You're Wasting Money and Time with Your Communications Services. But Where?
March 23, 2016
By Tracey E. Schelmetic
TMCnet Contributor
Most organizations today simply don’t have the luxury of being able to waste money. Operations budgets are thinner than ever, and company executives expect to be able to get more out of fewer investments. With telecommunications costs rising every year (and showing few signs of slowing), it’s more important than ever to ensure that telecom resources aren’t being wasted, abused or duplicated.
The modern era has made accounting for telecom expenses a bit of a nightmare. Not only is there voice and data to account for separately, there are network expenses – many companies today use cloud-based solutions, which raises the stakes very high for network usage – as well as mobility considerations for workers. (Some workers carry more than one or even two devices with mobile capabilities.) At the same time, many organizations are down to bare bones with their IT staff, so they’re attempting to juggle their telecom expenses with very little help.
Companies facing these challenges would benefit immensely from a telecom audit to find out where the fat can be cut, and where the abuses might lie, according to a recent blog post by ISI (News - Alert) Telemanagement Solutions Inc.’s Michelle Forney. But it can offer other benefits, as well.
“While the typical focus of a telecom audit is cost savings—a critical benefit for performing an audit—there are other equally important benefits that your organization will gain,” wrote Forney. “Utilizing audit and optimization services can realize cost savings of as much as 35 percent plus a lot more.”
The “more” could include elimination of services and features that are not in use or are without real value, optimization of network services that better represent organizational needs, benchmark and optimization of vendor rates and contracts (comparing them might seem like comparing apples to oranges), operational process improvements, a useful inventory of network services and visibility into network services by location. All of these benefits can help you use your telecom resources more wisely.
Telecom audit and optimization services, which are provided by companies such as ISI, concentrate on corrective actions to eliminate vendor contract non-compliance, billing errors, elimination of unused paid services, and the optimization of existing services, according to Forney.
“The approach is to evaluate all areas of unified communications services, provide detailed recommendations and requirements, and implement approved recommendations to ensure the rapid realization of immediate savings,” she wrote. “In addition to the cost savings results of the audit, deliverables include a complete inventory of all billed services reviewed during the audit that will provide an organization with greater visibility of services at each of their locations.”
ISI’s audit and optimization services gather data and makes suggestions for improvement. Once these changes are approved by the client, the company then implements the approved recommendations to help ensure the rapid realization of cost savings and process improvements. It will also deliver a complete asset inventory (by location) of all communication services identified during the audit. The report provides the client with greater visibility into the company’s network services, and allows for better use and management of these services. It’s a great way to ensure you’re not duplicating services (and costs) unnecessarily, losing money to employee abuse, wasting money on unnecessary equipment and services, or taking the long (and expensive) road with your communications assets.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi