Technology Resource Management Group

Frequently Asked Questions about Telecom Audits

Q.	What if we don’t feel our costs can be reduced or that we have been over billed?
Q.
A.	Most companies do not believe that they can save on their expenses or recover money. Many companies have been told that the only way to save money is to switch to an alternate provider or CLEC. In many cases, these companies are cheaper, but that does not mean that you can not save money and remain with your current provider. There are many cost-cutting measures that are available, but may not be brought to your attention. Even if you are 100% sure that you have the most cost-effective telecom service, we encourage you to put us to the test. We always love a challenge and the results may surprise you. After all you have nothing to lose, and have the potential to reduce costs and improve your bottom line.

Q.	Is one type of company more likely to benefit from an audit than another?
Q.
A.	In today’s telecom environment, every industry and every company can benefit from having their telecom services audited. We do not like to limit our services to any one particular business type. Many companies who offer services similar to ours only target businesses based on stringent criteria and exclude businesses based on revenue amount, number of employees or the amount of monthly telecom bills. We do not believe this allows smaller businesses to benefit from lowering their telecom costs or recovering past over billed amounts. As a general rule if you think you are paying too much for your telecom services, you are probably are. Another indicator that you could consider is if your telecom expenses exceed 5% of your budget, there is a good chance we could lower your costs
Q.	What exactly is involved in a Telecom audit?
Q.
A.	A Telecom Audit consists of a comprehensive analysis of a company’s telecom services using various sources of information. The types of information used can vary from one company to another. Typically, we look at your telecom bills and service records to get the best overall picture of how your company uses its telecom services. The majority of the information that we use in analyzing your services, are not generally known to companies or to other consultants. Some of these sources are written “in code” that varies from one telecom provider to the next, making it virtually impossible for an inexperienced person to decipher. After we review all available sources of information we discuss our findings with you. Once we have agreed on the best solutions for your company we move into the implementation process.
Q.	Is an audit something that a company can do by themselves?
Q.
A.	Yes, a company can review their telecom services and providers to reduce the costs with some success. This success is often limited because a company may not have specialists that understand tariffs, billing platforms, telecom sales techniques or understand how the telecom companies operate. Your telecom bills are very confusing and hard to fully understand unless you understand all of the components. Many companies overlook errors simply because of the billing format.
	When your company uses an outside firm to do a review of their telecom services, it enables your company’s services to be viewed with new eyes. Our recommendations are based on our extensive experience and knowledge that comes from working in the telecom industry. Without this experience and knowledge your results will not be maximized. A good analogy would be a company who does their own income taxes versus a company who uses an outside firm. While we do not claim to be accountants, we are specialists in the telecom field. The company, who does their own income taxes may overlook what they have overlooked before and may lose credits or deductions that they were eligible for, but were not easily identified. The company utilizing an outside firm engages someone who specializes in taxation to analyze the company’s situation. The outside firm can recommend ways to benefit the company, based on their extensive knowledge. It is to your advantage to seek out the advice of a firm that specializes in a field to maximize the cost saving potential.

Q.	How long does an audit take to complete?
Q.
A.	Generally, an audit takes from 1-3 months to complete. It depends on the providers and how quickly they respond to our requests. Some providers are very quick and will make the agreed upon changes immediately, while others give time commitments that can be a much as 45 days. We always try to complete the audit as quickly as possible.
Q.	How do you differ from Utility Auditors or other companies that offer similar services?
Q.
A.	Utility Auditors usually offer Telecom Audits as part of their package of services. We differ because our specialty is in the telecom industry. Typically, a Utility Auditor will review a company’s electric, gas, water, sewer and telecom bills. We believe that this is a generalized audit and will not yield the maximum results. We specialize in telecom because it is what we know best, rather than offering a multitude of services that we have limited knowledge of. When a company utilizes our services they can be assured that they will get the best results possible.
	The way that we differ from other companies that offer similar services can be summed up in two words, knowledge and experience. Every member of our staff has experience working in the telecom industry and has worked as a billing specialist, implementation specialist or application specialist for a large telecom provider. This differentiates us from our competitors. We are also completely objective in our recommendations, something that is difficult to find. Many of our competitors are not objective and often receive kickbacks or commissions from telecom providers for their recommendations. This often allows them to benefit more from their recommendations than the company that they are auditing. It is our mission to partner with you; not with a service provider
Q.	How much of our company’s time will an audit require?
Q.
A.	While we encourage a company to be as active in the audit process as they feel necessary, we also realize that you are busy. For the most part the audit requires very little time from your schedule. We usually meet with you prior to the audit, once to report our findings and get your input on our recommendations and possibly again following the audit. During the course of the audit we may need to get clarification on how you use your telecom services. We can customize this to best fit your schedule, whether it be speaking by conference call or communicating via email. Our hope is that in the end you will have gained valuable information to help manage your business costs effectively.
Q.	What if our company already has a Telecom Department or IT Department?
Q.
A.	Even if your company does have these departments today, you can benefit. The results of an audit do not reflect on the ability of your employees to do their job. To the contrary, often it points out the opportunity to provide training or support that may be needed for these departments to be the most effective. There is no training or classes available that deal with understanding your telephone bills, tariffs or options available to you. Many companies have merged their Telecom and IT Departments; this has often resulted in companies relying very heavily on the advice of a salesperson at a Phone Company. Because you are receiving advice from a salesperson, it is often based on what products that drives their compensation; not what is best for you and your company. This equates to higher telecom costs. To better demonstrate this, consider the following example:

A company needs to order telephone service for a new location. The Telecom Department calls your local phone company to request 20 new lines. While speaking to the Account Manager at the Phone Company, the employee is advised that there is currently a waiver for installation charges, which are usually $50 per line. The employee places the order thinking they have saved $1,000 because of the waiver. This sounds like significant savings at first glance, based on the information that the Phone Company provided. Now let’s look at the facts and what the employee was not told. There were actually two types of lines that the employee should have been offered. The first would have cost $75 to install and $19.00 per month, this was not offered because the Account Manager would not have been compensated. The second, which is what was ordered, cost $50 to install, but has been waived and costs 26.00 per month. The Account Manager is compensated for selling this type of line. The table below shows the actual cost of the lines over a 12 and 24 month period, including tax.

Line Type	Install Cost	Monthly Cost	Total cost over 12 months	Total cost over 24 months
Type A	$75.00 per line	$19.00	$6,605.40	$11,575.80
Type B	Waived	$26.00	$6,801.16	$13,603.20

As you can see by the above table, what originally appeared to be a savings, is in fact the opposite. After 12 months the lines that were free to install would actually have cost the company an additional $195.76. After 24 months the amount grows to be $2027.40. Every month thereafter, the company would pay an additional $152.60

This example has demonstrates a common sales tactic that phone company salespeople and how you can benefit from having an objective review of your telecom services