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Are you Maximising your Telecoms Estate Effectively?
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- 16/09/2010
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Are you Maximising your Telecoms Estate Effectively?
Mobile phones have become essential for organisations to function and remain competitive in today's business world. However, convenience comes at a price and the cost of mobile calls and telephone hardware can easily mount up each month. As a result, mobile telecoms costs have become one of the top expenses companies incur on their annual budgets. It is now more important than ever for companies to examine their telecoms spend and ensure it is being maximised effectively.
On-going review of your telecoms estate is important to ensure companies are getting the best possible deal from their providers. The value of a telecoms audit can not only provide substantial savings for companies on their telecoms bill, but can also identify unnecessary phone usage and offer management better control and proper vetting of employees telecoms spend.
A recent internal telecoms audit undertaken by the HSE identified many areas of misuse. The report found that several past employees were still using mobile phones for personal use, paid for by the executive. It is the policy of the HSE that users identify and reimburse any personal calls made from work handsets. One employee highlighted in the report spent €290 on personal calls in just a one month period. Considering that the HSE has just under 2,500 mobile phones in use, it is possible that a substantial amount of money is owed to them by current and past employees."I have to commend the HSE for undertaking such an initiative and it is something that all organisations should be doing on a regular basis. In this case however, the worrying thing is...that this telecoms overspend is taxpayers money!” comments Andrew Flynn, Telecoms Business Consultant at Leyton Ireland. Following the audit, the HSE have been able to reform their telecoms estate and have since saved some hundreds of thousands of euros in just a 6 month period and will now have greater control over staff usage and future spending.
“This is the type of service that Leyton provides for its customers. We can assess a company’s usage profile, negotiate new prices or contracts and completely overhaul a company’s telecoms spending model. We have expertise not only from a technical stand point but also a financial, and can easily spot areas of fraud or abuse”, adds Mr Flynn.Recent media attention has also been drawn to Government bodies that appear to be taking advantage of telecoms expense accounts. Under the so called Direct Purchase Scheme, TD’s were allowed to claim for the cost of buying mobile phones up to a maximum of €750 every 18 months. Their calls are then additionally paid for. The fact that many handsets and car kits are given free to account holders today, especially those with large accounts such as the Seanad, it is difficult to understand why they need such a policy in place.
“Why our Government has such a high allowance for the purchasing of mobile telephones bewilders me. At Leyton, we implement solutions for our clients so that they never have to pay for hardware. In some cases, we have negotiated up to 60 state-of-the-art handsets completely free on an account. Not only that, we have been able to identify billing errors and areas of unnecessary spend. As a result, we save our customers on average 30% on their telecoms bills”, states Andrew Flynn.
In today’s environment, where companies are truly feeling the impact of the recession, telecommunications is a real area where organisations can introduce significant savings. The Government & local businesses should take a leaf out of the HSE’s book and be constantly reviewing telecoms expenses. Leyton encourages businesses to consider doing an external audit to determine whether or not they are getting the best telecoms value on the market.
