How in the world does one get any results from the telephone company in the way of refunds, much less make a living at it?  It is often difficult enough just calling in on a simple service or repair order with the carrier to get action!  There is no easy answer to getting carrier results; however, the process of external telecommunications escalation is a powerful tool that often brings a more successful outcome to a client than simply being a nuisance or squeaky wheel to the carrier representative.  Having an effective escalation technique is often the key to the golden kingdom of telecom cost savings, the ability to get great refunds and savings from the telecom carriers.  Moreover, getting justice in the way of telecom refunds and monetary savings is attainable even when the carrier sales team is not cooperating with your efforts or is totally ineffective.  Gaining real refunds and savings for our clients through effective escalation is a necessity and doing it correctly allows us to have more confidence in getting results during the project.  Having confidence and a good plan fosters carrier respect and carrier respect accommodates monetary results.

In a perfect world, justice with the telephone companies would be served with a simple phone call and immediate acknowledgement that a mistake was made on the client’s telephone bill and a complete refund is quickly forthcoming.  Sometimes, to our utter shock and surprise, that kind of quick result actually can occur, particularly if your telecom audit client is a very large customer with a lot of monetary clout.  However, in the real world of telecom audit,  and in most cases, gaining quick credits for telecom overbilling and quickly solving billing errors just does not happen that easily.  In most cases, when we escalate a telecom billing issue to the carriers, we have to make countless calls, are given numerous delays and excuses as to why we cannot get a refund for a reasonable back credit.  We also have to be a telecom billing engineer and technical expert to enable us to translate the error on the phone bill to the telephone company representatives.  Then we must follow-up with seemingly hundreds of emails and phone calls to fix the issue (stop the bleeding) and get the refund, even when we are clearly in the right.  Next, we are taxed with digging up the history of the account, trying to dig up old email verifications or meeting notes and other documentation to prove our point to the carrier.  Moreover, even when we win and are assured that the refund or correction is in the works by the telecommunication carrier, it is often forgotten about or someone forgets to enter the case, which prompts us to have to again make even more calls months down the road.  Sometimes, we then have to open another case to enable us to again try to receive justice on something that was “already resolved.”  Most people (clients) aren’t persistent enough and get totally frustrated with the refund process and simply give up.  However, a good telecom auditor does not give up; he simply uses the tools in his escalation arsenal to gain carrier cooperation and results.

So what can we specifically do to escalate?  How can we make the process more effective?  There are a number of steps that a telecom audit specialist or business manager can take to get results.

In my search for information, I interviewed Bob Schwartz, one of the best in the cost recovery and TEM business, an expert in external telecom company escalations and a well renowned and highly effective 27 year telecom audit expert.  As the Vice President of Bill Correctors of California http://www.billcorrectors.com, Schwartz has accumulated a wealth of targeted experience in the telecom escalation process.  According to Schwartz, the public has various consumer protection agency tools at their disposal that they can use to gain better results from the carriers.

Schwartz emphasizes that first and foremost; one must understand the value of the Communications act of 1934, which sets the statute of limitations at 36 months for back telecom refunds from the carriers.  Also, every state has defining retro-active recovery points which must also be considered.  When considering refunds, you should also be aware of date of occurrence and date of discovery rules for each state.  The carrier may argue a particular state regulatory agencies’ position of date of discovery on a refund, which would only mandate that the carrier back date a refund to the date that you discovered it, not when the refund actually started.  This discovery ruling could dramatically reduce your refund so it is important and one that the carrier might try to use so be aware of it.

Schwartz says one of the most effective ways to file a consumer complaint and gain action against the carriers is to file a complaint with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). There are three ways to file; an informal complaint, a formal complaint, and declaratory rulings.

The most commonly used action against carriers to gain telecom refunds is the informal complaint process with the FCC and it is very easy to do and is quite effective.  In fact, Schwartz has successfully filed numerous informal complaints on behalf of Bill Correctors’ clients over the years with the FCC, and has never lost an informal telecom escalation case with the FCC.   Schwartz explains that filing an informal complaint can be easily accomplished in two ways; it can be done by simply filling out a form online at the FCC website https://esupport.fcc.gov/ccmsforms/form2000.action?form_type=2000B or by copying the FCC on your escalation letter and refund request to the carriers.  Be sure that you have all of the facts and required documentation in your FCC complaint.  The FCC will then contact the telecom carrier, present them with your case and your argument to them for resolution, then follow back up with you at a later time to ensure you are satisfied with the outcome offered to you by the carrier.   The carrier (usually their legal department) is obligated to give you an answer within a reasonable amount of time of your filing the complaint, normally 30-45 days.   Informal complaints are somewhat monitored in bulk by the FCC and from time to time they can force action for correction by the carrier (s) if enough complaints are received.

Formal FCC complaints are rarely used by private companies unless there is a huge amount of monetary refund at stake (millions of dollars) but they can serve a purpose in that the process exists for those kinds of rare cases.  One must also have a specialized attorney that is well versed in the formal process to file the paperwork and work the case.  One should be prepared to spend a lot of time and money on the formal complaint process.  Also, according to Schwartz, most companies don’t want their legal issues aired to the public so they rarely file a formal complaint.

The final type of FCC billing escalation is called a declaratory ruling which has no formal format and are also rarely used.  Declaratory rulings are normally only used when one carrier makes a charge against another carrier, therefore, a telecom auditor or business owner would rarely use this action, if at all.

There are other agencies that can also be helpful, according to Schwartz, and one can also file escalations and complaints with then, depending upon the type of service.   For example, in most cases in California, for a local service billing problem escalation, consult the California Public Utility Commission because they regulate local service items.  In the case of a long distance billing issue, the FCC would be best suited to file your complaint because long distance service is regulated by the FCC.   Once again, you can copy the appropriate agency at the same time you file an escalation with the carrier as a way of keeping the carriers on their toes and gain a better chance of obtaining satisfaction for your escalation case.

Other agencies and organizations that can help in your telecom audit refund are the state attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and better business bureau.  I have found both the FCC and the FTC to be most helpful in combatting telephone bill cramming and gaining refunds from crammers.  FTC complaints can be easily filed online at this link: https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/FTC_Wizard.aspx?Lang=en.

In summary, the effectiveness of the telecommunications escalation process depends on how well we use the proper regulatory rules and agencies.  If you know the rules of the escalation game, the process can be fairly easy.  There continue to be billions of dollars waiting to be recovered by U.S. businesses because of errors by the telecommunication carriers on their invoices, let’s get started. Contact a telecommunication audit specialist today.

Bing 411:800-246-4411

1-800-FREE-411
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Are you interested in a telecom audit for your business? It costs nothing for our company to review your telecommunications bills. We are only paid if we find actual telecom cost savings on
your telephone bill. Contact the telecom auditing professionals today and we’ll start getting you savings.

One of the great things about SIP trunking is that businesses don’t necessarily have to make an immediate choice between fully migrating SIP trunking right away; they can continue to use all or parts of their traditional PBX, VOIP and traditional voice services and current and previous hardware investments in concert with the new SIP voice technology.  I.T. managers can simply complement their current business services with SIP and TDM technology and continue to apply those practices in a way that takes better advantage of their unique voice facilities and requirements in concert with SIP trunking.  Also, one can continue to use current bandwidth from their current internet service provider without having to change that.  All that is needed for this versatility in services and reliable QOS with a SIP trunking gateway (often provided to customers for free by the SIP trunking carrier in exchange for their service).

When we talk about reliability of SIP trunking, SIP trunking is equal to or better than traditional voice calls over the internet.  Customers report that calls are crystal clear and often of higher quality than most VOIP systems.  SIP trunking also provides greater functionality for versatile applications like unified messaging and disaster recovery.  Why?  Because SIP trunking is IP intensive, therefore, disaster recovery with SIP trunking most often involves quickly and easily changing to different IP POP destination within the SIP network when a disaster occurs. And, that ability to quickly change voice termination protocols is also very helpful in reducing costs.

There is something for CFO’s to like about SIP to help with their balance sheets.  There can be huge telecom cost savings associated with SIP. SIP trunking allows one to have as many concurrent voice pathways as needed at any time, and those pathways can be readily increased or decreased in number.   On the other hand, with a traditional PRI arrangement, your enterprise is confined to 23 analog trunks (outbound or inbound or both) and only one single assigned digital pathway.  If you use only half of those PRI trunks, you are wasting half the cost of the PRI.  With SIP trunking, you simply change or order the highest number of pathways you need for a specific amount of time, and those numbers of pathways can be tweaked daily or hourly if you wish, depending on your voice traffic needs and how often they change.  With SIP, you don’t need to order and install or turn up a PRI if you need additional voice traffic; you simply turn up the SIP bandwidth faucet or number of pathways with your service provider.  The same goes with lower voice traffic.  Again, you tweak the number of virtual pathways you need to comply with your call traffic.   If your organization is large enough, you can also pre-order wholesale SIP minutes, which are essentially pay-as-you go SIP cost arrangements.  How does less than a penny per minute for reliable long distance sound?  How about the same cost for calls across the ocean to Europe and Asia?  These kinds of pre-paid arrangements work well for very large enterprise customers and smart wholesale telecommunications providers, who buy huge blocks of wholesale SIP minutes, then resell them to smaller customers at a markup.  The calls are clear and the cost is cheap. So we’re seeing a lot of small operators become telecommunications carriers using SIP.Another cost advantage of SIP in this scenario is that companies can easily utilize least cost routing or route calls to their on-net carrier of choice by way of the cheapest telecommunications point of presence or POP.

Although SIP is not effective or recommended for businesses with predominately large volumes of local calls, SIP can be extremely advantageous for any business routing calls across the country or to Europe.

In summary, unlike in the past, rather than having to gulp down the new technology, why not take your time and take a gradual sip of SIP technology?

Is your enterprise interested in learning more about the advantages of SIP trunking technology for telecom cost savings?  Contact a SIP trunking consultant today for a free consultation regarding how SIP technology help your enterprise.

Free Telecom Audit Savings

Businesses in need of cost savings are hitting the jackpot as they submit their phone bills to BottaBoom for a free telecom audit review. The treasure hunt is on; it’s that time of year again when Boom’s telecom auditors help businesses find end-of-year expense reductions on their telecommunications services.  BottaBoom offers  companies a free preliminary audit, which allows them to determine if they need a full telecom audit for cost savings.  According to Mark Evans, the Principal and founder of BottaBoom, “Prospective clients fax, email or mail us some of their telephone bills and we give our them a very good idea of the amount of savings they can receive from the full blown telecom audit project.  There is no obligation to do business with us, although most companies that contact us see a 30 to 50 percent savings on their telecom expense right off the bat and that is huge for them.  I’m always amazed that so many businesses are still paying telephone companies like AT&T 70 to 80 cents per minute in default long distance charges  and don’t even think about it!”  Also, Evans continued, “during the month of September, we usually get a huge influx of telephone bills coming into our office for our free audit promotion (usually thereafter, most clients opt for a full blown audit because they want us to procure the telecom cost savings for them.”  The last financial quarter of the year for the telecom audit business is kind of like the busy tax season for Accountants, we see a lot of new clientele.   Moreover, we’re seeing   more blackberry audits and cell phone audits for business cost savings than we’ve ever experienced before, they are becoming quite popular and a very important part of our telecom expense management and telecom audit business.”

For example, the state of New Jersey recently realized 3.5 million dollars in telecommunications cost savings from their telecom audit.  The state of Virginia just realized over million dollars in six months’ recurring savings on their cell phone bills, just from unused cellphones.  We estimate based on data from research firms like Gartner Group and Aberdeen Research that U.S. companies can save close to 40 billion a year on telecom costs with a telecom audit.  These are telecom cost savings from telecommunication billing errors and inventory that continues to be wasted month after month, year after year.   This year, all we want is about 1 billion of that 40 billion dollar potential market from telecom audit savings.

In addition to free preliminary telecommunications audit specials, BottaBoom also offers telecom expense management (TEM) software and free presentations for companies interested in TEM software and services.  Contact the telecommunications audit experts today for your free introductory telecom audit.

The rules of long distance calling and pricing are changing. We are seeing extraordinarily low rates on telecommunications services across our client network because of the wonderful new SIP technology and outstanding sales support.  “SIP is allowing us to offer long distance rates are as low 1 to 1.5 cents per minute for intrastate, interstate, toll-free service and outbound long distance service,” reports Rick Meumann, President of Advatel.net, out of Long Beach California.  Advatel offers AireSpring SIP services as well as an array of hundreds of low cost telecommunications products and VOIP calling services.  Also, these new ethical carriers are offering better billing increments and truth in billing practices.  Wholesale prices for 2^nd and 3^rd tier carriers are dropping to as low as ½ penny per minute using SIP technology in the network cloud, which in turn is causing retail calling prices to drop rapidly.   Many clients were recently paying close to 3 cents per minute for traditional interstate long distance so they are able to cut their long distance costs by a whopping 50% with SIP.

