Is Your Company Overpaying for Telecom Services? April 4, 2009
Posted in : Better Telecommunication, Money Making , trackbackAny SMB has to be continually alert of the emerging trends and technologies in the telecom industry and learn how these can be taken advantage of to bring down their telecommunications costs. For example, employing VoIP over an IP-PBX phone system can result in substantial savings. Utilizing VoIP, calling from one computer to another is absolutely free. And even though calling a phone mobile or landline – from a computer involves a certain fee, this is significantly less than the international call costs that the company would have to bear were they made over the traditional phone networks.
Businesses can also consider using specialised software to analyze not only telecom bills but also rates and plans, as well as to compare various vendor offerings. Another option is for businesses to outsource to experts who specialize in telecommunications analysis and cost management, thereby accomplishing better results at lower prices.
One of the best ways a business can see to it that it is getting the most robust and cost effective solution, is to work with a telecom master agent that represents different carriers offering different services such as commercial long distance and local phone service, high speed internet access, data services or even integrated voice and data services. A master agent first understands the telecommunications needs of a business and then works with the carriers it represents to provide a host of solutions that will fit these needs as also the budget of the company.
Considering all this, it should seem obvious that bringing down telecom costs should be seen as a priority for most businesses. All The Same, overseeing telecommunications costs is not an easy task either for a Fortune 500 company or a small business. With hundreds or thousands of invoices for various services being received, it is hard work to go carefully through all expenses listed. Further, this is just one part of the problem. To really manage telecommunications costs, a business has to have a regular and comprehensive examination strategy to monitor and change, if need be, various plans, services and resources.
When it is time for renewing a contract, a company should make sure their contracts are competitive, instead of just automatically renewing their current contract. They can request various carriers to provide details of specific plans or packages the company is interested in and ask them to quote a price for those services, or have a master agent compare costs.
It is also important that outright billing errors be identified and rectified. Billing mistakes can be of several types ” a line or service that has been discontinued continues to be billed, costs shown in contracts or quotes are not being reflected, there are incorrect assessment of taxes and many more. Auditing telecom bills is time consuming and though the errors detected may not seem to add up to much per month, when accumulated over the year, they add significantly to total telecom costs.
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