Posts tagged "Telecom"

Elite Telecom President Mike Russell Named Finalist for Small Business Person of the Year by Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Elite Telecom President Mike Russell Named Finalist for Small Business Person of the Year by Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce

Kennesaw, GA (PRWEB) May 22, 2009

Elite Telecom Services, an innovative provider of telecommunications consulting and auditing services, announced that President Mike Russell was recognized as one of five finalists for metro Atlanta’s 2009 Small Business Person of the Year at an awards luncheon hosted by the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce and the Atlanta Business Chronicle.

Yesterday marked the twenty-third anniversary of the event which honors five outstanding small business people for their contributions to Atlanta’s civic and business community. Russell was recognized for his significant level of community involvement and sense of commitment to helping other small businesses succeed.

“This recognition by the Chamber and leaders of our business community comes as a great honor and further solidifies our commitment to a business model which has found success by continually putting the needs of our civic and business community first in everything that we do,” said Mike Russell, President of Elite Telecom Services.

As President of Elite Telecom, Russell has made it his mission to help spare businesses the expense and frustration of managing telecommunications by serving as their personal telecommunications department. His efforts resulted in savings last year of more than $ 1.2 million for clients across metro Atlanta.

In addition to his corporate customers, Russell serves in both a volunteer capacity and as the in-house telecommunications department for more than a dozen churches, schools, foundations, theatres, and museums Russell personally donated more than 500 hours of community service to nearly two dozen civic and non-profit organizations last year alone.

“Helping business owners and nonprofits save money and ultimately make better use of their resources is one of the greatest things that I’ve been able to do for my community,” said Russell. “In turn, the respect that I have earned from the community leaders that I have served has not only led to new business for Elite Telecom Services, but opened the doors to greater opportunities to serve.”

To qualify for Small Business Person of the Year, nominees are required to be a primary owner or a major shareholder of a business that has been locally established for at least three years with gross annual revenues not exceeding $ 40 million and with fewer than 100 employees. They are also required to be a member of the Chamber and an active member of the community.

The Metro Atlanta Chamber

The Metro Atlanta Chamber — with our 4,000 member companies that collectively employ more than 700,000 workers — is a catalyst for a vibrant metro region. The Metro Atlanta Chamber focuses on the issues that matter most to the business community: improving quality of life, promoting economic growth and making Atlanta a brand name that means opportunity. For more information, visit http://www.metroatlantachamber.com.

About Elite Telecom Services

Elite Telecom Services (ETS) provides voice and data services as well as telecommunications technology audits to businesses, non-profits and government organizations. ETS offers a complete telecom management program – from procurement to technical support – and often fills the role of the telecommunications department for entities that are not large enough to support an internal telecommunications staff but nonetheless have demanding and often complicated telecommunications requirements. ETS customers save time and avoid frustration by having a single point of contact for all of their telecommunications support issues. For more information visit http://www.elitesvc.com or call 770-425-9898.

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Attachments

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Ezwim joins TEMIA, the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association

Ezwim joins TEMIA, the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association

Amsterdam (PRWEB) February 9, 2011

Ezwim, a leading vendor of on-demand telecom management services, today announces that it has become a member of TEMIA, the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association (http://www.temia.org). TEMIA is the authoritative voice for the Telecom Expense Management (TEM) supplier community.

“Many companies struggle to understand and manage their cost of telecommunications, especially as more sophisticated mobile devices and services are being deployed” said Bram Cool, General Manager of Ezwim. “In Europe a growing number of companies are seeing the benefit of TEM to manage telecom assets and costs. Unfortunately, there is still not enough awareness in the market of the value TEM can bring. As a TEMIA member we want to contribute to develop the market on the benefits of TEM.”

Joe Basili, TEMIA’s managing director said “each new TEMIA member makes us stronger and more relevant. Ezwim marks an important milestone; we now have members with corporate headquarters in France, Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Canada and America.”

TEMIA members are committed to integrity with a rigorous Ethics Code and membership shows the supplier is mature with financial stability to pay dues and commit resources to work with a trade association; it also testifies the vision to invest in the future of the industry.

AboutT EZWIM

Ezwim is a global leader in telecom management cloud services for enterprises and operators. Ezwim’s Telecom Management Suite, available at http://www.ezwim.com, offers a complete portfolio of telecom management applications that enable global organizations to gain visibility into, and control over, the mobile and fixed communications assets and costs. Ezwim helps companies to realize telecom cost reductions, process efficiencies and run every part of their enterprise telecommunications in the cloud.

About TEMIA

TEMIA, the Telecom Expense Management Industry Association, was founded in 2006 by the largest Telecom Expense Management (TEM) service providers that cumulatively manage $ 36 billion of telecom and data spend. Since that time, TEMIA has grown to 34 members with several TEM suppliers based in Europe, Latin America and other regions outside North America. TEMIA´s mission is to expand the size of the TEM market globally and develop industry standards to augment overall service quality and performance through the development and promotion of open industry standards.

Members work together for growth of the industry and to cultivate shared industry knowledge among TEM providers, business partners, telecom service providers, and enterprise clients, while still competing for client business. For more information about TEMIA, please visit http://www.temia.org or contact info (at) temia (dot) org.

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Attachments

©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Telecom Billing Supplier Argent Networks Acquires Australian OSS Provider

Telecom Billing Supplier Argent Networks Acquires Australian OSS Provider

Auckland (PRWEB) May 2, 2006

New Zealand technology and telecommunications company, Argent Networks strengthened its position as a leading supplier of OSS and telecom billing solutions today by acquiring the Australian company, Integration Management.

As an operational support system (OSS) provider, Integration Management (IM) provides revenue assurance and settlement solution software to some of the largest telecommunications carriers in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and the United States including AAPT, Telecom NZ, Celcom of Malaysia, PLDT of the Philippines, and Indosat of Indonesia. With offices in Sydney, Singapore and Denver, Colorado, IM has a strong reputation for its technologically advanced products like “in>Bill” in the voice interconnect, content management and wholesale verification categories.

Argent already has a number of blue-chip clients in the Australian and New Zealand market, including Telstra and Virgin Mobile. Chris Jones, CEO of Argent Networks, says that the IM acquisition gives Argent an immediate footprint into other global markets particularly parts of Asia Pacific and the United States.

“For Argent, the IM deal means we can continue to grow exponentially faster in key global telecommunications markets in Asia as well as expand our existing customer base throughout other parts of the world such as the Middle East where Argent is already a dominant player.”

Jones says that for IM customers the acquisition is business as usual. Argent Networks will quickly incorporate the existing IM suite of products and now be able to offer telecommunications operators an expanded and more competitive range of solutions, including end to end OSS solutions.

“Argent is experiencing tremendous growth in all its markets and we are now looking to make acquisitions where it is strategically advantageous to do so and can help accelerate penetration into other segments. IM will certainly enable us to access even more telecommunications carriers and their customers.”

“IM’s products are also complementary to Argent’s Eclipse® billing and CRM solutions so the acquisition was a good fit for us. We are sure that it will assist in growing Argent’s overall financial and global market position as a leading supplier of OSS and billing solutions to telecommunications suppliers everywhere.”