What is SIP?  SIP is a very simple IP access based technology which allows companies to use VOIP technology and carrier equipment for IP telephone calls.  This IP dialing is accomplished without the company having to purchase expensive VOIP equipment on site.  It is very reliable technology, calls are crystal clear and all that is normally needed to access the SIP network by business customers is a gateway device and a router.  Companies like AireSpring offer SIP dialing without short duration surcharge calls incurred by other companies.

Getting the best bang for your buck is a key component of telecom cost savings but in addition to the huge savings for business clients, we’re also seeing phenomenal service support from cut-rate long distance agents and resellers.

Why is the telecom support service improving?   First, SIP allows for quick changes efficient management of calls. Moreover, many low long distance rate resellers who are competitive local exchange carriers (CLEC) are supported by highly knowledgeable consultants who recently lost their jobs from the major telephone carriers and subsequently opened up their own telecommunications sales companies on their own.  These CLEC consultants can easily and cheaply provide all of the business telecommunications support services and can now engineer and support high-profile customers with superior service that they formerly offered their interexchange local carrier (ILEC) customers who paid a premium for those services.  Social networking sites such as linked in, twitter and Facebook are filled with ethical, talented and knowledgeable telecommunications cost consultants.

And T1 and data customers are benefitting as well.  We’re seeing fixed long distance PRI rates from companies like Airespring for as low as $450 per month and long distance T1 rates at $150 per month.  Again, allowing long distance rates to be an average of 1.5 cents per minute. MPLS rates are also incredibly low and the support has been phenomenal, with no downtime for converting these services for cheaper rates.  That is a great deal for data, long distance and T1 service.

We often recommend CLEC pricing during for our telecom audit clients because they often use the same ILEC (big three carriers) to transport data and telephone calls, yet the SIP pricing is at wholesale rates.  This allows for maximum telecom cost savings.

Are you interested in eliminating short duration call charges for your call center or business and taking advantage of aggregate wholesale telecom call pricing?  Want to know what the difference in pricing would be if you switched to SIP technology?  Contact the telecom cost savings experts at 1-888-487-5326 or at telecom cost savings contact form for a free cost savings analysis of your call volume and expense.

Next week, this telecom audit news blog will be reporting on telecommunications aggregation and telecom wholesale pricing, which allows for the pooling of smaller end business calling customers with BottaBoom or other large entities, to gain the same or better long distance discounts that large fortune 500 clients and other high volume organizations receive because of large call volume. These tactics are producing unheard of telecom cost savings.

The comptroller audit said more than 19,000 phone lines, or nearly one in every six in 2009, should be disconnected because they go unused or are no longer needed. In addition, some telecommunications contracts have been renewed without the competitive bidding process as required by law, the audit said.

“The state is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars every month for phone lines that are not even being used,” said state comptroller Matthew Boxer. “Examples of government waste don’t get much clearer than that.”

Responding to the findings, state departments disconnected or suspended each of the phone or data lines at an overall yearly savings of more than $3.5 million.

One example of waste found by auditors included the state continuing to pay for the wireless line of a former employee for almost six years after her resignation. They also found:

• Over the course of one year, the state paid more than $250,000 in directory assistance fees when toll-free assistance was available.
• The state is owed more than $43,000 for data lines that were disconnected in 2008 and 2009. The state continued to be billed for lines even after they were disconnected.
• Many departments were not documenting the justification for paying for wireless devices for employees; about 19,000 devices — cell phones, Blackberrys and air cards — are currently assigned to executive branch employees.

Adel Ebeid, the state’s chief technology officer, said keeping track of unused lines is more difficult than it seems.

“Unfortunately we have no way of knowing which agency personnel are being hired, transferred, or terminated which is why the current policy places the notification responsibility with the individual designated by an agency to coordinate and manage their respective telecommunication services,” Ebeid wrote.

He said he has asked human resource managers to become involved with the issuance and termination of phone lines because they are familiar with the employment status of workers.

Ebeid also said memos have been sent in previous years, asking state employees to stop using the pay-per-use directory assistance service. He said he has contacted Verizon Wireless and asked them to block 411 directory assistance calls from all New Jersey state-issued phones.

The audit also found that the state renewed some of its major telecommunications contracts for more than a decade without opening the contracts up to competing bids as required by law.

Of four contracts reviewed, auditors found that each was extended at least seven times without going through the bidding process; one was extended 22 times without competitive bidding.

