Controlling and managing a company's expenses is always a challenging task for any company, regardless of its sector and size. And when we talk about telephony expenses, everything becomes even more complex. After all, telephony is present in all sectors of the business, with greater or lesser importance.Managing telephony costs requires much more than knowing what plans operators charge, when bills are due, and comparing budgeted amounts with actual amounts.A series of day-to-day measures can contribute to greater control and management of corporate telephony expenses. Let's talk about some of them.
Assessing employee consumption profiles in telephony management
In companies, there are areas where telephony is only a support for operations and areas where this cost is fundamental to performance – for example, customer service.
And within the areas themselves, this differentiation may exist. For this reason, understanding the work profile of employees and areas is a first step in assessing needs, re-evaluating costs individually and thereby not only reducing costs, but also improving performance in some sectors.
Encourage employee participation in telephony management
This is a point that many companies explore little, but it usually yields very good results, especially in the case of mobile telephony costs, where each employee has individual responsibility.
A salesperson, for example, may report that they have difficulty using the operator in some regions. A purchasing employee may want to use a device with more technology for contacts with suppliers that do not need to occur via telephone calls.
And so each employee can talk about difficulties, current restrictions and suggestions, not only for their work, but for the company.
It is advisable to conduct a survey on habits and needs and receive any suggestions that may arise. Users always raise issues that a macro view sometimes fails to address, because it tends to stifle everyone in consumption patterns.
Each workstation may have great ideas for improving the company's telephony management.
Create processes for telephony management
Telephony costs are present in all areas of the company and are generated individually, based on each employee's consumption needs. Therefore, it is normal for each individual and each area to have a way of managing it, with varying degrees of priority.
However, this ends up hindering management, especially when it comes to evaluating results.
The ideal approach is to design and create processes covering all stages, from contracting a plan to daily consumption, analyzing the costs and actions at each stage. Another important aspect is to understand how processes impact and are impacted by each area of the company.
The main idea is to define a flow that standardises the way of controlling and managing.
Implement a Telecom Management System
A management system is a great ally in all the work of reviewing, controlling, auditing and analyzing the company's telephony costs. These costs involve a large amount of data and, when consolidated, allow for various analyzes and interpretations.
Spreadsheets can be good solutions for small and medium-sized companies with few lines, but in general, especially in large companies, they prevent the rapid evaluation of results and sharing of analyzes.
Good corporate system solutions on the market offer modules where we can manage various information about the company's telephony:
- The asset pool;
- Contracts, with their details, values and expiry dates;
- Lines, users, the associated plan and payment history;
- Payments made and credits for recovery.
We can also find specific system solutions with functionalities. What we must keep in mind is the ease of use for entering data (or having electronic files with operators) and the versatility to extract data from various options and performance reports.
Know and inventory the company's telephony assets
By telephony assets, we mean fixed and mobile devices and telephone exchanges, their lines and the consumption plans for each one. It is the set of items available for work teams to use in their activities.
Control and periodic inventory allow you to understand various aspects that impact the quality and costs of telephony in the company:
Review the number of devices
- Many models are old and do not support current instant communication technologies that help save on voice telephony consumption by using lower-cost data telephony and Wi-Fi networks.
- Another important point is idle devices, from employees who have left or changed areas. They can be used by new employees or sold – there are internal offers available.
Review the number of lines and plans and sizing
- Idle lines or lines that are poorly sized for the area; the inventory allows for redistribution to areas where there is a shortage, thereby avoiding unnecessary contracts.
- Plans that do not cover needs or are overvalued – they have allowances that do not meet the user's needs or services that are not necessary, making it possible to reduce the plan and its value.
An initial inventory can point out all of these, and from there we can arrive at the most appropriate solutions, according to the consumption profile of the user and the company.
Check and audit your telephone bills
Just as important as renegotiating and getting the best rates for each line is checking each bill you receive on a monthly basis, especially for extra charges.
These may be needs that are not covered by the plan, and it is important to assess the reason for them to determine whether they will be recurring and whether including the item in the plan would be more economical. Or they may be improper items, due to user practice or charges by the operator without a contract.
These checks will help not only to monitor the work of operators, but also the consumption habits of users, demanding greater commitment from them to the company's goals and best practices.
The audit is an important starting point for the routine of checks, it is possible to seek retroactive undue charges and take action against the operator. It is estimated that on average 7% of the amounts charged on bills are undue.
In other words, it is a substantial amount to be recovered.
Always renegotiate and look for new suppliers
Looking for new suppliers may seem complicated in a market with four or five large, bureaucratic companies. But the reality today is very different.
There is portability, which allows for quick changes. And the main thing is the competitiveness of the sector; operators have been working with increasingly flexible packages to win customers at better prices.
Supply contracts should be negotiated on the best possible terms, as they will be a long-term option and have heavy termination clauses.
ERA Group, a global consultancy specialising in Cost Management, has a recognized efficiency methodology and qualified professionals with experience in the field.