For more information please contact:

Chris Jones, CEO Argent Networks, Mobile +64 21 633 951

Julien Leys, JML Communications, Mobile +64 21 655 598

About Argent Networks

Argent Networks provides real-time mediation, rating, billing and customer care solutions for prepaid and postpaid voice, data and content. Argent’s convergent billing solutions enable communications service providers to provision, rate and bill for 3G/2.5G and 2G mobile and provide value added services and solutions including SMSC, MMS and VMS. As a leading supplier of OSS and telecom billing solutions, the company’s customers include the world’s largest communication providers, servicing and billing millions of subscribers in over 25 countries across the globe.

For more information, please visit http://www.argentnetworks.com

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©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Jim Lawrence, Telecom Consultant, Joins Compeau-Fawkes to Guide Technology Companies to Greater Success

Jim Lawrence, Telecom Consultant, Joins Compeau-Fawkes to Guide Technology Companies to Greater Success

PITTSBURGH, PA (PRWEB) December 13, 2006

Compeau-Fawkes Technology Marketing has added Jim Lawrence, a 23-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, to its strategic marketing consulting team. As a published industry analyst with a background working for telecom manufacturers such as Siemens, DSC Communications and FORE Systems, Lawrence brings extensive experience in product development, market analysis, and strategic planning in telecommunications and related technology industries to the Compeau-Fawkes team.

“We live in a world where over 60% of young adults are using SMS, new mobile phone data speeds are beginning to rival PC broadband connections, voice-over-IP is no longer just a curiosity, and WiFi has become ubiquitous in many cities–all of which leads to tremendous changes foisted upon today’s businesses,” said Michael Compeau, president of Compeau-Fawkes Technology Marketing. “Jim has proven expertise helping companies set pragmatic strategies to address the myriad issues that arise from this flux.”

Lawrence is a seasoned professional when it comes to disruptive technologies and evolving market structure, having worked through the telecommunications revolution since the early 1980s addressing the opportunities and threats represented by regulatory reform, technology upheaval, and market convergence.

In his five years as a syndicated industry analyst, Lawrence built the Convergence Strategies and Network Architectures (CSNA) analysis service at Stratecast Partners, which delivered actionable strategic insight regarding the business and market implications of communications infrastructure convergence. In this role Jim had on-going direct interactions with a veritable who’s who in the telecommunications industry – from the executive levels of Cisco, Lucent, IBM, Alcatel, and HP, to the founders of hundreds of start-ups.

“I’m pleased to be joining Compeau-Fawkes to help clients sort through the hype of new technologies and emerging business models in the market today,” said Lawrence. “These are exciting times, but it can be challenging to make stable strategic decisions and product plans when the competitive landscape is constantly changing. I have found that the key is thoroughly analyzing the big picture as it relates to a given microcosm, and identifying strategies that protect the firm from being blindsided.”

Lawrence will be providing Compeau-Fawkes clients with strategic planning consulting services including strategic assessments of clients and competitors, market sector assessments, quantitative market modeling, and business process audit consulting relating to new product development, product line management, market strategy, and partner strategy/management. He will also be available for marketing consulting services such as auditing and/or development of company/value-proposition collateral, and authoring white papers and articles.

About Compeau-Fawkes Technology Marketing

After nearly 20 years of experience in classical marketing, product development, technology marketing, product management, and business development, Michael Compeau formed his own consulting firm in the fall of 2003 with a focus on offering his expertise to technology firms seeking to get greater leverage in their marketplace. Along the way, his experience in the mobile software arena at firms like Cutting Edge Software and Mobility Electronics helped Compeau-Fawkes build a substantial client list, including work for Palmsource, Inc., Mobile Digital Media (now Quickoffice, Inc.), Mapopolis.com, SplashData (now part of SixApart) & iambic, Inc. Additionally, Compeau-Fawkes’ technology marketing services extend beyond mobile to many other technology sectors including IT, health care, life sciences, and material science, and include working with firms as diverse as Xerox, Biomatters Ltd, and SMBLive.

For more information about Compeau-Fawkes, visit online at http//http://www.compeau-fawkes.com or call 724-308-1405.

Contact:

Michael Compeau

724-308-1405

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©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Wireless Telecom Inventory: 5 Steps to Finding What You Have

One of the biggest challenges to managing your wireless telecom costs is establishing, then managing an inventory of all your cell phones and wireless cards. Even if you have as few as 100 wireless phones, establishing the inventory can be a challenge. Let run through the basics:

1)      If you do not have on-line access to your wireless telecom service provider, get on-line now. AT&T Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Sprint and TMobile have different levels of information available, with AT&T offering the most and TMobile and Sprint offering the least, but any electronic data will be beneficial. Download the wireless inventory information from the web site. This can be hard to find, but it is generally available. At a minimum, you want a list of active cell phone and wireless card numbers. You need to know which number have voice service and which is only data.

2)      Frequently, the wireless telecom carrier will have some identifying information in the inventory, such as: wireless user name, a department name, or cost center. This information is typically collected at the time the wireless devices is issued, but depending upon the controls in place and how long ago the information was provided, it will probably need to be verified. To verify your wireless telecom information, first compare the individuals listed by the carrier an independent source, such as an employee list from human resources. For the matches, update your wireless telecom inventory information with other information provided from the independent source. You may be able to update department codes, land line phone number, title, email, etc.

3)      If you are like most companies, what is left is a list of unknown users. The only option here is to call each user (just the voice services, not the data services) and determine who is using the phone. Keep track of the voice mails you leave requesting a call back. After two calls without a return call, consider the device suspect. For wireless data cards, there is no way of voice verifying the owner, so all unidentified wireless data cards should considered suspect.

4)      For suspect wireless telecom inventory, look at the usage patters – again using wireless carrier’s on-line portal. If the device does not have heavy usage, consider suspending it (not canceling!) and see if anyone calls to find out what happened to their service. If no one inquires about the lost service for 2 months, that wireless device can be considered for deactivation.

5)      To maintain your wireless inventory, consider using a free telecom expense management (TEM) solution available on the internet. The TEM application will help you maintain the inventory you just completed and provide a platform for standardization across wireless carriers.

Establishing a wireless telecom inventory is a somewhat manual process, but the results could yield significant savings. When completed, use a TEM solution to keep your inventory up to date and enjoy the reduced wireless telecom costs into the future.

