Telecommunications services are crucial to business success, both from a voice and a data point of view, but the complexities around this are increasing daily, thanks to workforces growing more mobile and services becoming more data-rich.
So, it is unsurprising to learn that many companies, both large and small, find that errors regularly occur on their telecommunications bills. Such mistakes can be attributed to these complexities, which in turn lead to overlooked contract changes, missed terminations, unnecessary service features or even duplicate charges.
The trouble is that many organisations do not have the systems in place for managing and fixing these inaccuracies, despite the fact that such mistakes translate into significant over-spending. In order to reduce costs, it is imperative that businesses improve their management and oversight of these contracts.
According to Pedro Maia, managing director at CentraVoice, companies need to focus on matching their business needs with the services they require. Achieving this demands a clear view of the company's communication usage, in order to gain a true understanding of which of these services will have the biggest financial and performance impact on the organisation.
"What is necessary is to discern the details of your usage. In other words, the Web sites being visited, the applications employees are using and the telephone numbers they are calling, how often these occur, how much time is spent on these and whether these are for business or private use. It can also help managers to better understand usage patterns related to the different business units, giving a more insightful view around staff productivity, client service, supplier interfacing and executive demands," he says.
"Once you have this kind of detailed knowledge about your communications needs and usage, it makes it much easier to ensure that individuals within the business have the access they require, while management has the tools necessary to control these through cost-effective technology or via policies of enforcement."
Among the tools that can be used, he adds, are things like customer self-servicing and reporting, enabling users to administer and manage their business cellphone accounts and the services linked to this, and spend manager solutions. These offer the user the opportunity to fully and holistically understand their mobile spend across a range of devices and solutions.
"Another option is that of the multi-data sim, which allows users to utilise one data bundle across all their devices, eliminating the need to manage multiple data bundles."
A regular contract review should also be mandatory for the contract owner, continues Maia. This is where the list of required services should be compared to the list of services specified on the contract. Furthermore, ensure that you have a policy in place that defines who in your company may approve changes to a contract, and then communicate to employees what your accepted process is for accepting any contract changes.
"By implementing tools and processes to properly control costs and avoid unplanned budget expenses, your company should uncover additional savings, unauthorised usage and unacceptable charges, eliminate late payment fees, identify billing errors and enable you to recover funds and credits for overcharges.
"Reducing your telecommunications costs in this way not only positively impacts your bottom line, since this spend is often one of the highest cost components within a business, but, more crucially, if managed correctly, should also result in significantly increased efficiencies within the organisation," he concludes.
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