2009 TechNO Expo

Steve Wachter senior vice president, Integra Telecom in Minnesota, Bloomington

Telecommunications products and services offer a variety of economic benefits—from cutting travel expenses by opting for telephone or videoconferencing to reducing paper waste and toner use. And then there are the environmental benefits. Sun Microsystems reported that by telecommuting half the time, its employees saved 5,400 kilowatt hours and up to an additional $1,700 in gasoline and wear and tear costs per employee per year.

To hold down costs, companies must also manage telecom expenses and inventory. Oftentimes, companies are receiving invoices from a number of telecommunications providers and may be unaware of phone lines, voicemail boxes, and other circuits which aren’t actively used. Consolidating with a single provider can help maintain an active inventory and highlight any overlap.

Cutting-edge technology also helps businesses remain competitive in any economic environment. For instance, unified communications products integrate voicemail, fax, and e-mail into one central location. Dynamic T1 voice and data services automatically allocate bandwidth to where it’s needed most, enabling more transactions to take place in a given amount of time.

Businesses are focused more than ever on ways to reduce costs and increase efficiencies and synergies. Telecommunications can help businesses achieve these goals.

Doug Carolus, senior consultant and director, N’compass Solutions, Inc., Minneapolis

How do you manage telecom costs? You can’t manage what you don’t know.

Having a deep understanding of all current technology and associated operating expenses is an important first step. Explicitly knowing the staff resources and related labor costs needed to appropriately support the existing (and future) technologies is also critical.

To control costs, middle and senior management must manage vendor relationships. (Do you have a good partner who is offering competitive prices?) These managers also need to understand details such as service usage rates (e.g., cost per minute), comparable industry rates (benchmarks), and existing service contract terms and conditions. (Do you have early termination penalties that may limit your ability to make change?)

Finally, don’t assume that the current vendor bills and rates are correct. An audit of vendor invoices may reveal significant cost savings and credits.