From Load, Code and Pay to Savings: Inside TEOCO’s Wholesale Cost Management Services
A Conversation with Chris Harrison, Executive Director of Audit Services at TEOCO
Communication Service Providers (CSPs) rely on wholesale services from other carriers to expand network capacity, especially when serving business customers beyond their own footprint. Because these wholesale charges often represent a substantial share of CSP operating expenses, careful oversight is essential to prevent unnecessary spend.
For more than 25 years, TEOCO has helped some of the largest U.S. CSPs manage and control their wholesale costs. We spoke with Chris Harrison, TEOCO’s Executive Director of Audit Services, to explore the company’s managed service offering and understand why so many CSPs rely on it.
What services does TEOCO offer to help CSPs manage wholesale invoices?
TEOCO offers fully managed wholesale invoice services designed to handle every step of processing an invoice—from receipt to payment. This end-to-end approach integrates our BillTrak™ invoice management platform with expert auditing and operational support, ensuring accuracy, visibility and efficiency across the entire invoice lifecycle. We offer fully managed services, known across the industry as “load, code, and pay,” leveraging BillTrak to align invoices with inventory, identify disputes, process payments, and provide valuable reporting and insights trusted by many leading U.S. telecom providers.
We also support clients with specific needs. For some that means engaging TEOCO for targeted audit projects, while for others it is leveraging our expertise for specialized, one-time initiatives such as network optimization reviews. In all scenarios, we bring the same proven tools and experience.
For the ‘LOAD’ part of the process, can you talk about the types of invoice formats that you accept?
BillTrak can handle any kind of invoice format – paper or electronic. This of course includes CABS (Carrier Access Billing System), SECABs (Small Exchange Carrier Access Billing) and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). But most invoices are no longer in an industry standard format. Vendors often use their own proprietary format. Because invoices aren’t standardized, BillTrak will parse what is on the invoice using TEOCO’s own proprietary and patented technology developed in-house for each type of invoice and for each vendor.
And by ‘CODE’, are you referring to General Ledger (GL) codes?
Yes, we have a robust capability for assigning GL codes within the BillTrakTM platform. We can assign as many segments as needed and in as many ways as required. Our platform includes a “memory” feature that remembers how GL codes are assigned so that the same assignments are made in the future. If you want to see how they were assigned, you can access this information through a reporting universe.
In terms of the ‘PAY’ part of the process, how does that work?
Our audit services leverage TEOCO’s our tools and expertise to ensure that its clients pay only correct and fully substantiated costs. We manage payments for our clients in one of two ways. For telecom expenses, we can send a coded file to the client’s Accounts Payable (AP) group to handle the payments. While we can process telco payments on behalf of our clients, many choose to process them on their own. For utility expenses, a funded account is maintained through which payments are made on their behalf through our payment partner, Lucrotec. Each week, TEOCO provides reconciliation reporting of the previous week and the account is replenished.
What’s the main reason service providers choose to go with TEOCO for processing their wholesale invoices instead of managing them internally?
In many cases, service providers may not have all the in-house resources needed to manage invoices end to end. They may also be working with limited exposure to specialized knowledge in certain areas. TEOCO partners with these organizations to complement their capabilities and address these gaps. Also, some providers are primarily oriented toward bill payment and may not have large, dedicated audit teams. This can make it more difficult to perform extensive validations and audits, which can add to operational complexities.
We apply our expertise to processes and provide advice and guidance on how to be as cost effective as possible. TEOCO processes more than a 125,000 invoices each month, representing over $1.8 billion of spend.
Given what we do, one of our biggest differentiators are our expertise and the level of service we provide. We always try to go above and beyond. If our client wants a special report or additional business expertise, we include it as part of our offering. We deliver a level of service beyond what other vendors can offer – they just don’t have the expertise.
For example, one of our clients recently needed a special report created for their Board of Directors. It represented a tremendous effort and required days of additional work. It was not in our contract, and it is not one of the recurring reports we typically provide, but we produced it for the benefit of our client. When we provide a full managed service, we are effectively an extension of the client’s internal team and we act in that manner to serve.
Do you offer any network monitoring or optimization services?
Yes. This includes looking for any of several situations such as something that may not have been ordered correctly, if the client can get a better price by switching to a different contract, or if there is an unused or under-utilized circuit incurring cost. We typically look for situations where the client can save money going forward. We can even handle order activity as part of the service to make that happen. We are constantly look for ways to leverage our expertise to find new avenues and angles for cost reduction.
Can you provide an example of a typical managed service project and the value you brought to the client?
Sure. One of our clients was facing a significant invoice discrepancy that was costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Multiple Ethernet circuits were not receiving the best available contracted rates.
They partnered with TEOCO to conduct a comprehensive audit of their circuits and address both the immediate problem and implement a long-term solution to reduce future telecom spend.
TEOCO’s auditors meticulously compared the client’s expected contract rates against actual invoicing, flagging significant discrepancies across multiple Ethernet circuits. This systematic review process involved analyzing hundreds of circuit records and cross-referencing contract terms with invoice data to identify patterns in the overcharges.
Following a comprehensive review of the supplier’s complex tiered ordering system, we identified the specific alphanumeric suffixes to append to Contract Numbers in order to activate the best available discount tiers.
TEOCO presented our client with a detailed corrective action plan, including identification of all affected circuits and step-by-step ordering procedures to achieve the desired pricing tiers. The client’s internal team began placing these corrective orders immediately. However, the client’s day-to-day operations team was overwhelmed with of the volume of circuits requiring correction. So, we brought in our Access Ordering specialists to process corrective Access Service Requests (ASRs) directly with the supplier. TEOCO’s team established streamlined workflows and dedicated resources to process multiple ASRs simultaneously while maintaining accuracy and compliance with the client’s requirements. By processing these corrective orders in a timely manner, our client was able to accelerate realization of the monthly savings on each corrected circuit.
Is there anything carriers need to be careful of when selecting a vendor?
Not one of our competitors own and operate their own platform and also staff their own services team. We are capable of doing everything within TEOCO and we’ve been doing it for more than 25 years. We do not subcontract work to other companies and I think that’s a critically important differentiator. If we were to outsource projects overseas, they would certainly do what they are contractually obligated to do; but they are unlikely to go the extra mile on behalf of our clients. Ours is a true partnership based on the desire we have for our client’s success delivering the best combination of solutions and services to fit their current need. A client may be a managed services client today, but if their business changes and this function is brought back in-house, they are still a TEOCO BillTrak client and our charter to support their success has not changed.
