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Matsch News & Updates

What’s in a Bill?

Everyone hates getting bills in the mail, but we all realize that they are a necessary evil. Have you ever wondered who does the tremendously exciting job of creating those bills? We do! Matsch has been providing billing services for many, many things over the years and has shined in the areas of telecommunications/IT and wireless billing.

For the past 25 years we have been developing (and supporting in-house) the software we design. It is no small wonder that our customers value our service, as so many firms are outsourcing this sort of thing. Our customers realize that when it really matters (we are talking about money after all!), it is best to work with people you can actually talk to! Since billing is so important to all sorts of companies, it makes sense to work with a company who truly strives to provide accurate billing services to both internal and external customers.

In recent years we have provided billing applications for wireless resellers (think Mobile Virtual Network Operator or MVNO), state and local governments, colleges and universities, and hospitals. We also provide internal billing or charge-back for a variety of other IT services, including servers, virtual machines (VM’s), SAN storage, networking, and support. Providing accurate, well-organized bills and reporting enables managers to affect P&L line items in a way they’d otherwise be unable to.

We subscribe to the school of thought that “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”, so if your company is looking to better manage its telecommunications/IT resources and thereby save money, by all means, contact us!

2010 SHRM Annual Conference & Exhibition

2010 SHRM Annual Conference & Exposition – June 27-30, 2010 – San Diego Convention Center

Matsch Systems spread its wings into a new adventure. In the past we always attended conferences directed toward telecommunications management or hardware user groups. SHRM, the Society for Human Resource Management, clearly does not fit into those categories, but it is a group that should be interested in what we have to offer. Matsch specializes in providing the management information necessary to understand communications usage and expenses. Communications usage requires both human and real capital. The verbal communications using mobile and non-mobile phones are critical to an organizations operation. Understanding and quantifying those communications enables a company to proactively manage the communications effectiveness of its employees, as well as the cost and security issues associated with those communications.

Human Resource Management benefits from Matsch services:

– Quantify communications patterns of exceptional employees for emulation by others

– Internal E911 for security to assist EMTs to exact location of call

– IRS Compliance regarding personal usage of mobile phones as a taxable benefit

– Quantify and manage mobile phone services as an employee benefit

– Reduce communications expenses

– Improve communications quality

A circumstance we had hoped for and did actually see at the conference was Human Resource managers that were recently a part of management meetings where controlling the high cost of employer provided mobile phones was referenced. This is particularly true in mid-size companies with mobile workforces looking for ways to improve their bottom line. We found that the SHRM attendees tended to be open-minded managers interested in helping their organization to be more successful. Those unfamiliar with the communications information management needs of their organization volunteered to take information back and find the person responsible.

What Is SHRM?

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world’s largest association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than 250,000 individual members, the Society’s mission is to serve the needs of HR professionals by providing the most essential and comprehensive resources available. As an influential voice, the Society’s mission is also to advance the human resource profession to ensure that HR is recognized as an essential partner in developing and executing organizational strategy. Founded in 1948, SHRM currently has more than 550 affiliated chapters and members in more than 100 countries. www.shrm.org

The 2010 SHRM Annual Conference

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) provides the world’s largest and highly-rated gathering of HR professionals—the 62nd Annual Conference & Exposition held at the San Diego Convention Center, June 27-30, 2010. This world-class event presents a showcase of products and services to an audience of more than 11,000 HR professionals, including major decision makers. This was an excellent opportunity to meet and network with Human Resource professionals. You will have exclusive, non-conflicting exhibit hall hours to engage in face-to-face dialogues that can inform and influence your marketing strategies.

More than 650 small and large companies exhibited at the 2010 SHRM Annual Conference—introducing, displaying and demonstrating a variety of products and services.

Annual Acuta Conference & Exhibition

39^th Annual ACUTA Conference and Exhibition – April 18-21, 2010 – San Antonio, TX

Matsch Systems was pleased to be part of another ACUTA Conference (the Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education). It was an excellent opportunity to show clients and prospective clients the enhancements Matsch has made to its mobile and fixed line communications management services. While there was considerable buzz about the House passing an April 15^th ‘Tax Day’ bill which included removing the ‘listed property’ status from cell phones, making them virtually a tax free employee benefit, it was generally conceded that cell phones are a communications expense in need of management.

