Section Content

Intelligent (But Not Contingent) Auditing

Is there really any reason to pay someone for years just because they saved you some money once?  We don't think so, either. Here's what we do instead.

Key concepts of Telecom cost Reduction

A brief overview of ways we save our clients money.

Telecom Cost Reduction Details

And here are the details.

CDR (Call Detail Recording)

This article describes a very useful tool for controlling and rebilling costs, combating telecom fraud, realistically estimating the number of lines and amount of bandwidth you really need, and preventing employees from abusing telecom services.

Related Reading Material

Although not exactly telecom cost reduction , you might want to look at the section on Procedural Strip Mining (PSM), the Teleconvergence low-end approach to Business analysis.  Similarly, you can look over the section on Telecom Risk Management, especially the articles on Telecom Business Continuity and Disaster Planning. While they're more about controlling risk than controlling costs per se, being out of business for a few days or longer can be very, very, costly.

Telecom cost reduction is about far more than lowering costs.  Satisfying your telecommunications requirements is one thing; spending more than necessary to reach your objectives is another. Still another is making sure that you are getting the most out of your contractual obligations and that you're not being overcharged for what you're getting. What alternatives do you have? Can you reduce costs without disrupting operations or breaking agreements? Or are some agreements in place so onerous that it makes sense to cancel them and pay a penalty?

Similarly, are you controlling telecommunications abuse properly? Most businesses don't know have a clue how much telecom abuse is costing them (Hint: most of it never shows up on any bill).  Are you allocating or charging back telecom expenses cost-effectively? What steps have you taken steps to minimize telecom fraud and to prevent your systems from being hijacked?

Telecommunications cost control should always be part of an overall telecom management program, but it should never be the entire program.  A company may be overpaying for some services, but compromising operations through underinvestment elsewhere. A company saving money on one hand and hurting itself on the other really isn't doing itself a favor.

While Teleconvergence may not be specifically retained to evaluate a client's existing cost structure, we frequently do so anyway, first to understand the dimensions of a client's costs and obligations, and secondly, because any unanticipated savings are obviously desirable. Managing costs and risk is standard business operating procedure for us . After  all, we're management consultants using technology to both strategically and financially satisfy our clients' business objectives. Would you really have it any other way?