"The team should include senior management support and members from the IT organization, HR, legal, finance and possibly third-party consultants.

"The single point of responsibility makes it easier to negotiate contracts and to establish a status of the current position in terms of total fixed and mobile spending, user patterns, and trends," they said.

Rudd and Wallin say the team should be responsible for fixed and mobile voice usage, because this allows business to establish the focus for future negotiations.

In a report on contract negotiation tactics, Gartner analyst Ted Chamberlin said organizations should compose a request for proposal to gather industry pricing, outline communication requirements, asset information, network topology and service needs. He said the RFP should ask:

What are the service provider's processes, technical expertise and experience, and how do these align with internal expertise and requirements?