An interesting observation we made during the Conference was that many institutions are looking to reduce their telecommunications management expense. Several approached us to say their fully paid for on-site solution was too expensive to maintain and required too much staff time to manage. Really?? We have wondered for a long time when this would become apparent. They went on to say that while they were not charging back for telephone services any more, they wanted a way to continue having management information but at a price that was more affordable. This is music to our ears since NET-Phacs has been doing this for our customers for years.

This year’s conference was titled “Blaze New Trails” and held in beautiful San Antonio, Texas. It was a great time to meet for a few days with our clients and friends in college and university telecommunications. The new JW Marriott in San Antonio Hill Country Resort and Spa made everything even more special.

Conference overview

The hottest topics on the agenda this year were:

–        Emergency preparedness , communications and recovery

–        Configuring the ICT infrastructure for new technologies or new facilities

–        Unified communications

–        Leadership effectiveness

Educational Sessions

ACUTA‘s Program Committee and professional staff seek out the best presenters on the latest topics to provide participants with the most valuable educational experience possible at the Annual Conference.

–        New this year: Tuesday afternoon poster sessions offer great opportunities for institutional attendees to share late-breaking stories in a more intimate setting.

–        Building sessions from attendee’s list of high-priority topics. Get the latest information on cutting-edge developments in unified communications, emergency notification, disaster preparedness and recovery, infrastructure and facilities upgrades, IT security, and leadership development.

–        Expert presenters include both campus colleagues and noteworthy members of the information communications technology industry. Everyone benefits from their unique perspectives.

–        The senior administration track provides Strategic Leadership Forums for Monday and Tuesday.

If you are an educational institution in need of communications networking, there is no better organization than ACUTA. http://www.acuta.org/wcm/acuta/

VoiceCon 2010

Having just returned from VoiceCon 2010 in Orlando, (known as ‘Enterprise Connect’ going forward) we are attempting to digest the vast amount of information presented during the conference. As this was our first visit to VoiceCon, we were unsure of the audience the show would attract. It became clear almost immediately that the show is targeted to large enterprises with corresponding IT budgets! The following represent some of the ‘takeaways’ from Matsch’s perspective.

Most of the prominent exhibitors are touting what we would refer to as ‘Complete Solutions’ to enterprise communications needs, voice being just one of the communication platforms.
There was an abundance of ‘Telepresence’ (aka ‘video conferencing’) providers. Can you say ‘Bandwidth’?
Avaya, Cisco, IBM and Siemens each provided demonstrations of their UC (unified communications) solutions. Though all claimed to integrate with existing components of enterprise’s communications platform, only IBM successfully persuaded us of their willingness to act as an actual integrator.
SIP trunking is a hot topic these days, with many of the attendees trying to get their arms around this apparently complex technology. We question the validity of SIP in enterprise communications, as nearly all those we talked to spoke of the complexities involved. As we all know, those complexities seem to have a way of ‘eating’ much (and in some cases ALL) of the savings that some technologies promise. Full disclosure: We don’t fully understand SIP currently. As with any new technology, it will undoubtedly make sense for some and not for others.

Keeping abreast of developments in telecommunications is part of our ongoing commitment to our customers. Feel free to drop us a line with any questions pertaining to the above. We’d be happy to help you in any way we can!

VoiceCon Orlando 2010

Bob Matthews and Steve Schafer will be in attendance at the 2010 VoiceCon tradeshow in Orlando March 22nd-24th.

It is essential that we keep abreast of where the industry is moving, and try to determine how best to meet the developing needs of telecom professionals nationwide. We’ll be talking with representatives with diverse perspectives on technology and hope to deepen our knowledge about unified communications, with an eye toward guiding our customers, both present and future.

Verizon’s MVNO Program Catching On?

Most consumers who have shopped for wireless services over the past couple of years have probably heard of Virgin Mobile, one of several companies owned in whole or part by Richard Branson. What they probably don’t know is that Virgin Mobile is a Mobile Virtual Network Operator or MVNO.

‘What is an MVNO?’ you might ask. In essence, an MVNO is an entity that purchases the right to use a wireless carrier’s network. MVNO’s purchase this service at wholesale rates from the carriers, then provide their own customer support, billing, and marketing with no involvement from the carrier.

‘Great!’ you might be thinking. So what does Matsch have to do with any of this? Well, as mentioned previously, these MVNO’s must provide their own billing, which means effectively they must create their own plans and rates seperate from what they are being charged by the carrier. Billing and resale of telecommunications services is what we’ve done for the past 25 years! Though the resale and redistribution of wireless service has only been important the past few years, Matsch has Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions to meet the needs of most any company or institution, including MVNO’s.