Economic Downfall Forces Enterprises to Cut Telecom Cost

Telecom Expense Management innovator Ezwim offers five key insights on how to control telecom cost. The recent economic downfall has been more profound and long-lasting than people thought. The economic conditions faced by enterprises around the world force companies to be more cost conscious. Saving on discretional costs and indirect spend helps enterprises to realise quick wins; telecom costs has traditionally been a top 3 expense category. With enterprise telecom costs rising every year and annual bills per mobile user in excess of 1,500 EURO it is time to take control of what enterprises are paying for. To help enterprises realize savings Ezwim, the European leader in Telecom Expense Management (TEM) services offers five key insights on how to control and reduce enterprise telecom cost immediately. 5 Five key insights on how to control telecom cost 1. Get insight into telecom costs The first step of any plan to gain control of telecom expenses is to get insight into the telecom usage and costs of the organisation. While this may sound obvious many businesses are simply unaware of how many devices and services are being billed to their accounts. Understanding telecom spend: per country, cost centre, per user etc. helps to identify potential areas for savings. A typical organisation can decrease the telecom usage costs with 15% – 40% by implementing TEM practices, commented Ron van Valkengoed, CEO of Ezwim, one of the main advantages of TEM is that it makes it easier to enforce corporate policies centrally and automatically. This enables organisations to make and apply tailor-made policies for employee (groups). 2. Better ongoing management and forecasting Telecom Expense Management services help enterprises to better stretch tight telecom budgets, it helps to be more prepared to accurately predict future budget requirements. It also helps to keep the employees aligned to the telecom business objective of the enterprise and to detect abuse. 3. Enable your employees to get access to personal telecom cost Private use of the company mobile is common representing 30% of costs. Enhancing cost awareness of employees is a major step; as insight into personal telecom costs helps employees to make smart decisions on how to use telecommunications. Especially using mobile phone or Data Cards internationally contributes heavily to the enterprise telecom expenses. Understanding cost enables employees to make informed decisions about which in-country mobile telecom operator to use and can help an employee to choose using a local WiFi Spots rather than a Data Card. This is especially important as Data Costs are growing 100% every year as the use of data cards and Blackberries is becoming more mainstream among employees. 4. Negotiate with telecom operators based on your corporate profile Many companies don’t routinely examine their bills and find that when aggregating their total services, they are spending much more than planned. Understanding your telecom profile in terms of amounts spend on mobile, data, roaming enables improved contract negotiations with operators. 5. Make informed decisions on telecom innovations Decisions on technology innovations are often based on gut feeling and not on a rational assessment of current telecom usage and traffic streams. Telecom Expense Management services offers the right telecom usage information for the business case (e.g. VOIP). After implementation the uptake and cost can be monitored. And this is just the start. Once you are in control of your costs and usage, you will be able to reap the benefits of improved staff productivity and efficiency and will be able to make more informed decisions on what new technology and services you should be investing in to gain a competitive advantage. “Most organisations do not have a clear understanding of their telecommunication usage and cost; this lack of visibility often results in significant wastage. Excess cost comes from issues such as misuse, billing errors, lack of management etc.” commented Ron van Valkengoed, CEO of Ezwim. “In today’s economic climate, Telecom and Finance Directors need to focus on long-term telecommunications management strategies rather than using an ad-hoc approach and one-time price reviews.” Ezwim helps enterprises to calculate their potential savings when using Telecom Expense Management services on ezwim. This easy to use calculator is based on Ezwim’s experience with savings generated for its enterprise clients.

Atlantic Telecom selects Ezwim to move to online billing – the new service will replace the paper-based process

Atlantic Telecom, supplier of telecommunication services selects Ezwim, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider for Telecom Management services, to deliver online bill presentment to its consumer and enterprise customers. The Ezwim services will enable Atlantic to offer a comprehensive Telecom Management service to its clients including advanced analysis, split billing and cost allocation.

Ezwim will establish 2 key enhancements for Atlantic:
•    Online bill presentment for consumer and corporate customers.
•    Advanced online telecom analysis to help clients gain insight into their telecommunication services.
“Atlantic Telecom currently experiences strong growth, especially in its business segment. We focus on online billing as well as bringing new services to market like DSL and mobile services”, says Marc van Bracht, Financial Manager of Atlantic Telecom. “In our current growth phase Ezwim is the best possible managed service partner and very important for the upcoming service introductions. The company has extensive experience in realizing online bill presentment solutions that enable large numbers of users to access telecom information for both fixed and mobile telecommunications. Additionally Ezwim’s services support both fixed and mobile telecommunications.”

Ron van Valkengoed, Managing Director of Ezwim is very pleased with Atlantic Telecom’s choice for Ezwim: “We are very proud to be able to help Atlantic Telecom in realizing its strategic objectives; the customer friendly web services will help Atlantic to distinguish themselves in the market. Our Software-as-a-Service model represents a particular benefit to Atlantic as we offer a complete outsourced on-demand solution that will help them to gain a competitive edge in the market.”

Ezwim, a global leader in Telecom Management, provides Telecom Expense Management and Telecom Service Management software to enterprises and operators. Ezwim’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solution enables global organizations to gain visibility into, and control over, the mobile and fixed communications assets and costs. Ezwim services enable dramatic telecom cost reductions and process efficiencies.

Atlantic Telecom is a full-service provider for fixed telephony offering a range of telecom services like CPS, analogue and ISDN lines, fixed lines, 0800/0900/088-numbers, SMS services, conference call services and Fax to Email.

Telesoft Publishes White Paper: The New Rules Of Telecom Expense Management

Telesoft Publishes White Paper: The New Rules Of Telecom Expense Management

Reduce Telecom Spend

Phoenix, Ariz. (PRWEB) March 24, 2010

Telesoft, trusted experts in fixed and mobile telecom expense management (TEM) software and services, today published a new white paper entitled “The New Rules of Telecom Expense Management,” which focuses on three ways to effectively manage and control telecommunications spending while increasing savings. The paper is the third in a series Telesoft has published to inform enterprise managers on how to develop an efficient telecom expense management (TEM) strategy.

As a leader in the TEM market, Telesoft has spent more than 25 years helping enterprises optimize all aspects of their telecom usage. With the increase in network traffic and wireless communication, it’s no surprise that enterprises are seeing their telecom expenses grow exponentially. In order to reduce this expense, Telesoft advises enterprises to: proactively manage telecom spend, manage fixed and mobile telecom together, and extend the value of TEM with intuitive solutions for multiple users.

“Over the past decade, network traffic for data and wireless communications have eclipsed the costs for fixed voice traffic,” said Thierry Zerbib, chief executive officer and co-founder. “We wrote ‘The New Rules of Telecom Expense Management’ to help enterprise managers understand the dramatic costs savings that come with effectively managing the telecom lifecycle, reigning in wireless expenses, and using the right tools for the job.”

To download the whitepaper, go to “The New Rules of Telecom Expense Management.”

About Telesoft

Trusted experts in Telecom Expense Management (TEM) software and services for over 25 years, Telesoft reduces fixed and mobile telecom spend to improve an organization’s bottom-line. Telesoft automates the telecom expense management lifecycle – from management of telecom invoices, usage and cost allocation, through provisioning and inventory – to lower telecom expenses and improve efficiencies. Offered as hosted, licensed or outsourced solutions, Telesoft provides an integrated management platform for centralized inventory, common data sharing and unified reporting. Telesoft solutions are used by hundreds of commercial and government organizations including the largest and most complex telecom environments in the world.

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©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Telecom Expense Management Event Focuses on Fixed & Mobile Communications Life Cycle Management

Telecom Expense Management Event Focuses on Fixed & Mobile Communications Life Cycle Management

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Vocus/PRWEB) February 17, 2011

CCMI, the Center for Communications Management Information, and Voice Report announced that the 7th annual Telecom Expense Management National Summit will be held on May 23-24, 2011 at The Madison hotel in Washington, D.C. The Summit attracts communications technology professionals from Fortune 1000 companies across the country to hear the latest developments in fixed and mobile communications expense management.

