Who's Got Your Back: Telecom Expense Management vs. Telecom Broker
Understanding the critical differences between TEM and telecom brokers—and more importantly, the gaps each one leaves in your telecom lifecycle management.
If you're managing your company's telecom services, you've probably worked with either a Telecom Expense Management (TEM) provider or a Telecom Broker. Both promise to simplify your telecom operations, but they actually address completely different problems. Understanding the distinction—and more importantly, the gaps each one leaves—can save you from costly mistakes.
TEM vs. Broker: The Core Difference
One helps you buy. The other helps you manage costs. Both are valuable, but neither tells the complete story.
Telecom Broker
A Telecom Broker (sometimes called a Technology Advisor) focuses on the pre-sales process. They evaluate carriers and services, compare pricing across providers, and recommend solutions that fit your business requirements.
Value Focus:
Initial procurement decision and contract negotiation
TEM (Telecom Expense Management)
TEM handles post-sales financial oversight. They audit your monthly invoices, catch billing errors, manage payment workflows, and ensure you're not overspending on active services.
Value Focus:
Financial oversight after services go live
| Aspect | Telecom Broker | TEM |
|---|---|---|
| Primary Focus | Pre-sales: Carrier evaluation and procurement | Post-sales: Invoice auditing and cost oversight |
| Value Delivery | Initial contract negotiation and pricing | Ongoing billing error detection and recovery |
| Time Horizon | Transaction-focused (until contract signed) | Continuous financial monitoring |
| Service Scope | Vendor selection and contract terms | Invoice processing and payment management |
The Broker's Limitations
Brokers excel at getting you to the contract signature. After that, you're largely on your own.
Implementation Support
After contract signature, someone needs to coordinate with carriers, track equipment, manage LOAs, and oversee number porting. Brokers typically refer you to carrier contacts without project management support.
Typical Scenario:
Moving 50 phone lines to a new VoIP provider requires porting forms for each number, cut-over schedules, and equipment coordination. Without implementation management, you become the de facto project manager.
Technical Documentation
Circuit IDs, IP addresses, phone number assignments—critical operational data that brokers don't maintain in a centralized portal. When troubleshooting at 2 AM, you're digging through email threads across multiple carrier portals.
Typical Scenario:
Network outage at headquarters. Where's the circuit ID? What's the carrier's emergency contact? This information exists somewhere in email from 18 months ago.
The TEM's Blind Spots
TEM providers are excellent at catching billing errors, and these add up. Industry studies suggest companies overpay by 12 to 15% on telecom invoices due to billing mistakes like services not disconnected after cancellation, incorrect rate applications, or unbilled credits.
For instance, a TEM might catch that you're still being charged $800/month for a T1 line at a closed office location. That's real value. But they have limitations.
Procurement Assistance
TEM audits existing costs but doesn't evaluate market alternatives. Your $5,000/month MPLS might be replaceable with $2,500/month SD-WAN, but TEM won't identify this because they don't scan for better options.
Typical Scenario:
Legacy T1 lines costing $800/month per location could be replaced with fiber at $250/month with 10x the bandwidth. TEM verifies the $800 charge is accurate but doesn't question if the service itself makes sense.
Service Quality Tracking
TEM monitors costs, not performance. Weekly circuit outages or 48-hour carrier response times won't be flagged. They verify the monthly charge is correct, not whether you're getting reliable service for that price.
Typical Scenario:
New internet circuit billed correctly at $1,200/month but experiences 6 outages in first 90 days with poor carrier support. TEM processes payment without quality concerns.
The Lifecycle Management Gap
Neither TEM nor Brokers typically manage the full service lifecycle, which creates a critical vulnerability: contract renewals.
Most telecom contracts include automatic renewal clauses requiring 90 to 120 days notice to cancel or renegotiate. Miss that window, and you're locked in—often with automatic price increases built into the new term.
Real-World Scenario:
Your 3-year internet contract is set to auto-renew in 90 days with a 15% price increase. The TEM processes the bills but doesn't track renewal dates. The Broker who helped you purchase it three years ago isn't monitoring your calendar. You miss the notice deadline and face an extra $18,000 over the next contract term that could have been avoided with timely renegotiation.
Through our comprehensive telecom expense management approach, we've seen this scenario play out repeatedly—companies with both TEM and broker relationships still miss renewal deadlines because neither party owns the renewal tracking responsibility.
What This Means for Your Strategy
TEM and Brokers both serve important functions. The question is whether you have processes in place to cover what they don't provide.
Consider These Questions About Your Current Setup
- Who manages implementation when you purchase new services?
- Where is your technical documentation stored and kept current?
- Who evaluates whether your existing services still make sense, or if better options exist?
- Who tracks contract renewal dates and initiates renegotiations with adequate lead time?
- How do you measure whether your services are performing as promised?
If the answer to several of these is "no one" or "it falls on me when I remember," you're carrying operational risk that could result in service disruptions, budget overruns, or unfavorable contract terms.
Moving Forward
The most effective approach treats telecom management as a continuous lifecycle: procurement, implementation, ongoing management, optimization, and renewal. TEM handles one piece. Brokers handle another piece. The rest requires either internal processes, dedicated staff time, or a partner that provides full lifecycle management.
The key is being clear-eyed about what you have covered and what you don't. Once you can see the gaps, you can make informed decisions about how to fill them—whether through internal resources, process improvements, or external support that bridges the divide.
What You Have
TEM invoice auditing, broker procurement support
What's Missing
Implementation, documentation, renewal tracking, quality monitoring
How to Fill Gaps
Internal processes, dedicated staff, or lifecycle partner
TEM vs. Broker: Understanding the Gaps
Telecom brokers handle pre-sales procurement; TEM handles post-sales financial oversight. Neither manages the full service lifecycle, leaving critical gaps in implementation, documentation, optimization, and renewal management that create operational risk and budget overruns.
Key Takeaways:
- Brokers focus on initial contract negotiation but don't manage implementation or technical documentation
- TEM audits invoices for billing errors but doesn't evaluate service alternatives or track performance
- Critical lifecycle gap: contract renewal tracking falls between broker and TEM responsibilities
- Implementation support, technical documentation, and quality monitoring require separate processes
- Most companies lack clear ownership for renewal notifications, leading to missed deadlines and unfavorable terms
- Full lifecycle management requires coordinated approach spanning procurement through renewal
Frequently Asked Questions
Need Help Identifying Your Coverage Gaps?
Get a free telecom lifecycle assessment. We'll evaluate what you have covered with existing TEM or broker relationships and identify the critical gaps in your telecom management strategy.