Corporate Vision Issue 8

24 CORPORATE VISION / Issue 8 2018 , Founded in 2004, Saveutel Communications is a Technology ExpenseManagement (TEM) firm that specialises inmanaging IT and Telecom expenses for their corporate clients. In July, Corporate VisionMagazine named Saveutel among the winners of the 2018 Corporate Excellence Awards, with the title of Leading Experts in Telecoms in Canada. Following on from this achievement, we spoke to President and CEO, Rob Benchetrit, to see howhe has built this innovative, forward-thinking business from the ground up. Saveutel Communications was established to combat one troubling statistic - that Canadian companies are overpaying for telecom services by $300 million. This discrepancy is being, largely, unchallenged by companies who are unaware that they are being charged too much by their utility providers. In turn, in Saveutel’s experience, leading telecoms companies are understandably dedicating resources to actively increase their own profits rather than rectify any potential errors. This imbalance is where Saveutel comes in – acting on the client’s behalf to manage their utility expenses, find errors or opportunities to reduce cost, and gain compensation. Rob explains more about Saveutel’s methodology, “Saveutel’s software is designed to automate the Telecom lifecycle including inventory management, cost visibility, wireless management, company policy compliance, procurement management, employee tracking and invoice processing. With offices in Toronto and Montreal, we help small, medium and enterprise level businesses reduce telecom spending.” Ultimately, Rob wants Saveutel to reduce the number of companies who are contributing to the $300 million needless expenditure, “Our mission is to make sure our clients are not part of the $300 million-dollar statistic. We focus on achieving savings without reducing services. Once a client hires us, we partner with them for one year to make sure all their billing issues have been identified and resolved. We obtain refunds on their behalf and if required optimize their rates without compromising services.” Falling under the corporate advisory and consultation sectors, Saveutel uses its in-house collective experience alongside their history of success to stand apart from potential competitors, “Two of our leading telecom experts have over forty years combined experience. We also have the privilege of working with some of the most well- known companies in the world. Our clients engage us in several ways—we help them reduce their Telecom spending, simplify their telecom requirements, increase visibility and improve their security. We view our clients as partners and work collaboratively with them to achieve results they can measure. We believe we will be successful if our clients are successful.” In this regard, Rob points out that the client only pays for Saveutel’s services if they save money. Rob continues, emphasising Canada’s situation regarding recent regulatory changes, “Canada continues to have one of the highest wireless phone rates in the world. Over the past two years, CRTC - the agency overseeing telecommunications in Canada - has implemented new rules to help protect consumers. Unfortunately, many 1808CV16 of the new policies do little or nothing to protect businesses. Often, we see clients paying for services they no longer need or haven’t used in years. One of our first goals is to untangle the spaghetti-like mess, and provide our clients with a detailed audit report of what they have and how much they are spending. We provide options that makes sense for them and help improve their bottom line.” “It’s not unusual for us to uncover billing errors going back several years ago. As such, we will review at least 3 years of billing and check if every line of charge has been billed correctly. If an error has occurred, we will request a refund from the date the error first appeared. We understand our clients are busy. We therefore do all the heavy lifting. Once we are authorized on their account, we are able to retrieve their past bills, contracts and any information we feel is necessary to do a thorough audit.” Saving You Money on Your Telecom Services