Hospitality company Carlson, which owns such familiar brands as Radisson Hotels and T.G.I. Friday's, is reaping big savings with a new telecom expense management (TEM) provider whose services go beyond the standard approach of identifying carrier overbilling. According to Gartner research, companies that outsource TEM for their fixed lines could save 16% to 32% of overall fixed-line spending in the first two years and 5% to 11% in subsequent years by avoiding costs, recapturing overpayments and reducing staff. 

"Identifying overbilling is the raison d'être for TEM," says Phil McDonald, director of sourcing operations at Carlson, which had $5.4 billion in 2011 revenue. "Carriers are notorious [for] invoicing incorrectly."

But that's just "the tip of the iceberg," he says. One of the biggest savings Carlson has seen with its new TEM provider, which McDonald declines to identify, comes from optimizing the inventory of fixed-line telecommunication circuits the company uses in the U.S. The TEM provider found a significant number of unused circuits.