“The state has prevented fair vendor competition in its telecommunications contracts for more than a decade and essentially handed out a no-bid contract with each extension,” Boxer said. “As a result, the public cannot be sure that the state is getting a fair price.”

Ebeid said contract extensions were sought only after significant discounts were offered. As a result, he said, the state pays $12 million less than it did in 2007.

The comptroller’s report suggested that telephone coordinators in departments be required to periodically justify the need for all land lines not being used; review zero-usage reports and justify the need for those lines; and better monitor bills to make sure the state is not being billed for disconnected lines.

Information source: Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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Is your company ready to save millions of dollars in telecom cost savings? Does your company or government entity need a contingency-fee based telephone bill cost savings audit?  Call the telecommunication auditing professionals at 1-888-487-5326 or contact us at Telecom Audit. Get a free initial telecom cost savings review.

Does your business need a telecommunications audit for telecom cost savings?  Contact the telecom cost savings professionals at 1-888-487-5326 or visit their website at telecom audit services

It is astounding to me how many companies do not have a comprehensive corporate wireless policy or centralized control over their wireless enterprises.  However, during a telecom audit, management quickly realizes how valuable a company-wide cell phone policy is when we implement one for them. A comprehensive corporate cell phone policy is an absolute must in today’s business environment for three main reasons:

• A wireless smart phone policy is needed to help companies maximize their telecom cost savings and prevent wasted expense.  Cost savings are most often immediate and significant.  For most large companies, on average, telecommunications expense is now one of their three largest expenses, and the smart phone and wireless portion of that telecom expense is often the majority of that huge expense. Many companies have no idea how to control their smart phones and other wireless device usage and costs.

• Management must assert control over the wireless enterprise in order to control telecommunications usage by employees, and to satisfy current strict IRS usage requirements.

• Companies need to limit corporate liability by prohibiting their workers utilizing wireless devices when they operate vehicles on the job; otherwise companies are leaving themselves exposed to potentially huge lawsuits.  Some lawsuits involving negligence by companies using cell phones on the job which results in accidents and injury are approaching millions of dollars in civil  judgments.

So now you know why you need a company cell phone policy, however, how are you going to develop a good wireless policy for your employees? As a telecommunications consultant who has written numerous cell-phone policies in the past, I recommend the following tips for writing a great company cell phone policy that will last for years into the future and will make your management take notice of your ability to control the out of control wireless monster wreaking havoc within your company.

1. Research, research, research. Benchmark with other companies. Join Telecom Audit Professionals International (TAPI) on Linked in and solicit advice from other telecom auditors and accountants. Ask peers for information and sample policies.

2. A good wireless policy should clearly outline who in the company is specifically responsible for wireless protocol, including ordering of devices, data and calling features, and administration of cost and all anything related to wireless activities.

3. The company cell phone policy should be a public relations device that provides the foundation for communicating your smart phone device to your employees on a regular basis. As your cell phone and blackberry plans change at least yearly, you should advise your employees regularly on guidelines and what limitations and features their plans contain for them.  How many peak and off peak minutes are employees allowed to use each month? They need to know this and clearly understand it.

4. Prohibit costly extra charges. Employees should not be allowed to use their carrier’s 411 directory assistance service. These costs are as high as $3.00 per lookup and can add up quickly. For directory assistance, encourage employees to program speed dial numbers on their smartphones for google411 or AT&T’s free directory assistance service. Prohibit picture sharing, texting (or place employees on the appropriate texting plan), and GPS downloads. The cell phone policy should state that the employee will be responsible for payment of these premium charges.

5. Equipment may only be ordered through the cell phone administrator. This will allow your company to maintain centralized control and ensure you are getting volume discounts across the enterprise though your wireless phone contract.

6. Make sure that company issued cell phones are used strictly for business use only. Employees should reimburse the company for personal calls or will need to specify a percentage of personal cell phone usage each month in order to meet current IRS taxation requirements.

7. Strictly forbid driving, operating any kind of hazardous machinery or equipment and using a cell phone while on company time. No exceptions. Again, this portion of the company cell phone policy needs to be reinforced with monthly emails or employee relations notifications, i.e.: company newsletters, noted on company blogs etc.
8. Lost, damaged or stolen equipment must be reported to the telecommunications wireless administrator immediately.

