80% of all telecoms sourcing projects are not as efficient as they should be, according to a recent study, and large organisations globally are feeling the effect to the tune of £12bn annually. Which is a lot of money that could and probably should be saved, I think you'll agree.

The research, conducted by Forrester Consulting, on behalf of sourcing specialists Hudson & Yorke, surveyed 81 multinationals and uncovered a vein of inefficient sourcing of telecoms services running through most.

Another interesting stat that seems to get towards the heart of the matter suggests that while three quarters of respondents had considered their telecoms spend in detail, only half of those had a thoroughly defined sourcing strategy in that area.

Mike Newlove, COO of Hudson & Yorke, told Procurement Leaders, “CIOs rarely have a background in telecoms. They don’t necessarily understand their telecoms spend, even though it is roughly a fifth of their IT budgets and underpins just about all IT infrastructures.”

Newlove may well be right in saying that this issue is one of getting in the right people who understand the technology and the objectives of a telecoms sourcing strategy.

This resonates to some degree with the marketing procurement piece we published last week. One message that came out of that was that you can’t cut corners in putting together a well-informed approach to manage spend. The feeling was that, in that case as in this, when not enough relevant expertise and resources are put into defining the strategy early on the implications can be significant.

It also chimed with a piece in the Independent last week concerning the UK Government’s ‘botched’ IT spend. Again, the blame was placed at the feet of people whom, with apparently inadequate understanding of the area, controlled huge budgets.  

When the costs are put up in flashing lights like this it’s clear how much this kind of short-sightedness can hurt.