As the days get colder and much of the Eastern half of the United States is blanketed by snow, leaving people stranded at airports or hunkered down in their homes, Americans are discovering that the cost of heating is rising.
This climbing cost of heating isn’t limited to the United States, either; citizens in many parts of the world are feeling the sting of rising prices, including countries such as England.
To combat the price increases, England recently announced that it would reduce heating invoices by £50 a year (roughly $82). But that won’t make up the difference.
"While any reduction in people's energy bills is a good thing,” noted energy analyst Jeremy Cryer, it is “merely a tiny step in the right direction and there is still much more that needs to be done."
Businesses, of course, are feeling the pinch even more since they can’t exactly turn down the thermostat at the office and make their employees don warmer socks while they work at their desks.
What can be done, however, is wringing additional savings elsewhere—a move to offset the increase of heating costs.
There are many areas with which to take aim, including office space reduction, reduced printing and more telecommuting options.
One good cost-cutting measure many businesses are discovering, which is both helpful for telecommuting and an outright budget-cutter, is the move to voice-over-IP (VoIP).
And VoIP truly does deliver savings. Long distance calls tend to cost much less using VoIP, due to the fact that voice traffic takes place through the Internet instead of the traditional phone network. With many VoIP plans, businesses can buy unlimited long-distance calling for one flat rate.
International calls also are reduced, although they aren’t free because many countries on the receiving end of the call still charge to connect VoIP calls to their telephone networks. But the savings are still undeniable.
There are more subtle savings from VoIP, too, like the absence of leasing unused telephone lines, and the savings from additional features that often come standard with VoIP solutions.
While traditional business phone systems often come with many add-on fees for things like call waiting and voicemail, VoIP delivers just about every telephone feature under the sun as part of the standard package. This further reduces bills.
The mobility that VoIP gives businesses also can save money in that workers can be at home, the office or on the road and still have access to their business phone system in most cases. This means fewer resources used at the office—such as heat.
Edited by Alisen Downey