9. Separation of employment. The cell phone policy should clearly state that the wireless device and phone number belongs to the company, not the employee. Why? Losing a wireless device and phone number can mean a lot of lost sales and clients, as employees who take their wireless phones and numbers with them often take valuable information and client contacts with them, often to your competitors.

10. Have each employee sign the cell phone policy, agreeing that they have reviewed and understand the requirements within it. Also, the cell phone policy should be a main topic during new employee orientation and ongoing training classes.

In summary, the central part of best practice in managing wireless devices and telecommunications costs comes down to control. Without a clear, comprehensive and enforced cell phone policy, you have no control over wireless expense or use in your company. Again, you need to get control of your company wireless costs and maximize telecom cost savings and limit legal liability.

About the author: Mark Evans is Principal and founder of BottaBoom.com, a nationally recognized telecom audit company based in Tucson, Arizona, with additional offices in California and Virginia. Mark and his telecom audit staff has been saving companies large sums of money on their telecom bills for over 25 years.  If you need a professional telecom audit project or help with your cell phone bill contract or policy, mobile expenses, landline or data expense, or a cell phone bill audit, contact BottaBoom telecom audit Services at 1-888-487-5326 or go to their contact us page on the web.

Savvy Wireless telecom audit companies and their clients expect to reap huge savings because a new tiered usage plan that will enable them to more accurately match users with the most cost efficient data usage and thus significantly lower costs by millions of dollars each month.

A new AT&T plan called DataPlus will provide 200 megabytes of data for $15 per month. The potential cost savings for business is huge. As an example, for a typical fortune 500 company with 50,000 of their users who could qualify for the lower data rates, that would mean a savings of a cool $750,000 per month or 9,000,000 per year!. Smart companies are already flocking to professional telecom audit companies and cell phone audit consultants to analyze their wireless data usage and predict their telecommunication savings. In the last few days, the phones have been ringing off the hook, according to reports from two top U.S. telecom audit companies.

The lower priced plan should be more appropriate for most wireless business users. AT&T says the new $15 dollar plan will be adequate for people who merely surf the web, send e-mail, and use applications like Facebook. The data allowance is enough for more than 1,000 emails, hundreds of Web pages and several minutes of streaming video. Video usage is what really tends to tax a lot of bandwidth so users should minimize downloading videos if at all possible and stick to vital business applications if possible for maximized cost savings. A good company wireless policy and cell phone policy should address these user features and options and their potential costs to the company.

Another option is called DataPro which will provide two gigabytes of data per month (10 times more than DataPlus) for $25 per month. Average savings of users on this plan because of lower telecom taxes and surcharges on the new service is about $15 per month.

Overall this is great news for consumers and businesses because it gives them more of a choice in payment terms. More plan cost choices are always a great thing for lowering business telecom cost. According to telecom audit industry analysts, the potential for telecom cost savings is immense and could lead to millions of dollars in company cost savings. Businesses should move quickly to analyze their telecom invoices and adjust their wireless plans accordingly to save money. Telecommunications Expense Management software providers are likely scrambling to adjust their rates to take advantage of the new pricing.

Next week, we’ll report on how AT&T is handling our existing smartphone data clients and users as we report on the actual success or failure of switching of existing and new wireless data accounts to the new plans.

Although AT&T was forced to make this pricing change to better accommodate wireless network bandwidth service levels, a byproduct of this action by them is lower cost and more choice for consumers. Look for other wireless providers to adjust their plans accordingly.

If you need a cell phone bill audit or wireless data audit, contact the telecom audit professionals at 1-888-487-5326. A telecommunications audit can save your company millions of dollars. It is estimated that American businesses lose at least $38 billion dollars a year in because of telecom billing errors and unused telecommunications inventory.

As a professional telecommunications audit professional, I find some major blame with the telephone companies for much of this fiscal nightmare.  U.S. telecommunication companies are still over-billing U.S. businesses by well over 38 billion per year!  Within that number is a lot of peoples’ jobs that we could save if we could stop this injustice!  The sad thing is, with some focused attention, we can easily curb these telecommunications inefficiencies by the telecommunications companies.

Historically, nothing has changed in that U.S. businesses continually throw good telecommunications money down the toilet.  In 1997, over 80% of business telecommunications bills had some kind of error associated with them.  Today, the billing overcharges still remain close to 80%.  It’s been this way for years!  Don’t you think that with advent the most recent recession and all of the recurring cost efficiency talk in the past that company business managers would finally wake up and start trying to recoup the billions of dollars in lost expense they are paying unnecessarily to the phone companies every day?  Well, it’s just not happening and as I’ve said over the past 25 years, its time for bold action.

