When you have been in the telecom business as long as I have, you get to see a lot of factors that impact the monthly telecom expenses of a business. These factors can range from poor management of the circuit inventory to unmanaged contracts that “evergreen” at old expensive rates. In recent months, I have actually seen the physical address of the business become the most significant and unexpected factor. Here are a few examples of actual customer experiences that I have had this year.
In example #1 there was a glass company that had chosen to move a little ways out of town. They didn’t need a showroom so it made perfect sense to move their offices and lower their real estate costs. The construction on the new facility began and the IT manager was referred to me for assistance with their carrier management. After a simple review of their Customer Service Records we learned that had built their building in a different “rate center” and their old numbers could not be moved. Since they were in the service business, their customers have different telephone numbers to call from all of the nearby cities. The net result was that they had to implement Remote Call Forwarding on all lines and pay for “paths” to accommodate each call. I know it sounds technical but you get the point. Net result: $1,500.00 in unforeseen monthly telecom charges ($18,000 a year) that basically killed the savings of the move. I don’t know if they had a choice as to where they could build but it sure would have been nice to check with their telecom provider in advance and at a minimum get then information to make a an informed decision.
Example #2 is a start-up company that will have offices across the country. They contacted me to assist them in their carrier management strategy for their national rollout. As a small flexible start-up, my assumption is that they could have put their HQ office anywhere they wanted to. Since the HQ office is the hub for their voice and data (VoIP) it requires them to have a lot of bandwidth to properly handle the traffic. As I was looking into helping them expand their current connection, we priced a 10Mbps Internet connection for about $2,600.00 a month. That is a lot of money every month for any company let alone a cash strapped start-up. I am sure you know where I am going with this. You guessed it, less than one mile away from their offices, that same circuit is $1,200.00 a month. Assuming that they will continue to grow, the uneducated choice of locations will be very costly.
Are you ready for the moral of the story? Just like the utility company says “Call before you dig” I am saying “Call before you sign the new lease”. With a Total Telecom Management solution in place rather than dealing directly with the carrier, these could both have been avoided.
Joe Bjorklund – Director of Business Development – vCom Solutions. Contact Joe at: joeb@vcomsolutions.com