“Telecom expense management, or TEM, solutions have grown to encompass the entire procurement-to-payment process, or the ‘communications life cycle.’ And with communications services – especially mobile services – now ingrained in virtually every facet of today’s modern enterprise, the ability to manage the communication life cycle has become a strategic necessity and a competitive differentiator.” said George David, president of CCMI and publisher of Voice Report. He added, “The TEM National Summit is a unique opportunity for enterprises to discover, craft and implement an expense management strategy tailored to their specific mix of services and expense streams.”

The Summit has three key themes in 2011 – contracts, expense management core functions and transformative technologies, like SIP trunking. Each theme is addressed by leading attorneys, key industry analysts and communications professionals from Fortune 1000 companies. In addition, the program includes a unique panel discussion that features senior-level officials from the leading expense management solution providers. Current panelists include C-level executives from Invoice Insight, Rivermine Software and MDSL.

“The agenda is largely the work of our Advisory Panel, and I am especially grateful for the contributions made by Dave Orth, director of voice & data communications at Gannett Co., Inc., Steve Martin, IT chief financial officer at Liberty Mutual Insurance, Dan Coulter, telecommunications manager at FIS and Justin Castillo, partner at Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP.” said Mr. David. The Summit also features an exhibit area, the TEM Expo, where enterprise attendees can see and compare the latest expense management solution from top tier providers.

For more information about the Telecom Expense Management National Summit visit http://www.TEMNationalSummit.com.

About CCMI

CCMI is the industry’s leading provider of telecom rate and data information and applications. We are dedicated to delivering highly specialized and strategically focused information in a timely fashion. For a complete listing of our events, visit http://www.ccmi.com/Events.

About Voice Report

Voice Report is a free, online information service for enterprise communications technology professionals. Though a combination of articles, webinars, white papers, special reports, podcasts and conferences, Voice Report helps managers address mobility, UC, expense management, contract compliance and negotiation, networking, legal and regulatory issues that enterprises face daily. For more information, visit http://www.TheVoiceReport.com.

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©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Select Telecom Adds Surveillance System Installation and Maintenance Services, Receives New York State License

Select Telecom Adds Surveillance System Installation and Maintenance Services, Receives New York State License

Valhalla, NY (PRWEB) July 13, 2009

Select Telecom, a provider of custom telecommunications systems for businesses, announces the addition of surveillance system services to their full line of telecommunications services. Licensed by the New York State Department of State, Select Telecom can now provide installation, servicing and maintenance services. Mike Durante, president, CEO of Select Telecom, stated that “Our clients have started requesting surveillance system equipment and maintenance along with our telecommunications products and services, now we can add the benefit of a full suite of IP surveillance cameras and other security products in a total managed solution”.

An increasing number of businesses are realizing greater economy, effectiveness and efficiency by integrating surveillance and telecommunications systems. “All this high tech gear works well together”, states Jerry Moscariello, Vice President and Project Manager, “and you get much greater control”.

The maintenance of today’s high tech business surveillance systems has become a problematic issue. The cost of maintenance services is increasing and there is a lack of trained, experienced techs. Many security services companies are cutting down on training costs and reducing payroll. “There’s a growing demand for high quality 24/7 maintenance services for surveillance systems” adds Paul Durante, Select Telecom COO, “we’re going to bring our expertise in high quality, well priced telecommunication system maintenance into this important market”.

For additional information on the news that is the subject of this release (or for a demo), contact Mike Durante or select-tele.com

Select Telecom, Inc – Background:

Select Telecom provides custom telecommunications solutions. We offer unmatched expertise in the design, installation, and management of business telecommunications systems. Our customers rely on Select Telecom for the highest level of service from trained and certified technicians. Select Telecom headquarters is in Westchester County, NY, with satellite offices throughout New England. Select Telecom has been in business since 1996.

Contact: Mike Durante, president / CEO, Select Telecom, Inc.

914 761 1313 select-tele.com

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©Copyright 1997-

, Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.
Vocus, PRWeb, and Publicity Wire are trademarks or registered trademarks of Vocus, Inc. or Vocus PRW Holdings, LLC.

Virtual Pbx Voip Phone – Reduced Telecom Expenses

Virtual PBX VoIP phone systems ensure reduced telecom expenses for small and mid-sized business firms. Through virtual PBX VoIP phone system, business calls to long distances and international locations can be made at reduced rates. You can establish your business presence in any place through virtual telephone numbers. Moreover, you can shift your business location without changing the current business phone numbers. Based on your requirements, a number of extension lines can be added to your existing telephone number. Thus your telecom expenses can be further reduced.

Besides, the various features of this VoIP system can be utilized without maintaining separate telephone connections and onsite PBX equipments in your office. The required equipments are maintained by the service providers at their sites and the functions are offered through a hosted server using high speed Internet or telephone connection.

Feature-rich Telecommunication System

Virtual PBX VoIP phone systems come with high-tech call management functions identical to those in costly phone systems owned by established business organizations. They include call conferencing, call waiting, automated attendant, voicemail, find me follow me call forwarding, voice to email, fax to email, music on hold, caller ID and many more.

Calls to your business numbers are managed by the auto attendant feature. To get connected to the right department or person, the callers can select the appropriate option from the menu which includes dial by extension, dial by name and zero out to live operator. Calls are directed to the exact destinations without sending busy signals to the caller.

Augments Business Productivity

With a virtual PBX VoIP phone service, calls can be routed to your alternate phone numbers including cell numbers and residential phone numbers. Through this flexible feature your workforce can even work from their home or any other convenient sites, which noticeably increases their efficiency and business productivity. Calls that remain unattended in the extension lines are routed to the voice mail box where the callers are allowed to place voice messages. Thereby you can represent your small business organization as a big company that offers outstanding customer support.

Macquarie Telecom

www.macquarietelecom.com/

Macquarie Telecom Group Limited is a supplier of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) solutions – including voice, mobile, data and hosting specialising in the business and government markets. It has a dedicated managed hosting and security facility, the Intellicentre, that is certified to the highest levels of security standards, including ISO 27001 and DSD Gateway.

Macquarie Telecom was founded in July 1992 and is one of Australasia first deregulated telecommunications companies. It expanded its operation into Asia in 2000, and holds carrier licences in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong. The company is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) since 1999. Currently, Macquarie Telecom provides services to 3000 business and government customers in Australia and Asia, supporting more than one million business users every day.

Macquarie Telecom won the est Customer Care award for Personal Accountable Service at the World Communication Awards in London in 2008.

Contents

1 Overview

2 Quality & Security Certifications

3 Industry Leadership

4 Macquarie Hosting

5 Infrastructure

6 Data Centre

7 Current Board Members

8 Clients

9 External links

10 References

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Overview

Macquarie Telecom has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Perth, Hobart and Singapore. It operates four Business Divisions:

Macquarie Hosting – provides secure, scalable, high-availability, fully managed hosting services for critical business applications.

Data Network Division – provides reliable and secure IP data network services.

Voice Division – provides secure telephony solutions.

