Johannesburg, 22 Oct 2004
Businesses making use of cellular least-cost routing (LCR) - a method by which calls are automatically routed via the least costly carrier - should make sure they are getting value for money, and that the savings they think they are making are actually real, said Jaco Voigt, Director of VoxTelecom, a division of telecommunication company and ISP, DataPro.
Commenting further, Voigt said businesses should be aware that many LCR and PABX service providers do not program PABXs correctly and therefore can`t deliver projected savings. "Voice providers need to ensure that calls are routed efficiently and that the cellular packages offered are the most cost-effective for the customer. It is also very important to keep up with cellular network pricing as price changes will impact on the routing patterns PABXs should follow. It is no longer cheaper to simply route cellphone calls via any of the mobile networks using any cellular package."
"In addition," he said, "when a business signs up for a cellular LCR contract it means committing to a contract period of two years. What happens is some cellular LCR providers install too many cellular packages and the customer ends up losing money by over-paying."
VoxTelecom uses the average call cost and volume of calls over a certain period to determine the requirements of individual customers, leaving enough room for upgrades but not over-committing its customers.
"Once a customer has been committed to a contract it is almost impossible to rectify the situation and what makes this worse is that these are two-year contracts. Our advice is to make sure that your current solution provider has estimated your expenditure correctly to ensure you derive the desired benefits from LCR."
A further important issue to keep in mind when choosing a voice provider/partner is whether or not they bill you directly and whether they do the installation of the equipment themselves.
"It must also be realised that LCR is not the main business focus for some service providers. The sale of PABXs, for example, still remains the core focus for PABX vendors. LCR is a way of supplementing their income. It is important to ensure your service provider is a serious player, that call estimates are accurate and that the call routing has been programmed to indeed save money. "
One of the other problems faced by end-users is that a few service providers in the now-popular LCR business market are apt to play with figures to provide a rosy picture of savings.
"Naturally your service provider is going to provide you with ongoing reports to reflect your telecoms savings. Vendors will, for instance, compare the LCR figures to what you would have paid for normal Telkom charges. In some cases they are showing really significant savings - sometimes as much as 70% - but what the end-user fails to realise is they are not comparing apples with apples."
Voigt warned that, realistically, cellular LCR service providers are able to deliver telephone cost savings of between 27-33%.
"Anything higher than that should be viewed with more than a modicum of suspicion," she said.
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