I am amazed that there are still thousands of companies who continue to overpay on their telecommunications costs and needlessly waste money.

As a contingency fee-based audit company, it is our job to stop the bleeding and recoup that 38 billion in (easily) recoverable money.  Here is my action plan for your company to recoup your fair share of those billions in telecom cost savings:

1. Conduct a business inventory of your telecommunications services.  Quite simply, I’ll make sure that you have and use the telecommunications lines that you are paying for.  Believe me, it’s easier said than done, it takes hard work, but it will pay off for your business. You’d be shocked to learn about all of the telecommunications lines you pay for that don’t work anymore!
2. Let me call your telecommunications sales representative on your behalf, and tell them we are trying to save your company money.  I’ll tell the rep that they have an opportunity to be a hero and continue to get your future business. I’ll ask them to suggest cost saving ideas for us.  You’d be surprised at some of the value-added responses we’ll get and some of these cost savings suggestions will actually help you realize some significant cost efficiencies.  I’ll be more than happy to ask the question on your behalf and allow you to reap the majority of the benefits.
3. Allow me to compare that great service contract deal you recently signed with your actual telephone bill.  Please don’t be shocked to find that the telephone company is not living up to their end of the deal.  Everyone thinks that once the ink dries, the deal is done and they close the books.  Well, the deal is not done; it’s just begun, so let’s analyze the results by scrutinizing the bill and compare it to the contract to see if the telephone company is true to their word.  I’m going into this exercise with some serious doubts about the validity of the telecommunications billing system; how about you?
4. Let’s stop cramming.  Allow me to check the 3^rd party billing charges on your phone bills.  I’ll bet you’re being crammed and I’ll be happy to get all of that money back for you.  I’ll check the last page of your local telephone bill, and then I’ll go back to the crammers and get you all of your money back.
5. Let’s check your PBX and VOIP service agreement pricing and contract terms and conditions.  I am pleased that you have a wonderful new VOIP system, and your bids produced the lowest price for your system.  However, you’re paying $150-$250 per hour to your vendor in telecom maintenance fees.  They’ve got to make up for the lost revenue on the sales deal so they’re sticking you with huge maintenance fees and hidden telecom maintenance coverage you don’t need for the next several years.  There are alternative, its time to put a stop to that.
6. Let’s do a thorough cell phone audit.  We’ll find all those employees racking up tons of charges for texting their relatives and loved ones on your company’s dime.  We’ll also find the download charges for all of those picture sharing privileges and extra shared minutes spent unproductively.  I’ll talk you into allowing me to write a telecommunications usage policy for your company, which will simply set guidelines for your employees, guidelines that they previously did not know existed because they did not exist.  This simple act will save you thousands of dollars in wasted telecommunications expense.   We’ll review smart-phone purchases and costs, and ensure that your wireless network and cell phone cost is under control.
7. Let’s do some traffic studies on all of those telephone lines and data lines you have.  In many instances, I’ll find that up to 50% of those lines are not being used.  Let’s do the traffic study analysis and cut the lines as needed.
8. Well check out those telecommunications taxes and surcharges.  Are you an educational institution?  A Credit Union? A healthcare facility?  A non- profit organization, an Native American owned entity?  Its time to do an analysis of all of your telephone taxes to see if each one is correct.
9. Let’s do a telecom fraud analysis.  Are calls being made at 3 am to strange countries from your headquarters?  Do employees report strange activity on their voice mail?  Are VOIP and PBX features monitored to ensure outside callers are not penetrating your system to conduct criminal activity on your dime?
10. Shop around for telecommunications services.  Its time to stop thinking that you have to stay married to a major carrier because even though they are the most expensive choice, they provide the best service.  That myth does not hold water anymore.  There are plenty of small competitive local carriers (CLEC) that can provide you the same service at lower cost.

In summary, these kinds of implementations take guts and the time has come for us get some managerial fortitude and make some cost efficiency changes to your organization.  Forget about how a telecom cost efficiency project might expose that your company has been wasting precious money on telecommunications costs for years.  Good managers, courageous managers, qualified managers know that it’s never too late to implement telecom cost savings techniques and gain business cost efficiencies. I’m not asking you to be a hero, I’m simply asking you to do your job.