Telecom troubles
Telecom is a major part of any business. Without it, communication would take place by opening a window and shouting as loudly as possible. Though this may have its advantages at time, I suspect that most will agree that without telecom, we'd be in a pretty bad pickle. Even so, there aren't many companies who have real control over their telecom-facilities. It's a challenge to find an overview of all phone- and datalines throughout the business, let alone gain insight into their usage and costs. Which is a shame, considering how much money can be saved by having a good look at your telecom.
In this article, I'd like to take a look at the challenges of gaining insight in your telecom and how to overcome these. After that, we'll have a look at various ways to make better use of your facilities and, hey, maybe even save a buck or two.
The maze of data
There are various aspects to examine when it comes to telecom, but they all start with gathering information. The first thing you'll want to do is to find a complete overview of all existing lines (both telephone and data) in your company. It is possible that someone in your company may have such a list, so ask around. Most companies have someone in charge of telecom, who is responsible for ordering lines and keeping track of them. However, it's also quite likely that even this person may not have the full data; lines may have fallen into disuse without them knowing about it, or lines may even have been ordered without their consent. Telecomproviders hardly bother to check whether or not an address belongs to a customer, let alone informing their contact at that customer of the order.
The best way to collect the information you need is to bother your telecomprovider. Give them an overview of all known addresses that your company is based at, and have them compile a list of lines and numbers that connect to those addresses. With that list, it's time to start the next phase.
Classify your lines
Go through the list you've gotten from your telecomprovider, and identify all the lines and numbers. Are they used for data-infrastructure, telephone, fax, alarms, etc. Often, these different classes are the responsibility of different departments; IT handles the data-infrastructure, Housing may be responsible for alarmsystems, etc. It's important to have this overview, because cancelling a line that's used to contact the firedepartment or serve as a dial-up line in case of emergency is something you only do once..
It is very likely that you'll end up with a list of lines and numbers that are no longer in use. To be sure, ask your telecomprovider to perform an analysis on these lines; how and when is this line used ? Make sure that you look at this information over the period of at least a year, if you can. Remember that almost every company has at least one obscure modem hidden somewhere that's only used once a year to, for example, upload financial reports to the IRS. Again, cancelling a line such as this is a very sudden careermove.
When you're absolutely sure that the list of abandoned lines is accurate, feel free to cancel them. Even though lines may only cost $30 dollars a month, this adds up to $3600 a year for 10 lines.
For the remaining lines, get your telecomprovider to create a report on the monthly costs per line. You'll need this later on.
Numbertime
Now it's time to examine the usage of your lines. Again, let's bother the telecomprovider. This time, we'll want a complete list (in Excel, please) of the usage per line, and I mean 'complete'. The list should show all the traffic from every line for the past 6 months or so, including the length of the traffic (a phonecall), it's destination and in which category it belongs (international calls, service calls, calls to mobile, calls to landlines, etc). All providers charge differently per category, so it's definitely worth it to see where the most money goes to. With this list, compile an overview of:
- Most frequently dialed numbers
- Total costs per category throughout the past 6 months
- Most expensive calls
- All surprising calls or costs ($400 dollar calls can happen, but it's definitely an odd occurence)
There are plenty of other overviews to compile, but this is a good start. Now it's time to see where money can be saved.
A penny a day..
There are several ways to save money on telecom. The first one is simple: the monthly charges for your lines. Telecomproviders compete with pricing all the time, and it's very likely that the line you pay $30 a month for at provider A, is only $15 at provider B. On a yearly basis, this might save you up to 50%. Not bad, huh ?
The second path to riches may be hidden in the usage of your lines. For example, let's say that the most frequently dialed number throughout the organisation is the main number of HQ. If a lot of employees use the external number to connect from within your company, it's a good idea to have them use internal numbers; if the call remains within the company's telecomnetwork, chances are it'll be free of charge. In a broader view, if a lot of calls are made to numbers in the company from numbers in the company, it could be time to see if your present internal telephonesystem can't be programmed to keep these calls on the internal phonenetwork, instead of taking the outside route.
Another thing to consider is the costs per category. Telecomproviders offer a lot of different options to their customers, including the option to pay a flat fee for, say, calls inside the region to landlines. It's a matter of maths, but could be worth having a look at. In the Netherlands, there is also the option of Carrier Pre Select, which can also have a significant impact on costs.
Another possibly easy way to cut down on costs is to examine the callrates that different providers handle; even though a 2 cents difference per minute may seem like a futile amount, it all adds up. This also goes for the starting rate of a call (in case you didn't know, you pay a separate amount to set up a call. After that, you pay a rate for the length of the call.). If your company has 10.000 calls a year, all lasting less than a minute, chances are that you're paying most money on the starting rate. With a 2 cents difference, this adds up to 200 dollars a year. And believe me when I say that 10.000 calls a year is very, very little; any large company is most likely to pass that number in a month.
There are many scenarios likely to be interesting for your organisation, so have a really good look at this usage-overview.
Techtime
How many companies still use old-fashioned telecom ? A lot. In the age of VoIP, SIP and other fancy technical solutions, it's amazing how many companies still rely on outdated telephone- or datasystems. All that stops you there is your imagination, really. Fiber is available more and more often, and most likely to be cheaper than plain old copper in the long run. And if it's not available, consider having it put in. Don't be scared about the costs; it's common practice these days to implement fiber with other companies together; by sharing the implementationcosts, it's no longer that expensive, and once it's in the ground, adding another fiberpair is very cheap. Don't forget that one fiberpair can transport a lot of info and makes for excellent backbones.
VoIP and SIP are also interesting options to examine. Even though they might carry a hefty fee to implement, they offer many benefits in the long run. Consider, for example, how many concurrent telephones you really need; if three people work at the same office, at different times and need a separate number each, you'd only need one VoIP-phone, contrary to the three analog or DECT-devices that might have been used.
A new PBX might seem costly, but the intelligence that some new systems provide can save your company a hefty sum. Videoconferencing is no longer a glimpse of the future, but a very cost-effective and simple method of communication. And what about internetcalls ? Companies such as Skype save consumers a smegload of cash every year, so why not consider this technology for your company ? The sky's the limit.
Conclusion
There are many savings to be made when it comes to telecom, but it can be extremely difficult to gain the right insight into its structure and usage, so make sure you get as much information as possible. There are also deals to be made with telecomproviders that can prove very interesting, but be careful; it may seem like a good idea to lock the rate for telecomtraffic for three years to avoid rising costs and inflation, but make sure that the rate does get adjusted if the market suddenly breaks open; for example, there are presently many discussions concerning the rate for calls made with cellphones throughout the EU, and it's expected that telecomproviders will be forced by law to drop their rates for these kind of roaming calls. It'd be a terrible shame if the rate you locked your calls at with your provider stayed the same, while the rest of the country only paid 10% of that, wouldn't it