Don't Go it Alone

One of the most underrated services that a telecom agency provides is the availability of a single point of contact.

Unfortunately, trouble and telecom can go hand and hand and installations can go terribly wrong. You don't have to go it alone. Because agencies place hundreds of orders per year and deal with the carriers on a regular basis, they know who to call if there are problems.

The alternative is to rely on your carrier sales representative, but sales reps are paid to make sales not manage orders. The skills required to project manage a phone or internet service installation are completely different than the skills required to sell those same services.

Working through a telecom issue directly with a carrier could take hours. If telecom is not your area of expertise, how are you going to explain a situation to a technician or understand their explanations?

Telecom agencies provide another level of service and make dealing with the carriers easier and less time consuming. Typically they don't charge for this service because ultimately they are compensated by the carriers.

Best Times to Call a Telecommunications Agency

There are a number of circumstances when your company could use some help and are the perfect time to call a telecommunications agency. Here are just a few:

• You’re moving or setting up a new office.
• You need to free up money to be able to purchase your product or service.
• You’re in growth mode.
• You haven’t reviewed your costs for quite a while.
• You’re hiring and adding new staff.
• When you want to update your phone or computer equipment.
• If you're launching a new marketing campaign.
• At year end and you want to reduce their tax burden.
• If you’re acquiring another company.
• If you’re consolidating or eliminating branch locations.
• You’re downsizing.

During these times, your time can be limited and the extra work could cause extra stress. Let an agency help you manage your extra responsibilities. Most agencies don't charge fees, but their help could be invaluable.

7 Ways to Build Leverage in a Telecom Negotiation

Leverage is the most important factor in telecom negotiation.

Here are 7 ways to develop leverage:

(1) Give yourself time – without the time to implement a change, your current carrier will not feel threatened and will not be aggressive with their pricing.

(2) Conduct a real RFQ – a RFQ, conducted more than a year before contract expiration, will produce the best results.

(3) Keep your commitments low – commitments 60% or lower will allow for more flexibility and show other carriers your ability to change.

(4) Watch out for circuit commitments – circuit commitments, often presented as low revenue commitments, can be far more restrictive than revenue commitments.

(5) Diversify your carrier portfolio – don’t have a large percentage of your business with one provider, spread it around. Experience with other providers will facilitate service moves, if negotiations don’t go your way.

(6) Move some services – threats alone won’t help you develop leverage, you need to use actions not words. Moving a circuit or a service will show your current carrier that you mean business, will show their competitors that you are open to change and will allow you to test out another provider.

(7) Band together – present a unified negotiation team. Don’t allow carrier access to C level executives, don’t argue amongst each other, don’t disclose information or show favor.

7 Ways to Manage Your Company’s International Wireless Usage:

Rent replacement phones for international travel. Companies like Cellhire and Cellular Abroad can provide international cell phones for your employees to use while traveling abroad.

Use of foreign SIM cards. Provide a SIM card for the country that your employee will be residing.

Education. Provide a handout of acceptable usage and provide some cost examples. Downloading movies and watching American sports on a domestic cell phone can cost thousands of dollars if these activities occur abroad.

Utilize VoIP. VoIP services, such as Skype and Truphone, can save you money by bypassing the cell companies networks.

Encourage emailing. International email plans can be added for little cost.

Add an international long distance plan. These are reasonable to add in advance and can provide great savings.

Use a wireless management program. Software, like Syncpointe or Symantec, offer real time usage reports and offers the ability to cap international usage.

Telecom Aggregators:

Aggregators are telecommunication providers that have established agreements with all the incumbent local exchange carriers (regional phone companies), to resell their services. Typically, these aggregators offer these services at a discount.

The benefits of working with an aggregator:

• Cost savings
• Bill aggregation
• Single point of contact, nationwide

Let’s look at these benefits individually.

Cost savings. Although aggregators offer a percentage discount on the carrier’s services, they tend to tack on surcharges that reduce the amount of savings. Also, aggregators discount the carrier’s tariff rates, not their promotional rates. In some regions, where the rates for POTS (phone lines) are low, the aggregator simply passes through the carrier’s charges. In some circumstances, the aggregators reduce the rates of the carrier’s network services but charge more for other services, long distance for instance.

Bill aggregation. This is the number one reason to use an aggregator. A national company, with thousands of locations, would have to devote a considerable amount of resources to manage bill payment. Hundreds of bills, from multiple providers can lead to waste and over billing. With so many bills, how could a company expect to catch every billing mistake or erroneous charge, much less effectively manage their telecom spend?

The large carriers have responded with their own consolidated billing services, but they don’t provide all their services out of region.

If a company is considering deploying telecom expense management, aggregators can simplify the process.

Single point of contact. This is pretty basic. If a company reduces the number of companies that supply them with services, they will reduce the number of people they need to interact with. A single point can be a good thing, as long as the single point is quality. Ultimately, a company that purchases their service from an aggregator is dealing with a third party, which could lead to finger pointing.

How to effectively use aggregators:
Work through an agent. An agent typically represents multiple aggregators and can help a company determine its best option. An agent is more likely to disclose aggregator surcharges than an aggregator’s direct rep. An agent could offer other options for less competitive aggregator offerings, such as long distance. A company can save time by allowing an agent to sift through all its options: dealing directly with a incumbent provider, an aggregator or a competitive provider, to come up with the best plan possible.

Working With a Competitive Local Exchange Carrier:

Competitive Local Exchange Carriers (CLEC) are telecommunication providers that compete with the larger incumbent local exchange carriers (ILEC), sometimes referred to as “the phone company”. A CLEC utilizes the ILEC’s local loop to deliver their services. Typically, they offer services that are priced below the ILEC’s.

CLEC limitations:

• Limited service area
• Can’t provide end to end solutions leading to potential finger pointing
• Regional providers - unable to offer services nationwide
• Unable to provide the suite of services that ILECs possess
• Limited experience servicing the enterprise customer

CLEC strengths:

• Pricing
• More experienced in integrated T1 technology
• Typically more responsive and flexible than ILECs
• Not tariffed - offer more pricing flexibility
• Typically ILEC’s largest customers - possess the buying power to resolve carrier issues quickly
• More “hands on” with installations - conduct site surveys, work directly with a customer’s vendors

Ways to reduce the risk of working with a CLEC:

• Work through an agent that has experience working with the CLEC
• Move a limited amount of business to the CLEC and gradually move more services as confidence grows
• Use CLEC for redundancy
• Use CLEC for less critical services

Ways to maximize the effectiveness of CLECs:

• Include CLECs in RFQs, to offer a benchmark and to keep the ILECs honest
• To diversify your portfolio of services, for bargaining power and as a safeguard against ILEC misconduct
• As a way to compare service levels

CLECs should be part of every company’s telecommunication portfolio. Working through an agent will facilitate the use of CLECs and should help prevent potential pitfalls.

Stroke Of The Pen Savings

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Stroke Of The Pen Savings

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