Telecoms costs, a case for concern

            Even as businesses try to handle a world of converged communications where mobile phones vie for attention with fixed lines, VoIP services promise a cost-free nirvana and  every supplier is talking about reducing costs, one still wonders why the cost of telecoms are still on the increase? What is happening is that businesses in the UK are spending money unnecessarily without consideration how they procure, consume and manage telecoms services. Do you know that three quarters of companies in the UK companies do not even have a telecoms policy? In the 10 years of investigation I carried out, I have, that is in rare occasions, found less than 10% in savings on an annual basis. Can you imagine that?

            When you look at the UK enterprise telecoms market which was estimated by analyst Yankee Group in 2006 to be about £5bn, you will discover that approximately £1bn is wasted every year. What this means is that for every second any employee is on the phone, there is always a profit loss. Why do you think the introduction of Telecom Expense Management (TEM) has become so well known in the US. It is because the TEM provider can self fund their services since they can stop you from losing money.

            The savings can start even before buying equipment and services, for many companies, thereby saving costs right from day one by using the right procurement policy. I will cite how all this can be possible. It can be by buying from a position of knowledge and having benchmark information. Another way is by using an independent advisor. The advisor will be able to give you professional guidelines on the procedures and help reduce costs right from the beginning. You can also cut costs by putting up a policy for future purchasing decisions and for the use of the systems you have today. Then you cannot forget about educating the users on how to get the best from your telecoms investments and also make available guidelines on responsible usage.

            Note that policies are not really sufficient until you police usage. When people are always using mobile phones when they should be using VoIP, you have to tell them. They should be aware that they are on top of the system and are costing the company profit. You will have to make sure you process and check monthly invoices, not just paying them. Also ensure that it is the right tariffs that are being applied and that bulk discounts or tariff bundles are the most cost-effective for your pattern of usage. You must have contract logs. With this you can review and optimise the services you are buying constantly. Then don't forget to highlight to your staff the steps you are taking, such as how you have been making savings and the wastage you have identified. It will definitely help cut the costs of misuse and fraud.

            Aside from all these, there are other very easy day to day actions that can produce one-off or ongoing savings. You will have to audit the network inorder to identify unused circuits. A lot of companies still have ISDN lines that incur rental charges, which does not carry any traffic because they have switched to broadband and other internet-based transfers. With a sweep on the directory enquiry numbers on a system, you will normally see a lot of services used in different parts of an organisation. But by using policy or employing simple changes to the call routing in the telephone system, you can help force calls to the same cost-effective supplier and also drop costs drastically. You can either make Telecom Expense Management simple or sophisticated. It all depends on what you need. You cannot do without it. Even as the telecoms industry is getting more complicated, the tendency for saving or wasting it is on the increase. So everything is up to you