The landscape for domestic US and international TEM services is substantially different.  The drivers for using a TEM provider in Europe and Asia are less compelling than in the States, meaning that the take-up of TEM internationally is lower. 

But it means that as a successful US TEM, you actually have an opportunity to differentiate your service offering and upsell by providing international inventory management to your customers.

Why is the overseas TEM market different?

Whereas the majority of medium-to-large American companies need the help of a TEM to manage its telecom inventory due to the size and scale of its telco supplier base, many even very large non-US companies can make do by managing their inventory and invoices in-house.

The other obvious differences between the US and overseas market for TEM are around scale, language, currency and the difficulties in engaging with, and understanding, the European or Asian telco carriers.

What’s the landscape for international TEM services?

As a consequence of the differences described briefly above, the number of truly global TEM providers is quite small.  In Europe, the main markets (UK, Germany, France, Italy,..) have smaller domestic TEMs who provide specialized services to their home market.  On the other hand, most of the global providers have the coverage, but are often not focused on TEM, seeing it as a small part of their overall service wrap.

What’s the Opportunity?

You might currently be servicing a number of substantial domestic clients, but there is an unexpressed need for your client to consolidate its foreign inventory and billing.  They may have international operations in several countries, and their telecom spend is managed locally.  For your client, there is limited or no visibility and they are likely to be overspending or paying for services they no longer need.  Your client might even be looking for a TEM that can service these needs.

How Netprocure can help 

Providing international TEM service needn’t mean setting up overseas operations. Depending on the scale of your clients’ needs, you can still manage their foreign inventory from your corporate office.  What you do need is someone to guide you in getting started: how to contact the overseas vendors, what if they don’t speak English, do they have a Portal, will I understand their bills? 

If you’d like to explore this opportunity further, contact Netprocure for an exploratory conversation.  We’re UK-based and have 20+ years of providing global TEM services to multi-national enterprises.