It's well worth the effort for a procurement operation to centralize the payment process for cellular phone usage, says Caren Weiner, technical purchasing manager, Office Printing Business, Xerox Corp., Wilsonville, Ore. "Setting up a program doesn't take much time and it absolutely results in cost savings."

As such, she is squeezing additional savings from national agreements with cell phone carriers negotiated by the corporate purchasing operation at Xerox in Rochester, N.Y.

The Office Printing Business (OPB) of Xerox was created through the company's acquisition of the Tektronix Color Printing and Imaging Division in January 2000. It makes color printers.

"We take a proactive approach with our company-paid phones in that we limit phone selection for users," says Weiner, who has an MBA from the University of Texas and 15 years of purchasing experience, mostly in a high-tech environment. "We also manage their air time programs. We have an administrator in our telecom organization who, each month, tracks users' minutes to the preselected plans of our major carriers."

For instance, if a user is on a 300-minute plan and is tracking at 500 minutes in a month, the purchasing operation simply moves him or her to a more cost-effective plan. Xerox OPB has about 300 cell phone users, classified by Xerox as "intense business users": mainly sales people, field service technicians and employees in other areas who are on call.

Weiner says that initially purchasing had a lot of clean up to do with the program, moving users who were on plans with no per minute charges who were using about 1,000 minutes a month. "We figure with our initial sweep through that we saved 28% on our air time bills by actively managing users' air time plans."

Xerox has agreements with three carriers, which cover the entire U.S.

Having employees submit expenses for cell phone usage provides the purchasing operation with little visibility into the actual costs of a program. Typically, Weiner says, managers approve expense reports without questioning cell phone costs, simply assuming that the figures on the employee's bill are what cell phone usage costs.

Purchasing at Xerox OPB is involved in the wireless buy "as the voice of reason," Weiner says. The organization's research capabilities add value to the process by keeping technology managers on track.

"We felt strongly that we should be involved in the management of the cell phone program. We knew that there was money to be saved if we had visibility and made sure people were using the right carriers and the right plans. It has paid off."

To determine which employees go on which plan, Weiner uses a bit of old-fashioned common sense. "We ask them about their initial expectations. Just about everyone has a cell phone now, so people know approximately how many minutes they use. We also take a look at minutes people who are in similar positions are using. Then, we can make adjustments every month through CDs that we receive from the carriers."

As another cost-savings measure, she suggests purchasing operations also keep close tabs on cell phone companies. She says it can be challenging to find a carrier that provides good service in all markets when the purchasing operation is buying cell phones that cover the entire U.S. "You have to continually push on your ac-count managers to take responsibility for areas where they may not actually get revenue for the cells to make sure you are getting consistent pricing. We had some trouble with that in certain markets, particularly when a larger carrier was acquiring a smaller, local company."

Perhaps one of the best ways to track this is by simply communicating with end users or checking the bills they submit for changes. "We also have regular meetings with our account managers at our major wireless providers. We ask them for current coverage maps and their new plans."

Xerox extends its agreements with carriers to include providing employees with cell phones as a company benefit. That way, employees can obtain cell phones at the company's prenegotiated rates. Their calls, in turn, are counted toward the company's volume. The purchasing operation communicates details of the cell phone plan (i.e., changes, new plans, special promotions) via the company intranet site.