At this point all the green eyeshades turn toward the phone bill. Are all those calls really necessary? Really?
Auditing the telecommunications bills is a smart move even when business is humming along smoothly. You can spot charges for unused or unneeded services that can be discontinued at a savings. Even a quick glance will reveal unusual activities such as a few employees who seem to hang on the phone all day making personal calls. But once you've picked the low hanging fruit, the job gets much harder and burns up a lot of time. Is there anything quicker?
Sure, just pay less.
That's right. The fastest way to cut your voice and data services bill is to simply pay less for exactly what you have now. If your telephone and Internet usage have grown along with your business, you might not have thought to challenge the increasing costs. After all, you are using more. But what's also changed over the years is the competitive landscape for digital voice and data. What was the best deal a few years ago may well be far more than you need to pay today.
But isn't finding vendors and going out for quotes even more time consuming than digging into the phone records?
It doesn't have to be. As a user, you're not really in a position to know where to look or how to evaluate the myriad of competitive options. But there is a professional service that will do this without charging you. It's a network of experienced telecom consultants connected through a sophisticated database system that lets them compare a dozen or more options for any given need. All you do is make a simple online or telephone inquiry and you'll get immediate attention.
Why is this likely to work for your business? Take telephone service, for instance. Your PBX telephone system likely uses or could use T1 PRI digital telephone trunking. This is the standard way to bring in multiple telephone lines to a centralized office phone system. T1 PRI pricing, including combinations of local, long distance, 800 numbers, DID (direct inward dialing) and Caller ID, is highly competitive. You may well be able to get the very same services you have now with the very same usage levels for a lower monthly bill.
The same is true for data services, such as dedicated Internet. In addition, the the standard T1 and DS3 Internet services, Ethernet connections have become available only recently. T1 and DS3 can be had for lower lease rates. If you can get Ethernet over copper or fiber connection, you'll save even more at higher bit rates.
Before you get too embroiled in cutting heads or making panic changes to your business processes, take a quick look at cutting your voice and data telecom expenses by simply paying less. You can do the hard stuff later.
