How to save on your telco
Telecoms is one area where substantial savings can be made. We will explain six key ways in which organisations can dramatically reduce their outgoings on data, voice, and mobile services whilst improving the quality and performance of their telecoms services.
Check for unused services
Many businesses are paying for communications and IT services that they simply don’t need. Those services are costing you money — and they’ll continue to cost you money until you cancel them. It’s not always a simple task to assess which services you actually need.
Here are our tips:
- Telephone lines: It’s not uncommon for additional telephone lines to be ordered after an office reorganisation or move to a new location. List all phone lines that are currently active and check for diversions from old numbers to your current number, as well as for 1300/1800 services that are no longer being used. Cancel all the services you no longer need.
- Data Services: If you’ve connected a new high-speed broadband service, it’s possible that you may still be paying for a totally unused ADSL connection. Make sure you aren’t — and if you are, cancel it.
- Mobile services: Review your mobile packages. Much the same as landlines, it’s highly likely that if you have a large number of active mobile services, some will be going unused. Follow the same steps laid out in the Telephone Lines section to identify any mobile services that you’re paying for unnecessarily and cancel them.
Analyse spend on staff services
It’s easy to overspend when you allocate services to individual staff members. For one thing, it’s hard to keep track of what’s necessary and what isn’t. And for another, human nature comes into play. If you’ve been given a work laptop with a data service, or you’re being reimbursed for your mobile bill, you might not want to give it up — even if you don’t really need it. Here’s what businesses should do about it:
- Telephone lines & internet access: Make sure that all the phone lines and data services you’re paying for are 100% valid and need to be maintained by checking that staff are entitled to the services provided and that monetary allowances aren’t being exceeded. Consider purchasing services for staff rather than reimbursing their costs — this gives you better visibility of costs, while also allowing you to reduce rates by purchasing at lower prices than those available to your staff.
- Mobiles: Once you’ve identified all the active mobile services you’re currently paying for, there’s an opportunity to make further savings through a fleet arrangement. These allow you to share data usage across your workforce, meaning you pay for average data consumption rather than peak usage and minimise any excess data charges. Fleet arrangements are typically delivered on a SIM-only basis, so they don’t include a handset for every one of your team members.
NBN Speeds Explained
The connection speed you will be able to access on the NBN network is determined by four main factors:
- The type of NBN technology connected to your property
- The broadband plan you sign up to, which may include a cap on speeds
- The network capability of your service provider
- The setup at your property and how you use the internet
At Buroserv, we offer four-speed tiers. Your internet usage, as well as the maximum line speed of your NBN technology, will determine which speed tier is right for you:
T&Cs apply, see Critical Information Summary.
Move to a hosted service
Cloud-based services have become a no-brainer for businesses. Cloud services are just far more efficient than owning and maintaining your own infrastructure. And with so many options available, it’s possible to transition all of your communications and IT requirements into the cloud. Here are a few potential use cases to consider:
- Email: Rather than maintaining a physical in-house mail server, move to a cloud-based service like Microsoft Office 365.
- Phone system: Replace your office phone system with a cloud-based system, such as the Microsoft Teams Business Phone extension. This can be particularly effective if you operate from multiple locations, as hosted systems operate as a single system regardless of whether a user is in the office or working from home.
- Physical handsets: Swap your physical desk phones for so-called “softphones” that exist on a desktop or mobile app.
But what if a call is routed to a phone line that doesn’t get answered? Well, it’s possible to program multiple answer points. For instance, if the first number at the is busy or unavailable, the call can be automatically rerouted to a mobile phone, or a different landline, or your home phone.
It’s even possible to configure different routing parameters, so that calls made from a certain location, or at a certain time of day, will automatically be routed to a specific number.
Because these virtual numbers are exclusively for inbound calls, it’s not possible to dial out from a 1300 or 1800 number. Instead, when you make an outbound call, you’ll continue to use your regular phone line (and pay your standard call charges).
Pay only for what you need
- $33/month incl. GST
- 10GB data
- Unlimited national calls & calls to 13, 1300, 1800
- Unlimited SMS, MMS
- Unlimited calls to 15 popular international destinations: China, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, United Kingdom, USA, Vietnam.
- No lock in contract – month to month
- Control your costs with no automatic data top ups
- Uses the Telstra network
(see https://mobilemaps.net.au/maps/api/embed/4G/ for coverage)
What are business mobile phone plans?
The National Broadband Network (NBN) is a federal government-sponsored project to provide every home and business in Australia with a fast, affordable internet connection. We help you access the NBN with service plans tailored to your business needs.
Replace your outdated network infrastructure with future-proofed technology.
Improve your productivity and performance with business-grade internet & digital voice services.
Remain online even if your network goes down with our range of back up options.
Get the flexibility, support and performance your business requires with our highly customisable plans.
Consolidate multiple services
If you’re currently paying for several versions of the same service, you could save significant amounts by consolidating them into a single service.
For instance, some businesses have multiple NBN broadband connections running to a single office to provide them with the necessary bandwidth. But those lines could be replaced with a single high-speed fibre broadband service, saving money and potentially improving performance.
The same is often true with phone systems and mail servers. And with mobile phones, you may find it cheaper to consolidate them all within a single plan, rather than splitting them across multiple individual packages.
You should choose services with built-in backup or redundancy to reduce the possible business impact of a service fault.
Update legacy technology
Sticking with old technology might not be the cheapest solution. Legacy technology could end up costing you a lot more in the long run than if you upgrade it.
For example, you might assume that your current laggy connection is at least saving you some money, but in reality, older packages are often very expensive versus newer services such as NBN.
Conclusion
Clearly, saving money is a big priority for businesses right now.
But the last thing you want is to move to a cheaper service, only to find that it just isn’t fit for purpose.
Buroserv are here to help. Our philosophy is simple: we understand your business challenges, then build complete, high-performance ICT solutions to solve them.
Get in touch to find out what we can do for you.
