 to large and mid-size business. Fortune 500 companies average $10 to $12 billion in annual revenue and typically spend $100 to $120 million on communications. Mid- size companies average $18 to $20 million in revenue and spend $20 to $30 million on communications. It takes between one and seven heads to pay the (monthly) telephone bill, which typically ranges between a few hundred and several thousand invoices, where each PRACTICAL IP AND TELECOM FOR BROADCAST ENGINEERING AND OPERATIONS invoice may contain several hundred or several thousand pages (or pounds). The monthly delivery of the telephone bill becomes a point where the physical work involved in breaking the bill down and entering the actual charges into an accounting system is a daunting effort. Validating the charges is almost never done, and that's one of the areas where cost management can realize significant hard-dollar savings. How much is the issue. General industry consensus based on experience is a range of 10% to 12% of total spending during the first year, tapering to half that level over the next 4 or 5 years. If one took the numbers literally, that would indicate a positive impact on earnings for the Fortune 500 on the order of $10 to $12 million or 10% of earnings, and $2 to $3 million for mid-size companies. How to realize that kind of impact on net income is attention-getting for any sane chief financial officer or chief executive officer. Very few, if any, large companies receive and pay paper phone bills today. Even with the demise of paper invoices, the number of transactions and invoices cries for some form of automated invoice validation. Pricing complexity for basic services, plus the burdens of taxes, access charges, universal service fees, and other add-on charges imposed by federal, state, and municipal tax authorities all add up to a significant challenge. Adding normal business expansion, contraction, churn, and change doesn't make it easier. Automated invoice verification requires the bill in machine-readable form and an accur