For fast-growing enterprises, telecom is a sprawling operational ecosystem that touches employees, factories, logistics, partners, and customers across regions. Nowhere is this more visible than in global electric vehicle manufacturers, where tens of thousands of devices, circuits, and service contracts are activated, modified, and retired at speed.

Yet many organizations are still struggling to manage this complexity with legacy Telecom Expense Management Systems, or TEMS, that were designed for a very different era.

This is the story of how one leading electric vehicle manufacturer stepped back, questioned the assumptions behind traditional TEMS, and reimagined telecom expense management as a modern, scalable, and data-driven capability with Digile.

When Legacy TEMS Stops Scaling

As the manufacturer expanded globally, its telecom environment grew in parallel. New plants, new markets, new mobility programs, and new digital initiatives all added layers of telecom demand. On paper, a TEMS platform was already in place. In practice, it had become a bottleneck.

Several issues surfaced as scale increased.

Invoice processing cycles were slow, often delaying reconciliation and payments. Even small changes such as adding devices or updating contracts took weeks to reflect in the system. The organization was paying significant licensing and maintenance fees for a platform where only a fraction of the features were actually used. Reporting was limited, fragmented, and difficult to trust, especially for executives trying to understand spend drivers. Most critically, the TEMS operated largely in isolation, with no real-time integration into ERP, inventory, or network systems.

The result was predictable. Manual workarounds became the norm. Cost leakage crept in quietly. Confidence in telecom data eroded, and teams spent more time chasing discrepancies than optimizing spend.

At that point, the question shifted from “How do we improve our TEMS?” to “Is our TEMS approach fundamentally fit for where the business is going?”

Understanding the Real Scope of Telecom Expense Management

One of the first insights from the Digile team was that telecom expense management is rarely just about invoices. In reality, it sits at the intersection of multiple operational domains.

A modern TEMS must manage contracts and rate plans, orders and provisioning, invoice ingestion and auditing, disputes and reconciliations, vendors and accounts, circuits and devices, users and locations. It must support multiple roles, from invoice processors and dispute specialists to administrators and business stakeholders, each with different access and reporting needs.

Most importantly, it must operate as part of a broader enterprise ecosystem, not as a standalone tool. Without that context, automation breaks down and insights remain shallow.

Defining a Next-Generation Vision

Rather than jumping straight into vendor comparisons, Digile defined what success should look like in the future.

Six objectives anchored the next-generation TEMS vision.

1. Real-time integration with enterprise systems such as ERP, inventory, and network platforms.  

2. Effective costing strategies that reduced waste and improved forecasting accuracy.  

3. Automation across invoicing, audits, and disputes to minimize manual effort.  

4. Improved invoicing efficiency and vendor accuracy.  

5. Data-driven decision-making through advanced analytics and reporting.  

6. Ease of maintenance, with enough flexibility to evolve as the business continued to scale.

This vision reframed TEMS from a back-office tool into an operational intelligence layer.

Evaluating the Paths Forward

With a clear vision in place, three architectural approaches were evaluated.

The first option was a new SaaS-based TEM platform. These solutions promised speed, scalability, and vendor-managed infrastructure. They could be deployed relatively quickly, but came with ongoing subscription costs, limited flexibility, and complex integration challenges in a heterogeneous enterprise environment.

The second option was a custom TEM built on ServiceNow. This offered deep integration with existing workflows, strong security, and high customization potential. The tradeoff was a higher upfront investment and dependence on the underlying platform roadmap.

The third option was a fully custom web-based TEM solution. This path offered maximum flexibility, full ownership, and no licensing dependency. However, it required the organization to take responsibility for ongoing maintenance and enhancements.

Each option was assessed against integration complexity, extensibility, long-term cost of ownership, security and compliance, implementation time, and reporting depth. While SaaS solutions delivered speed, custom-built approaches consistently scored higher on control, transparency, and long-term value.

From Evaluation to Execution – The Digile Advantage

To avoid analysis paralysis, the organization partnered with Digile to guide both decision-making and execution.

Rather than treating this as a technology replacement project, Digile applied a design-thinking-led, agile delivery approach. The focus was on aligning business outcomes with technical architecture from day one.

This began with structured workshops that brought together business, finance, IT, and operations stakeholders. The goal was not just to document requirements, but to surface pain points, define KPIs, and agree on what “good” would look like six, twelve, and twenty-four months down the line.

A five-day workshop framework accelerated this alignment. The first day focused on the current state, pain points, and metrics. The second day defined the future-state architecture and integration model. The third day explored solution options and vendor capabilities. The fourth day translated ideas into prototypes and business cases. The final day aligned stakeholders around a clear recommendation and roadmap.

This process reduced risk, built consensus, and ensured that decisions were anchored in business reality rather than tool features.

A Phased Path to Value

Implementation followed a phased rollout model. Design and discovery workshops were followed by core platform implementation, data migration and validation, and a controlled launch supported by a warranty period. Ongoing managed support ensured stability while allowing incremental enhancements.

This approach minimized disruption to ongoing operations while delivering value early, particularly in automation and reporting.

Measurable Outcomes That Matter

The redesigned TEMS delivered tangible results.

Operations became more streamlined as automation replaced manual reconciliation and dispute handling. Spend visibility improved across vendors, contracts, and locations, enabling proactive cost control. Compliance and reporting capabilities strengthened, supporting both operational and executive needs. The platform scaled with business growth without requiring proportional increases in headcount. Vendor relationships improved as invoicing became more accurate and timely.

Perhaps most importantly, telecom data became trusted again, forming a reliable foundation for decision-making.

TEMS as a Strategic Capability

For large, fast-growing electric vehicle manufacturers, telecom expense management can no longer be treated as a back-office necessity. It is a strategic capability that directly affects cost control, operational efficiency, and business agility.

This case shows that reimagining TEMS is not about chasing the latest platform. It is about understanding the true scope of telecom operations, aligning technology with business outcomes, and designing for scale from the start.

When done right, telecom expense management stops being a source of friction and becomes a competitive advantage.

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