These are tough times for everyone. This pandemic has rocked us both emotionally and financially. Many businesses have had to close their doors and/or lay off employees, at least for the short term. Maybe yours is one of them. So, if ever there was a time when companies need to tighten up expenditures, this is it, wouldn't you agree?
Now, as we begin to hear about the potential of opening up some businesses again, you may be looking for as many dollar saving tips as possible. That's a good idea. And here's a good place to look: Telecom and IT. Why? Because that's where so many over-payments and unnecessary payments occur, month after month. If you manage an IT department, that probably won't come as a shock. So here are some areas ripe for savings:
- Less than optimized network
- Has your network been on auto pilot for the last year or so? This may be a good time to take a deeper dive. Is your network optimized to fit the amount of traffic it handles daily? That doesn’t mean optimized with all the latest bells and whistles. It means taking a look at how much bandwidth you need, how much you may be wasting and where you might be paying for an infrastructure that isn’t serving the needs of your end users.
- Poor expense management
- How effectively are you managing the expense associated with your wireless, wireline and mobile services? Do you have clear visibility over each? Are you able to bill back efficiently where and when applicable? Are you using your TEM (Technology Expense Management) to its maximum potential? Chances are there are things your TEM can do that you may not be aware of. What better time to find out than now?
- Lack of visibility over usage
- How well are you managing and allocating usage of your corporate network and equipment/devices? How granular is your call accounting reporting capability? Why is this important? The more details you have the better able you are to understand the usage patterns of your employees. And there may be considerable savings for those who take the time to analyze this data!
- Overpaying for Inventory
- While you may not be on site these days, you can put together an inventory checklist and compare it to what devices you may be paying for that are sitting in the back room unused. Many of our clients are surprised to see the numbers.
- Invoice errors
- One area where thousands of dollars can be lost each month is paying invoices twice or being overcharged due to errors on invoices. This is much more common than you may think. How are you managing billing errors? Are you able to clearly identify them to your vendor and reconcile?
After you have taken a look at your company's records and bills, how can you prepare yourself, your employees and your department for the months ahead, when business opens up again? Now may be the time to get things in gear and lined up for an audit of your systems and processes as soon as things start to open up. A professional will know where to look to find lost dollars and how to re-negotiate old contracts to secure a better deal. The good news is that, once you find them, the savings can continue month after month.
While it may feel as if we may never get back to work again, the fact is we will. Those who spend this pandemic sitting and worrying will find themselves in worse shape when things do open up. Those who spend this time doing their best to organize and re-evaluate their services, contracts and operations will find themselves in a much better position to move forward, with areas identified where they may be able to save. Hopefully that will be you.