including license, SaaS and full BPO. Gartner estimatesthe company generated approximately $18 million to $20 million in TEM-related revenue during2015.

How Telesoft Competes

Although its predominant engagement approach is a managed service agreement sold directly tothe enterprise market, Telesoft has, more recently, focused on expanding its indirect reach byadding channel partners, while continuing to build its direct sales staff. During the past five years,Telesoft has aggressively increased its investment in marketing and sales to raise company visibilitythrough thought leadership webinars, sponsorship of industry events and enhanced corporate


communication. Telesoft now has about 120 employees in its three locations and saw about 30%organic growth in 2015.

Telesoft focuses selling efforts on organizations that are headquartered in the U.S. and can supportinternational operations, with features including currency and language conversion. Morespecifically, it targets organizations with telecom expenditures of at least $5 million and more than1,000 mobile devices, including large MNCs, local and federal governments, and large educationalestablishments. Yearly customer telecom spending under management is $2.1 billion, and itmanages more than 400,000 mobile devices.

VoicePlus

Market Overview

Based in Sydney, Australia, VoicePlus is active in the MMS space, providing fleet management andMDM, in addition to TEM. The company was founded in 1998 and provides services to more than600 medium and large Australian enterprises and MNCs, offering mobile, endpoint computing andfixed solutions.

At the end of 2015, VoicePlus' annual sales exceeded AU$5.5 million. The company manages morethan 61,000 devices and AU$36.6 million in annual enterprise telecom spend. It has 38 employees,from technical staff to dedicated account teams, based out of its Sydney office.

How VoicePlus Competes

VoicePlus' Atrium solution is a hybrid TEM, IT asset management, software asset management, ITfinancial management and telecommunications asset management solution. Integrating into bothHR and payroll systems and providing asset cataloging, procurement, management, reporting(including chargeback) and maintenance/repair, the solution tracks any asset that wholly belongs toa single entity (usually a person) and provides a single total cost for that entity.

The company uses an e-managed service desk for operations, and an e-supply solution thatgenerates automated customized ordering and delivering systems. VoicePlus offers procurement,reporting, through to dispute resolution, and offers usage and service optimization, billing errorresolution and action plans against unauthorized usage and excess usage of mobile expenses viaits Atrium SmartPortal, serving the complete mobile telecom life cycle. It is integrated withServiceNow, is AirWatch-certified, and is an accredited Telstra enterprise and business partner.

WidePoint

Market Overview

Based in McLean, Virginia, U.S., WidePoint is one of the largest providers of TEM services tofederal, state and local governmental enterprises and global commercial enterprises. It operates inNorth America and Europe and provides its services on a global basis. Traditional TEM services aredelivered with an emphasis on invoice auditing and cost reduction, cost allocation and budget


management, and inventory management, including customized web portals for wireline andwireless MACD business intelligence and analytics. The full telecom life cycle is supported,including telecom policy and contract enforcement, procurement, and end-to-end logistics (such asnext-day replacement, inventory management and optimization, repurposing, repair, custom kitting,secure disposal and program rollout), and it can provide a single TEM platform to manage bothmobile and wireline expenses.

WidePoint delivers solutions globally and had revenue of about $70 million in 2015 (compared with$53 million in 2014).

How WidePoint Competes

WidePoint focuses on tailored solutions for larger customers, going beyond TEM as a managedservice to include mobility management, identity authentication and access management. As aleading provider of public-key-infrastructure-enabled identity management systems for the U.S.federal government, WidePoint brings this experience and expertise to the commercial markets aswell.

WidePoint employs three sales models: direct sales with regional representation, channel sales byindependent agents and white-label sales by third parties. Its primary markets comprise the federal,state, county and local government, and commercial enterprise markets. Its services, including itscall centers, are available 24/365, and although originating in the U.S., local representation isavailable in certain international locations.

References and Methodology

Company profiles were obtained from discussions/interviews and briefings with the TEM vendorsfrom the third quarter of 2015 through the first half of 2016. Gartner obtains regular updates frommany of the TEM vendors, CSPs and SIs active in this space. Additional sources used are obtainedfrom Gartner end-user research, Gartner client and customer references, journals, web pages andother secondary sources.

Definitions

TEM is a specific, but challenging function, within IT and cost management, and is widening inscope as most enterprises' range of fixed services and mobile devices grows and diverges.Enterprises seeking to better manage this communications complexity and associated cost oftenlook to third-party TEM providers as the most cost-effective way to secure the programmanagement capabilities they need, as there is no internal "build" option available.

Enterprises wanting to improve their costs management and drive efficiencies intelecommunications procurement and support look to TEM providers with the following specificcapability areas for fixed and mobile telecommunications:

■ Sourcing management refers to TEM vendors that negotiate prices, terms and conditions fortelecom contracts on behalf of customers.


