Lay Off Expenses Without Laying Off Employees
While most companies lay off employees to reduce expenses many seek another path. If you think you are overwhelmed by telephone bills and contracts as a consumer, how do you think Corporations keep track of their phone bills? If you can’t be certain all your telephone calls on your bills are correct, just imagine having tens of thousands of bills paid monthly with out anyone reviewing them or analyzing them!
(PRWEB) June 27, 2005 -- Most Fortune 500 Companies don’t have a dedicated
telecom auditor on staff and they rely on the information they obtain from their
carriers. During the past 14 years we’ve seen only a handful of Corporations
with an accurate inventory of all their phone and data lines. Do you think
Corporations and mid sized companies have time to check their advertised lines
monthly, or even annually?
I’ve disclosed several opportunities above,
but I think you may still be skeptical so here are further details. Most
companies have late fees, but having late fees might mean that an AP Dept. is
extremely busy and can't pay all the bills prior to the due date. Some bills may
be set aside for review, and others may be held while the AP Rep. is trying to
determine a bill's accuracy. An Accounts Payable employee doesn’t have the
tariff training to identify tariff billing errors (through no fault of their
own). Most corporations have a telecom department concentrating on keeping their
services online and working properly. These service technicians aren’t billing
experts and most don’t understand contract and billing review to determine if
they are getting the rates their company should be receiving. Without them the
telecom equipment failure and service outages would play havoc on the entire
company. Auditel has found that many large corporations have a telecom service
department, but almost none have a telecom billing department.
Having a
complete audit is like having a car washed versus having the car totally
detailed. While the corner gas station can wash the outside of your car, to
thoroughly clean it the way you would like it done, you either need to do it
yourself, or consult a car detail professional. The same is true of an audit.
While it may be more convenient to scan the “top” of the bills, the devil is in
the details. Most companies don’t take the extra time to do a complete and total
audit, eliminating all the wastes. It is time consuming to consolidate bills,
and to correct every billing error and tariff, but to do a thorough audit the
entire process needs to be completed. Every mistake needs to be
corrected.
In our experience there have been very few firms with tariff
trained auditors reviewing the telecom bills on a monthly basis. We recommend
that every company have a telecom bill audit to review their telecom services
and ensure each vendor’s accuracy. An audit can be primarily based on telephone
bills, or expanded to include the entire telecom department’s billings,
including frame relay, data, and wireless, etc. Don’t forget your contracts need
to be reviewed as well. If you have never had a telecom audit performed, or if
you thought that all telecom audits were centered on long distance, you need to
re-consider a tariff based analysis of all your telecom bills. Every company can
benefit from having all their telecom contracts reviewed on an annual
basis.
Here is a question for those of you with more than one phone line
on your telephone bill: Does your telephone company provide you with an updated
inventory of all your phone lines? The detailed information outlining your
existing services is given to you by your phone company through a Customer
Service Record (CSR). Some of these CSRs look like hieroglyphics. With a large
corporation gaining information from all the phone companies is time consuming
and can be a headache. If you need a detailed inventory which will encompass all
of your locations this can be provided by full service auditing firm. Why the
need for a detailed inventory? Your company needs to know what fees are
associated with each line you own, and pay for monthly. Most importantly your
customers need to be able to reach you! How often have you had each line tested
for accuracy? Have you ever had your advertised lines tested to verify correct
forwarding is in place? Checking where your lines are routing is very important
since your customers can't reach you if your lines aren't working, or if your
lines are forwarding to the wrong place.
We want to make the industry
aware that the telephone companies aren’t out to intentionally overcharge them.
Most companies don’t have a trained billing auditor, and many have never had a
detailed telecom audit. Why are there overcharges on your bills? It normally
happens by human error, or can occur when many people are placing orders and
some are unsure of the correct way to place orders. Do you keep accurate records
for all your telecom orders? If you don’t keep detailed records then it will be
difficult to prove any billing discrepancies. Let’s say you cancel a phone line
today. Tomorrow you dial the number and it gives a disconnect message. Do you go
to the next bill and check it for accuracy? Does anyone in your company have
time to monitor each and every bill that comes into your office on a monthly
basis, and check for every order that was placed? Having the correct
documentation equals a refund.
What companies offer these auditing
services? Most firms advertise on the internet, or in the local phone book. Many
audit companies around the world perform telecom audits and each has their own
spin. Some just audit the low hanging items and conduct an overview, while
others do a deep cleaning audit. As with any business there are many who do a
great job, and some that do as little as possible. It is up to you to do the
research and find the company that best fits your individual needs. Choose a
company that fits your budget. Some firms offer fee structures based on
contingency fee basis, splitting the future savings and credits and refunds with
you. While others, charge a fee based on the size of your audit. No matter which
company you choose, make sure to contact their references, along with the Better
Business Bureau for their area. If companies have had complaints they aren’t
likely to inform you.
Are you interested in learning how to audit your
own bills? If so we highly recommend telecom workshop based training. These
workshops are not seminars and these courses teach you how to actually audit
telecom bills. Though there are many seminars available on the market today,
most don’t provide a process. You may leave the seminar with a wealth of
information, but will throw your hands in the air when you actually try to
conduct an audit. Locate a company with experience and contact references for
the firm to fit your needs. Make sure the instructor has actual auditing
experience. The experience you will get from a workshop will outweigh any
seminar you may attend, saving you time and money in the long run. Make sure you
are provided with auditing software to help you track your telecom inventory and
to log all of your orders submitted to the various vendors.
After you
have completed a telecom audit you need to determine how to maintain your audit
savings. If you don’t have the time to learn tariff, and if you don’t have the
staff to audit your bills on a monthly basis, perhaps you should consider
outsourcing your telecom project. Many companies provide outsourcing to those in
need of a telecom project completed, or a monthly audit to maintain their
telecom bills. The size of your billings will determine how often you will need
to have your bills reviewed. If your company spends more than $150,000 on a
monthly basis, you should consider a monthly audit. If your company has mergers
or acquisitions on a regular basis you will need a telecom audit to keep track
of the inventory and an experienced auditor can pay for their services 20 times
over. Would you like to have a lot of months where you could say “we are below
budget?” The choice is yours. Telecom audit, outsourcing, or training each may
be what your company needs to get a handle on your telecom
spending.
Auditel Inc. of Florida provides training and auditing for many
corporations and government entities. We recently opened a Colorado branch to
service the Western States providing training workshop courses to suit every
telecom training need. We now provide workshops for those wanting to start a
business, or open a home based business.
# # #
Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/6/prweb255228.htm