Mobiles Division – provides tailored mobile solutions together with a wide range of enhanced management, reporting and cost control tools.

Quality & Security Certifications

Macquarie Telecom holds the following certifications:

SAI Global ISO/IEC 27001:2005

PCI DSS Certification

Defence Signals Directorate Gateway (DSD)

SunTone Security Solutions Certification

Microsoft Gold Certified Partner

VMware Authorised Hosting Provider

Red Hat Enterprise Hosting Partner

Lucent Technologies Network Hosted Services Solution Architecture Standard

ISO 9001:2000 accredited

Industry Leadership

Macquarie Telecom is a member of the following groups:

Member of the Communications Alliance, Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA) and Australian Telecommunications Users Group (ATUG)

Founding member of the Competitive Carriers’ Coalition and Asia Pacific Carriers’ Coalition.

Australian Interactive Media Industry Association (AIMIA) Hosting Partner

Member of The Green Grid, a global consortium dedicated to advancing energy efficiency in data centres and business computing environments.

It was the first carrier to sign all 13 Australian Communications Media Authority (ACMA) (formally Australian Communications Authority) registered Australian Communication Information Forum (ACIF) Codes.

Macquarie Hosting

Intellicentre reception.

Physically secure areas

Physical security access control

Batteries for backup energy supply

Managed servers

The purpose of a managed services provider is to let its customers focus on growing their business, instead of focusing on the day-to-day operations of their IT infrastructure. A managed service provider can also take responsibility to fulfill many of the security concerns a company may face with regards to corporate governance, privacy regulations, and audit requirements.

Macquarie Hosting managed services are delivered through its managed hosting and security facility, the “Intellicentre”, which is certified to very high security and resiliency standards. Its certifications include ISO 27001, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) T4 and the Defense Signals Directorate Gateway.

Infrastructure

To provide hosting services for mission critical applications, the hosting provider must use an architecture that is both redundant and has diverse Internet connectivity. In this way, the services provided are protected from occurrences such as fibre cuts and router outages.

The Macquarie Telecom Hosting facility uses the Macquarie Telecom network, AAPT, Telstra and PowerTel for Internet routing, and has over seven telecommunications providers that provide connectivity to the data centre.

Data Centre

There are several physical security requirements that must be met if a data centre is to provide high security and availability to its users. The Intellicentre illustrates how many of these requirements can be met.

Air conditioning – the Intellicentre has 25 Liebert Precision Cooling units, each with 75kw heat rejection. There is N + 1 redundancy, with units able to handle 100% of capacity with one or more spare in case of failure. Furthermore the facility has dual redundant cooling pumps, cooling towers and heat exchangers.

Fire protection – the data centre has multi-point aspirated Cerebrus smoke detection with VESDA. In the event of fire, there is a FM 200 (main fire suppression), portable fire extinguishers and dry pipe pre-action sprinklers (as last resort).

Intrusion Prevention and Detection – the Intellicentre is protected by mantraps with hand-scanners to the main Data Centre. There are code and proximity cards to restrict access to entry doors, and video monitoring of all doors, riser cupboards and plant rooms. The CCTV is equipped with motion detection and there are fixed cameras with digital recording capability and HDD archive.

Electricity supply – the Intellicentre is served by 3 separate power grid transformers. One is connected permanently and the others are available on demand. As such, the facility can continue full operations in the event of an interruption to all external electrical supplies.

Uninterruptible power supply – Macquarie Telecom operates 3 x 500 kva UPSs that have the capability of 15 minutes of full autonomy on batteries. Both primary UPSs are continuously online and all power to the data facility is fed through them. The batteries (500, with five separate strings) are on a battery monitoring system. The fail-over arrangements for electrical supply operate automatically in the event of total or partial interruption to external supplies as online UPS technology is used. All power services within the Intellicentre can ultimately be supplied by the backup generators within three minutes of the mains power supply outage.

Diesel generators – Macquarie Telecom has 2 x 1675 kva Cummins diesel generators for the Intellicentre computer rooms. They are operated at 50% capacity and are run up regularly to cycle fuel and increase life expectancy. To constantly keep the generators in a state of readiness, there are oil pre-heaters in each generator sump.

Test Procedures – a very important part of any high availability environment is to test that all the disaster recovery equipment is working and that the procedures and training is in place for these processes to run smoothly, in the event that they be needed. To meet this criterion, the whole of the Intellicentre is tested on a monthly basis.

In the event of a disaster, the Intellicentre is protected via a virtualised redundant site in Melbourne.

Current Board Members

Robert Kaye, Chairman

David Tudehope, Chief Executive

Aidan Tudehope, Managing Director, Hosting

Stephen Butler, Non-Executive Director

John Palfreyman, Non-Executive Director

Clients

Principal clients include: PBL Media, Unity4 Pty Ltd, News Limited, Showbiz.com.au, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, WebJet, Habbo Hotel, Radio Rentals, Austin Group Limited, Bristow Helicopters, NineMSN, Mannway Logistics, Yieldbroker, Haymarket Media, Showbiz International, Bized Services, Registries Limited.

External links

Macquarie Telecom

References

^ “Macquarie Telecom Annual Report 2008″

^ “NRMA Motoring & Services appoints Macquarie Telecom to Host Roadside Assistance”

^ World Communication Awards: Previous WCA Winners and Finalists 1999 – 2008

^ “Macquarie Telecom wins customer care award at World Communication Awards”

^ “Data Centre Security & Accreditations”

^ “Macquarie Corporate Telecom achieves information security award”

^ “SAI Global On-line Certification Register”

^ “Australia Hosting Data Center Firm Macquarie – First to Achieve PCIDSS accreditation”

^ “DSD Certified Gateway service providers”

^ “Macquarie Hosting Data Centre Tour”

^ “Macquarie Telecom Launches Virtualised, Managed Disaster Recovery Environment”

^ “Macquarie Telecom”

^ “Macquarie Telecom Customer Case Studies”

Categories: Companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange | Telecommunications companies of Australia | Companies based in Sydney

5 Questions to Ask When Choosing a Telecom Consulting Firm

With all the different aspects involved in telecommunications for today’s businesses, hiring a telecom consultant firm is a necessity. With the advent of computers and high-speed Internet, there are many choices for a company’s telecom needs. It is important not only to keep up to date on the latest telecom technology but also to do so in the most cost-effective way; otherwise, a company will lose out in today’s competitive market.

Telecommunications consultants can help your company reduce expenses, update your services and also provide ongoing support. When looking for a telecom expense management company or a telecom consulting firm for a specific project, you should keep the following questions in mind.

How long have they been in business and how big is their company?

A good telecom consultant should be up to date on all the latest technology in order for you to make the best choices for your company. There are resources on the Internet to check on a consulting firm. The Better Business Bureau has a website that allows you to check companies that have had complaints or lawsuits against them. A consumer website called ripoffreport has search capabilities that allow you to look up a company that may have consumer complaints against it.

What is their area of telecom expertise?

When looking for the right telecom consulting firm, you will want to know what areas they specialize in. The subject of telecommunications covers a broad spectrum. Once you know what you’re looking for – telecom auditing, expense management, possible migration to VoIP, upgrading equipment or services – you can look for a firm that specializes in that area.