Elements of Telemanagement

From our perspective, there are three elements of telecommunications management, or as we like to call it, “telemanagement”.

Telecommunications Expense Management (TEM) – A system or service focused on the management of various telecom vendors and their associated contracts and payments
Call Accounting – A system or service which provides for the internal charge-back to various groups within the organization and also network, human resource, and systems performance analysis
Communications Facilities Management – Tracking of equipment, virtual and wired network circuitry, and work orders to improve the efficiency of the telecommunications or IT departments

Matsch is focused on providing web-based, hosted call accounting services that are economical and easy to manage. Our primary goal is to provide users the benefits of call accounting without the burdens typically associated with such a system.

Virtually all institutions have had a call accounting system at one time or another. Over time, the cost of providing telecommunications services has come down significantly, thereby reducing the need to charge back for these services (think long-distance rates). Many would argue that it is a poor business decision to purchase software or subscribe to a service in order to ‘properly’ distribute these costs. In many cases businesses make the decision to abandon their call accounting in order to save the real money associated with managing the system or service. While there is no point disputing the direct savings from such a move, many neglect to fully realize the long-term implications. Situations arise where having ready access to telecom data can have an impact on safety and legal concerns, such as harassment claims. Another situation might be related to customer service complaints. Isn’t it a good thing to know if in fact the customer who complains about poor service was called fifteen times in the past two weeks, but failed to return YOUR calls? Many of our customers use our software to help them manage the most significant expense in their enterprise – People! Reporting can enable management to promote good behavior, and similarly address those who may be misusing company resources.

Matsch has been refining its solution to the call accounting problem with a SaaS (Software as a Service) based service offering. Our solution enables you to have as much or as little interaction as you choose with your call detail, in a cost-effective manner. Those organizations with 2000 extensions or less pay only $600 for setup and $300/month service fee for our NET-Phacs SaaS Call Accounting. This service provides basic call accounting with daily and monthly reporting, query access to a full year of call detail (incoming, outbound, and internal), chargeback reporting, and general ledger export file creation in a format you define. NET-Phacs works with both serial and IP CDR, and includes importing or entering your directory database at setup.

Fall 2009 ACUTA Conference in Portland, OR (Oct. 25th – 28th)

Track 1: Managing and Financing the Converged Environment
Track 2: Mobility and Wireless – Where Are We Going?

Matsch recently exhibited at the Fall ACUTA (The Association for Information Communications Technology Professionals in Higher Education) Conference and found it to be a very worthwhile event. Matsch discussed its PBX, VoIP, Wireless, and Cellular management service offerings with the attendees. Many of whom complimented our approach and efficiency for helping them to manage their telecom environment effectively. We also provided attendees with our recent whitepaper on “Employer Provided Cell Phone Reality”. ACUTA attendees were presented the latest information on PBX, VoIP, Wireless Networking, and Cellular services. Matsch strongly supports the networking opportunities and direct access to critical knowledge offered by ACUTA and organizations like ACUTA http://www.acuta.org

NET-Services Upgrade!

In an attempt to make the transition to the new NET-Phacs, NET-Phacs Plus, and NET-Bill as smooth for our customers as possible, we have been testing our new software exhaustively! It’s now time to ‘take the leap’ and put the new software into production. This is scheduled for the week of October 12th.

Prior to that week, we will be testing communications to/from all our customers, including resolving any firewall issues and the like. Likely this will be unnoticeable to our customers, however if anything seems out of place or unusual, feel free to call us anytime.

What you will notice once the transition is complete:

Updated look! This will be immediately obvious, and we welcome your feedback!
Increased ‘Uptime’
Faster response times

As with all of our efforts at Matsch, we strive to keep the best interests of our customers in mind. We are always looking for ways to improve and add to our existing products, so if you have an idea, we’d be glad to hear from you!

Sincerely,

The Matsch Team

NET-Phacs Gets a Facelift

Yup, every once in awhile you have to look in the mirror and face some unpleasant facts. That’s a large part of what we’ve been doing over the past year or so at Matsch. And even though our extremely loyal customers are mostly very fond of brown and orange, we thought maybe, just maybe, they’d like a little different feel from that which they’ve grown accustomed to over the past several years! That’s our long-winded way of saying that we’ve been updating the look and feel of our NET-Phacs products. This is a ‘first step’ in what we hope will be a series of product enhancements coming down the pike.