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Business telecoms audits: Could you save money on your communications?

Telecoms is a crucial part of the business puzzle – especially as the coronavirus continues to exert its pervasive effect, forcing more and more of us to communicate at a distance rather than face to face. Such is the importance of telecoms that you might have long omitted it from cost-cutting measures.

That could be a big mistake, as curbing the expense of your telecoms doesn’t necessarily entail compromising its efficiency. How are you supposed to know where your telecoms infrastructure is bleeding money? Simple: by arranging for a business telecoms audit, as you could do regularly.

This strategy could help you to uncover a surprisingly large scope for savings in an array of areas. Furthermore, carrying out that audit is something your business could even do itself – provided it has the right tools to do so, as will be explained. Here are some ways to potentially rein in spending.

Only pay for phone lines genuinely required and used

Do you have a comprehensive picture of how many calls your business is receiving, who on your payroll is handling them and how? It’s possible that, right now, the answer is probably “no”. After all, your telecoms bill alone probably doesn’t give you many clues.

How, in analysing your workforce’s telecoms practices more closely, you can more easily discern how to optimise them for greater cost efficiency. Move Your Money points out you could probably do away with particular phone lines that are a needless drain on your financial resources.

That could be the case if these lines are too often used for unanswered or unauthorised calls – but how can you tell where those are happening? One way is by implementing one of the Horizon business phone systems by Gamma, which come with a range of management reporting tools.

Integrate your IT services with your telecoms package

In the modern business, the IT services and IT telecoms services it relies on are often interconnected. The days when we would only communicate with customers and clients over the phone are, obviously, long gone; our website and emails play a big part, too.

Therefore, sourcing particular services from an IT provider and other services from a separate telecoms company no longer makes sense. There’s simply too much room for conflict – or, at least, communication hiccups – between the two providers.

As explained in an article for the Shropshire Star, you can sidestep this issue by simply sourcing services of both types from the same provider. Furthermore, you can consolidate your costs and leave yourself with just one monthly bill for your entire business communications.

Weaving your corporate communications services together in this way can save not just money but also time… which, in itself, could help you to save yet more money. As you would have just one point of contact, it could take you just one call to overcome an array of unexpected issues.

Find ways to improve your telecom technology’s efficiency and security

You probably don’t need to be told how much you can lose financially from security lapses. For this reason, you naturally don’t want to be so zealous with your cost-cutting that your telecoms technology is left less secure than it was before. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to be the case.

A telecoms audit can reveal where you could upgrade your tech to bolster its security. This isn’t the only way that improving tech can unlock cost savings. As TechCentral.ie reports, the materials science and manufacturing company Avery Dennison found that, by replacing legacy PBX systems with cloud-based, virtual alternatives, it has saved 25% to 40% on its communications outlay.

A cloud telecoms system works through delivering telecoms applications online rather than in the traditional, on-premises fashion. However, even if your workforce already habitually uses updated telecoms systems, a telecoms audit could shed light on ways to use them more effectively.

Put together a new telecoms budget that can hold you in good stead

Through following the advice elsewhere in this article, you could soon find yourself with, at your fingertips, a wealth of intricate information about your company’s true telecom needs. With this information at hand, you can start planning a more cost-effective telecoms budget for the future.

This is worth emphasising, as many businesses could understandably struggle to overlook the apparent paradox of spending money on a service meant to teach them how to spend less money. An audit could even suggest a need to scrap and replace your telecoms system altogether.

However, Bit Rebels insists that, in most instances, telecoms auditing “will save you costs in the long term”, adding that this is “why most businesses will opt for hiring a company for their telecoms management.” Therefore, when “most businesses” are uncovering cost inefficiencies in their telecoms, you don’t want your company to risk falling behind by not following suit.

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