Do they have references or case studies?

Testimonials from former clients as well as present ones are helpful. Knowing past and present clients helps you establish how much work the firm can handle and how it handles it. A number of customers who are pleased with a firm’s work says a lot about a firm’s character and the people who work there. Knowing who the firm’s clients are on a continual basis is also helpful. If clients return for business, it shows the firm is reliable and has satisfied customers.

Do they represent any vendors or sell any products?

You should ask the telecom consulting firm if they use specific products made by a particular seller or if they sell that seller’s products. You should also ask them if they sell any of their own products. If a firm sells another vendor’s products, they probably raise the price a little to build in a profit for themselves, much like mechanics who buy a part from an auto parts store. If the firm sells their own products, the prices will probably be more competitive; however, if you have the expertise, you might want to check into getting your own materials once you know what is needed and let the consulting firm do the installation.

In addition to possible price increases for profits, if you are quoted an inexpensive price, you might be getting involved with a company that receives commissions for products or services they recommend. Your telecom consulting firm should be unbiased and should be acting in your best interest – that means that they shouldn’t be recommending their own carriers or services. That’s why it’s important to know if your telecom consultant represents any providers or vendors.

What are their fees?

Once you decide who is taking care of the materials, the next step is to get the consulting firm’s prices. There are a few ways that consulting firms collect fees – hourly or daily, by project or by contingency.

A project can be billed hourly or by the day and often includes consultants’ expenses. A fee-based project is a set amount of money paid to do a set project. Contingency based means that the payment is based on savings to the client. For telecom auditing, this is the most popular – the consultants get a percentage of the money they save the client.

There are also some arrangements for consultants that stay on, working on a continuing basis to monitor equipment and allowing for continuous improvement. You would need to know their fees for this service if it’s one you are interested in pursuing. You may want to be wary of a consultant who asks for a large upfront retainer or advance payments. Your consultant should want to work with your company for the best possible solution for you.

Before choosing a telecom-consulting firm, it is important to get all of these questions answered to your satisfaction. A good analysis of your own company including what your goals are would be of benefit to decide what type of telecom systems you need. For instance, whether your company provides products and/or services locally or globally would make a difference on what installations are required. If you are local and want to expand, that could affect the system used as well. You want to get a consulting firm that is expert in the goals you are trying to achieve; one that will save you money in the long run by helping you improve what you have, or establish a profitable system to start with. You will want to decide what services you need and find a reputable firm that provides those services.

CrossNet Managed Services Provides Network and Telecom System Monitoring

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Network and telecommunications services come in many shapes and sizes. There are many that offer the service, but few that truly excel in delivering service and maintenance. Cross Telecom is an industry leader in providing the best in services and Avaya maintenance to clients. One way they have ensured this continued success is through CrossNet Managed Services. CrossNet Managed Services is a comprehensive and flexible suite of managed services, which utilizes Cross Telecom’s experience and expertise.

CrossNet Managed Services offers a proactive network and telecommunications system monitoring and management platform, which means you get real-time support of your system; remote system backup for business continuance and disaster recovery, enabling your business to move forward no matter the setback. Systems audit and analysis reporting ensures that your valuable data and assets are effectively reaching your company’s goals.

CrossNet Managed Services is one of three pillars that make up CrossNet Services. CrossNet Maintenance and CrossNet Support are the other two pieces. These three components encompass the elements of – ensuring stable, secure, and efficient operation of your network and telecommunication systems. Here are some of the features CrossNet Managed Services delivers.

Storage Services: Cross Remote System Backup services provide customers with a secure encrypted offsite disaster recovery copy of Avaya PBX translations. Cross servers are hosted in a SAS70 Type II certified data center, and data is encrypted both in transit and while at rest. Backup jobs are scheduled for weekly transfers using secure file transfer protocol. Backup files are encrypted by the PBX using an implementation of Open PGP.

Reporting Services: Cross System Audit and Analysis is a service providing system inventory, configuration information, and analysis for Avaya PBX systems. The audit process collects data from the cabinets, carriers, and media gateways down to the individual stations. Once Cross has prepared the analysis from collected data, an Overall Impact Rating is applied to each PBX surveyed. This allows you to quickly identify PBX systems with the most critical upgrade needs and to prepare migration plans before major support and liability issues arise.

Monitoring Services: Visualize, monitor, and pro-actively manage your environment. CrossTrak Monitoring and Management is a secure distributed network management service that will monitor your entire voice and data network infrastructure. CrossTrak can provide you with proactive availability monitoring, statistical measurements, and real-time alerts and notification.

Cross is an Avaya Premier, National Platinum Business Partner and Avaya Business Partner of the Year award winner. By providing a complete portfolio of Voice, Data, IP Telephony, Wireless, CrossNet Maintenance and Support, Professional Services and Cross University, Cross has defined itself as a complete, end-to-end integrator of converged technologies nationwide. Having one of the largest and most experienced technical teams within the industry, Cross delivers business transforming communications solutions that will create a distinct competitive advantage for our customers. For award winning customer service on Avaya telecommunication products, contact Cross Telecom to meet your needs.

Calculating your Business Telecom Expenses

In the current economic climate, it has become absolutely vital that expenditure in all areas be addressed to ensure a smooth, consistent and ultimately profitable business operation.

Costs continue to rise in all areas even though the world recession continues to bite. The price of crude oil means logistical expenses are at an all time high while the cost of raw products, outside services and employee wages continue to have a dramatic effect on company outgoings.

One area that needs constant supervision is the accountability of business telecommunications. It is vital that costs are correctly calculated and usage is efficiently monitored.

Costs themselves are essentially easy to calculate. There is always going to be the need to make outgoing calls to customers, suppliers, outside service providers and associated companies. These costs will be coupled with the staff you employ and you will need to rent a sufficient amount of telephone lines to cater for the demands of your business.

Additional costs can be added for logistical reasons, such as mobile phone services to stay in contact with employees who are not confined to a particular site or office. Calculations in this area will include incoming calls as well as outgoing.

For a small business that operates in a home office scenario, it is incredibly important to monitor all usage and separate calls from those that are made for social or domestic purposes. Keeping stringent accounts, no matter what size your business is, will help in monitoring, calculating and reducing costs.

Maintaining control over telephone expense is accentuated by the fact that certain areas of business telecommunications are tax deduct able.

Costs can be controlled by selecting a package from your telephone service provider that offers a competitive price on a combination of factors including line rental, call costs, Internet accessibility and mobile phone facilities.

The advent of the Internet also means that using e-mails instead of a telephone makes for an effective cost cutting exercise. There’s also the benefit of using free services such as Skype which allow you to make calls for free.

Ensuring that all company mobile phones are on the same network will also save significant sums, especially as network-to-network calls for business purposes are often free of charge.

It’s also important that business lines are used solely for that purpose and employees shouldn’t be using company facilities for personal use unless agreed beforehand.
With a vigilant nature, comprehensive budget and some sensible shopping there’s significant amounts of money to be saved for any business that’s prepared to work a little harder to cut back on unnecessary expenditure.

