With so much attention being paid to reducing wireless costs, you don’t hear too much these days about how controlling how much those landlines set your company back.
Unless you’ve got a former Sprint or AT&T staffer on your A/P staff, telecom bills probably remain some of the most complex you encounter.
But there’s still plenty of room to save on things like long-distance service. The first step: Take a step back and determine which services you need and which you don’t. (Polling your employees can help with this.)
From there, it’s time to let the competition begin. Most companies go to their current long-distance carrier and a handful of competitors to see who can offer them the best price. Odds are, some providers will do better on certain services, while others can offer you a better price on others.
Do you just go with the carrier that offers you the best deal on the most services?
Buck the consolidation trend
Some of your peers have had success with another approach. Instead of sticking with a single telecom carrier, you might think about splitting out your services to several vendors.
Maybe your regular carrier is the best for the main features you need, but a smaller, local company can give you a great deal on a few others. Who’s to say a company can’t pick and choose the best prices each vendor has to offer? It goes against the shift toward vendor consolidation, but it can be well worth it.
Typical example: By splitting telecom services among different carriers, a small- to mid-sized business can expect to save between 10% and 15% on its total communication costs.