■ Ordering and provisioning management supports the commissioning and deployment oftelecom/network services and mobile assets, based on predefined rates and support for userprofiles, drawing on service catalogs, structured workflows and authorizations. Process servicesfor ordering and provisioning include help desk services for order placement and logisticssupport relating to deployments, replacements and break/fix depot repairs. Also included arehelp desk services for cases where self-service portals cannot address end-user needs.

■ Inventory management applies to processes and services that provide one or all of the followingfor fixed mobile services and mobile devices: asset discovery; asset management; assetdatabase/repository; asset portfolio management; and tracking of purchases, leases, contractsand disposal relating to telecom assets and expenses. Links to general ledger accountingsystem modules, such as the capital asset ledger, are common.

■ Invoice and contract management combines the invoice audit function with the accountspayable invoice processing function.

■ Usage management helps identify cost objectives and usage permissions by using callaccounting and detailed invoice data. Usage is tracked to allocate costs by individual,department, cost center or other user-defined spending category across any number ofcorporate locations.

■ Dispute management ensures the recovery of credits and management of short-pay and no-paydecisions.

■ Reporting and business intelligence encompass a vendor's ability to offer customers practicalinformation and analytics, to improve financial forecasts and usage planning.

The use cases for TEM that are typically discussed in Gartner client inquiries are around thefollowing:

■ Resource, and cost visibility and control. Reduction of costs and a high return on investmentare key in any IT agenda. With proven returns and clear routes to savings, TEM is a popularoption for enterprises wanting to manage telecom expenses more closely. Companies alignedwith this use case perceive fixed and mobile telecom as significant issues in cost andunmanaged entitlement. Solutions in this use case combine extensive reporting and notificationwith inventory and dispute management.

■ Fixed TEM outsourcing. Traditional fixed-line phone systems remain a part of most enterprisesdespite their decreasing use among highly mobile or traveling workforces. Staff resources tomanage associated spending effectively are often missing, too few or lack expertise.Organizations facing this resource challenge will engage TEM providers, or do so to offloadnoncore activities and provide better customer service.

■ Mobile TEM outsourcing. Mobility outsourcing is appealing because it offers the promise ofextensively structured and managed processes and methodologies, providing operational andfinancial controls based on corporate need. Companies seeking assistance with BYOD androaming policy development and enforcement, and/or with ordering and provisioning ofreplacement and upgraded mobile devices, will align with this use case.


■ Fixed sourcing. Companies categorized by this use case are both those with limitedexperience negotiating telecom contracts with carriers, and those larger, more complexorganizations with multiple carrier relationships seeking to consolidate or manage diversecarrier agreements. These organizations also demonstrate a greater willingness to trust TEMvendors to source, order and provision wireline assets such as circuits.

■ Mobile sourcing. Enterprise organizations with limited experience negotiating mobile telecomcontracts with carriers, and larger, more complex organizations with multiple mobile carrierrelationships seeking to consolidate or manage diverse carrier agreements, find sourcing fromTEM vendors particularly valuable. These companies expect the convenience of a readilyaccessible online portal and help desk services to acquire mobile assets and services.

Gartner does not consider TEM solutions around element management for telecom infrastructuresuch as PBX and key telephone systems, IP telephone equipment and other voice communicationsinfrastructure. Element management is covered in a typical network IT engagement.

Over-the-air MDM are increasingly bundled with TEM offerings. Managed mobility services are anadjacent market, of which many TEM players are morphing into.


Acronym Key and Glossary Terms

API application program interface

BPO business process outsourcing

BYOD bring your own device

CSP communications service provider

EMM enterprise mobility management

ERP enterprise resource planning

ITO information technology outsourcer

KPI key planning indicator

M2M machine-to-machine

MDM mobile device management

MMS managed mobility services

MNC multinational corporation

SI system integrator

SLA service-level agreement

TEM telecom expense management

UC unified communications

VAR value-added reseller

Gartner Recommended ReadingSome documents may not be available as part of your current Gartner subscription.

"Service-Level Agreements in Telecom Expense Management Contracts Are Key to VendorPerformance"

"The Top Ten SLA Features to Include in Your TEM Offer for Competitive Advantage"

"Forecast: Communications Services, Worldwide, 2013-2020, 1Q16 Update"


Evidence

Gartner works with TEM providers, customers of TEM vendors and other telecom industryparticipants on an ongoing basis. This research is a result of our regular dialogue with theseconstituents, supplemented with information from topic-specific interviews and other relevantexisting Gartner research. For definitions and methodology, please see the References andMethodology, and Definitions sections.

This document is published in the following Market Insights:Managed and Professional Network Services WorldwideMobile Communications Worldwide


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