Reduce Your Telecom Costs

In these days of economic crisis, every company is striving to stay in the market. The cost of everything is shooting up. Many companies are faced with no other option to reduce the size of their working task force. Cutting costs at every available opportunity can be seen in the office of every company.

Every company understands and realizes the fact that successful business can only be seen when there is total co-ordination inside the organization. The employees should be kept well aware of what is happening inside their company. Only then can they proceed accordingly. One of the most effective communication systems within an organization is that of telecommunication. No other source of communication helps in synchronizing the events in an office as effectively as telecom.

The listing of telecommunication services in an office is usually the first thing that takes place when an office is listed with an address. However, the excessive use and importance usage of this service has seen the bills go sky high. The improper usage and unawareness of telecom costs has seen telecom costs overtake the budget set aside for them.

Telecommunications management programs have become a best practice among majority of the companies. The practice has been gaining ground among mid-market companies as an effective means of reducing telecom costs. Telecommunication management programs can run the total life cycle management (from proposal and ordering, through full service management and disconnection), but the bulk of the hard dollar savings come from the visibility provide by the telecom management applications. Increased visibility into telecom inventory, telecom usage patterns and opportunities to evaluate services across the entire company will yield considerable cost savings.

Secure Path Networks is a company that is specialized in reducing the telecom costs of your company. Telecom costs for most businesses are higher than they need to be. Secure Path Networks is a telecom consulting service specializing in telecom expense management and can help you reduce your telecom costs.

Studies have revealed that by effectively managing your telecom expenses, Secure Path Networks is able to reduce telecom costs by 50%. The client specific solutions provided by Secure Path Networks help maintain costs of telecom expenses.  Visit http://www.securepathnetworks.com today and start reducing your telecom costs.

A Closer Look at Telecom Contracts

Let’s talk about how most people envision telecom expense and their budget.  They get their bills and someone approves them for payment then they are off to the Accounts Payable department for payment. Most business aren’t aware that there could be many ways to reduce their expense (without carrier changes required) since everything appears to work correctly and nothing jumps out when they do look at their telecom bills.  When looking at the telecom budget the CFO may call the provider and ask about contracts and rates, as these are the biggest ways to affect the bottom line quickly (they think).  

We telecom auditors are of a different mindset.  We have been auditing and investigating bills for years, and we know, based upon experience what works, and what doesn’t.  Barbara Clements, President and founder of Auditel Inc. says “For almost fifteen years we have focused on telephone and telecom expense auditing.  We have seen how companies change providers, and modify their contracts year after year with high expectations of dramatic cost reduction in their telecom expenses and budget.  I challenge you to look deeper into your telecom invoices and don’t just focus on your telecom and telephone contracts.”

Large corporations aren’t the only ones who need to be watchful of telephone and telecom invoices.  Many bills are showing timelines on them.  These are found on your telephone or telecom bills and they have a term in which you can request any refunds or credits be applied for these accounts.  Most experienced auditors have to dig through the bills to find this timeline, but they are appearing on more and more bills.

What does the timeline mean to you as a customer?  If you are like most people, you think that if you find a billing error or mistake at any point in the future that the phone companies and telecom providers should make it right.  You probably think that any of these billing mistakes would qualify for a refund. Unfortunately, this just isn’t true.  The Phone Company Representative will be happy to correct the billing mistake but won’t mention a refund to you, and if you do mention a refund don’t be surprised if you are told that its your responsibility to review your bills and that there is a time limit (or term) on the errors you may find within your bills. Why should your company fall prey to these billing errors when there is a solution?  Don’t forfeit this money.

Errors are found in upwards of 90% of telephone and telecom bills. You are sure to have billing errors and mistakes.  Have a telecom audit performed.  Many companies produce them on contingency basis and then you split the savings and refunds. If you wait until these bills are past the term, then you will have paid for mistakes that can be corrected but you will not receive the credits and refunds that you or your company is due. Another way your company will forfeit this money is when you change carriers.  It is imperative to correct telecom and telephone billing mistakes before changes are made, not after.

As many companies tighten their corporate belts they look toward outsourcing job functions to reduce expenses.  The loss of Telecom Managers and staff increases the chance for errors going unnoticed.

The Corporate World is either unaware of telecom and telephone billing errors, or they feel the time spent on bill correction, or clean up won’t substantiate the costs.  This is a very expensive assumption to make.  They couldn’t be more wrong.  If CEOs, CFOs, Controllers, CIOs and Purchasing Managers were educated in telecom billing analysis and contracts, they would have a change of heart.  They find it hard to believe that an audit can make a big difference in their telecom budget.  But chances are they haven’t given a telecom auditor the opportunity to review their bills (not a sales person whose primary concern is to sell services).    

Telecom Tips

•    A telecom auditor should reduce your telecom expense without carrier changes.
•    Research the telecom consultant by contacting references.
•    Make sure you are in control of the audit and give permission for any changes.
•    Request before and after bills before paying for telecom services.
•    A complete audit will cost more than a software based audit and when done properly they are worth it, as they will produce significantly more savings.

Everybody that is in charge of your fixed operations and the corporate budgets should know that there is money to be found in your telecom expenses.  And this is money that you are wasting every single month.  Just because you have a deadline to get the bills paid quickly, as not to incur late fees, don’t let it discourage you from taking advantage of doing the smart thing for your company or stockholders. This is a painless way to save what could be millions of dollars a year!

Creating a Telecom Inventory ? Why a Tone and Test Inventory May Not Be Worth It

Establishing a telecom inventory has always been difficult. In the past, a wiring technician would be engaged, sent to each location and test then inventory each business line or T-1. The telecom technician method is not only expensive, but with the advent of telecommunications competition, the amount of confusion in the wiring closet has increased. Telecom technicians now spend much more time trying to sort through mis-tagged or no-tag circuits. So, rather than getting an accurate inventory of services, the telecom or IT department frequently receives a “fairly” correct inventory.

Well, a relatively accurate inventory is better than nothing. However, you just spent a lot of money (much more than in the past) to have a technician visit a site. You have also taken service down from your users at the site for testing. Third, you have spent valuable time yourself to coordinate the activities, as well as site personnel to provide a local contact. All for what – a partially accurate telecom circuit inventory?

I’d like to suggest a better way. Today, the physical telecommunications inventory of a particular site is not as critical as it has been in the past. First, telecommunications service providers have become much more accurate in their billing – gone are the days when it was anyone’s guess if the telecom bill was correct. Second, with the advent of affordable PRI and T-1 service, most locations to not have the 10s or 100s of lines that they had in the past. The inventory for an internet T-1, PRI and a dozen analog lines and trunks is much more manageable.

To establish a baseline telecommunications inventory, a better use of energy is to conduct a telecommunications billing inventory. A telecommunications billing inventory will reveal what the location is actually paying for – not what they are supposedly using. With a telecom bill inventory, you can determine whether the expenses are appropriate for the location. By conducting the billing inventory first, you can compare similar sites and narrow down the locations that appear to have sharply different service configurations than their peers.

Further, a physical audit will not show telecommunications services that were disconnected but are still appearing on the bill. It is not unusual for sites to have moved to a different service provider or upgraded from lines or trunks to a PRI and have the older services still billing.

A telecom invoice inventory is the quickest and easiest way to identify where to reduce costs. Once the telecommunications inventory is finished, inexpensive or free telecom expense management (TEM) solutions can be used to keep the inventory current.

10 Ways to Immediately Cut Corporate Telecom Costs

There is no doubt that a thorough and comprehensive telecom audit of corporate telecommunications services can uncover significant savings opportunities.

The trick to finding telecom savings is to sift through and interpret information extracted from three prime sources: 1) Customer Service Records, 2) user phone bills, and 3) the traffic patterns of the end users (i.e. the information that results from conducting personal surveys of employees who are using telecom services on a daily basis).

Over-provisioning

Let’s examine just one of the seven areas that is ripe for telecom savings – over-provisioning. Over-provisioning means there are more telecommunications services being paid for than are absolutely necessary in order for business operations to run smoothly.

How does over-provisioning happen in the first place? There are many reasons, but some of the main causes are related to Grade of Service or GoS.

Grade of Service (GoS)

Telecommunications services are the lifeblood of any business. Incoming calls and sales inquiries must not be met with a busy signal, or the result could be the loss of a customer.

Historically, telephone companies have recommended and provided quantities of access lines sufficient to provide a P.01 grade of service. This means that no more than 1% of all callers will receive a busy signal, even during the busiest hour of the day. (A P.05 grade of service would mean that no more than 5% of callers will receive a busy signal during the busiest hour.)

P.01 is appropriate for some situations, but it can mean that many corporations are inadvertently paying for more phone lines than are necessary.

Service Features and Enhancements

Not only does strict adherence to P.01 grade of service cause inefficiencies, but so can the proliferation of service enhancements offered by today’s telecom carriers.

The commercial thrust of enhanced services, such as voice mail, caller ID, call waiting, call transfer, 3-way calling, call forwarding, etc. is obvious: to increase the amount of revenue per customer and to enhance the carrier’s profits. The problem is that many of these feature enhancements are either not cost effective or, the features are never utilized.

Finally, users often neglect to remove services – lines, trunks, features, listings, etc. – when the need for them disappears.

The following are 10 specific areas of over-provisioning where telecom savings are often uncovered. Every audit should include an effort to examine these areas thoroughly.

1. Measured or message rate lines that show no usage.

Lines with no usage should be eliminated. The motto here should be “use or or lose it!”

2. Unrecognized service address for an account or off-premises circuit.

If an address is unrecognizeable by employees and staff, chances are none of the lines located at the address are needed. Eliminate them immediately.

3. Lines that ring with no answer.

Lines that ring with no answer could be old lines that were never removed, or they are lines that should have either call forward or voice mail attached. A line that never answers is just as annoying for a customer as a busy signal. Identify lines that should include call forwarding or voice mail, and eliminate the others.

4. More lines than staff at a location and/or more lines than buttons available on the phone.

Six lines in use with just one employee? Unless the employee is super human and can juggle six conversations at once, cancel at least 2-3 lines, or forward calls to other locations that can sufficiently handle the traffic. More lines than buttons on the phone system is a definite indicator either that lines need to be removed, or a new phone system is needed.

5. Phone numbers that cannot be identified.

A true no brainer. If no one can recognize the phone number in question, get rid of it. The phone company will never tell you to cancel, so be proactive and eliminate this waste immediately.

6. Features or voice mail on lines that aren’t being used.

This is where personal surveys of users comes in handy. Find out exactly what features the end users need and use on a regular basis, then cancel features that are unnecessary, or are not being used.

7. Wire-maintenance packages on lines.

Wire maintenance is a default charge that will appear on every phone line unless you have it removed. The cost-savings for eliminating this charge far outweighs the risk of having to call a technician to fix a line. The charge will generally only cover repairs beyond the jack, so any repairs will be your responsibility.

8. LEC calling plans that were once needed still on billing records.

CSRs will reveal calling plans that may have been in use in the past, but are no longer being used. Compare your current needs with what you are being billed for and adjust accordingly.

9. Touchtone capability on inbound only lines.

For incoming lines only, eliminate features that are associated with outgoing calling.

10. Features provided by the LEC for a fee when the feature is available on the phone system.

Many phones systems are sophisticated and have built-in features that are quite useful. Examples are speed dialing and conferencing. Be sure that you are not paying the LEC for these features if your phone can handle them on its own.

Over-provisioning is one area that can yield terrific savings results. Although tedious in nature, the efforts spent tracking down the most common areas of overspending will be well worth it.  For best results, engage a qualified telecom consultant to help uncover the maximum savings possible.

How to Choose a Telecom Consultant – Part 1

The task of selecting a telecommunications consultant can be daunting at best. This step-by-step guide will help you focus on the most important aspects of the job. Follow this formula carefully and you will be successful in your search for the right telecommunications consultant for your company.

What Telecommunications Consultants Can Do

The very nature of consulting implies specialization, and awide variety of telecommunications specialists are available.

You can save time by limiting your search to consultants who regularly do the type of work you want. Consider your need for consulting help from three different perspectives.

WHAT FORM OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS IS INVOLVED IN YOUR COMPANY SITUATION?

The possibilities….

Voice-Data-Video-Radio-Facsimile-Microwave-Paging-Broadcast-Program-Telegraph-Wireless-Voice Messaging-Electronic Mail-Teleconferencing-Remote Metering-Frame Relay-Virtual Private Networks-LANs- WANs-Voice over Internet – and the list goes on!

As you can see, there are A LOT of possibilities! Once you’ve narrowed down the areas of telecommunications where you need help, answer these questions:

Is your operation small, medium or large? Is the one location, a few, dozens, or hundreds? (thousands?) Are these locations local, national or international? Are telephone operations specialized in your type of business? How sensitive are your operations to telecommunications (i.e. what is the potential ramifications for technical breakdowns?)

When to Use a Telecommunications Consultant

Now the question arises: Just when do you need to hire a telecommunications consultant? Below are a list of scenarios to help you determine your need for a professional consultant.

1. When you need experienced temporary help.

This situation is often a case where you know what needs to be done, and your personnel either have the skills or could learn them, but you can’t spare the people or time from other tasks.

2. You need specialized skills for a specific project of task.

This scenario results when you know what needs to be accomplished, but you don’t have the knowledge or skills available to accomplish the task the way it should be done.

3. You need specialized skills for specific part-time work.

You need and want identified tasks to be performed on a recurring basis, but you don’t want to add full-time specialized staff to your payroll. This is a common frustration with companies thinking about engaging a telecommunications consultant.

4. You simply need a different or “outside” perspective on your telecommunications services or needs.

You sense there may be problems needing resolution, but you can’t seem to pull the pieces together into a workable plan. Or, maybe you believe you know what should be done, but management feels the potential risk or investment warrants additional analysis and recommendations from an outside expert.

It is not a consultant’s role to make your decisions for you.

However, a good consultant can efficiently facilitate inputs, conduct analyses, display and evaluate information in a meaningful way, and reduce related uncertainties so that you can make necessary decisions. Once decisions have been made, it may be cost effective to use a consultant for selected implementation activities.