Why You Should Read Your Cell Phone Bill

February 23, 2011 By 1 Comment

“From the Fence with JP”

Most people have a cell phone of some sort, (Blackberry, Smart Phone, iPhone, ordinary Mobile Phone) some people have more than one (debatable if they are considered lucky or unlucky). 

 

Mobiles have become the norm, an essential part of our daily lives. They are so common that many people not only take them for granted but also, may not bother to ensure they are getting value for their dollar.

 

How many people receive a gas bill or a hydro bill, look at the total with disgust but then simply pay it and resign them selves to the fact that it is a necessary evil? Mobile phone bills seem to be falling into that same category for many people, which is a shame because there is a good chance they are paying more than they should.

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Filed Under: Billing Errors, Blackberry Management, Cellular Phones, Mobile Device, Mobile Device Management, Smart Phones, Tip of the Week Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Your Mobile Carrier Would Rather You NOT Know This!!

February 9, 2011 By 1 Comment

 "From the Fence with JP"

NEWS FLASH …. Carriers make mistakes! OK, so that’s not much of a news flash. Granted, everyone makes mistakes, but the frequency of errors on cell phone bills is shockingly high. 

 

Don’t think for a minute that the carrier will find these mistakes themselves and automatically correct them. If you do not identify the error and get it corrected yourself then you are potentially out of luck and out of $$!

 

Does your plan give you free minutes? Are you actually getting these free minutes? One of the most common mistakes made by carriers is charging for minutes that were supposed to be free. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Billing Errors, Cellular Customer Service, Cellular Expense Management, Cellular Phones, Cost Reduction, Mobile Device, Telecom Expense Management, Tip of the Week Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Mobile Plan Changes For Seasonal Travel

December 7, 2010 By 4 Comments

Data Plans, Travel Packs and Roaming To Save Big Time!

 

With the holidays coming, I think now is a great time to address roaming, and why companies and their employees should share personal travel plans, not just business arrangements.  Typically, personal travel at this time of year increases, and without proper planning, bills increase exponentially.

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Filed Under: Cellular Expense Management, Cost Reduction, Tip of the Week Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Businesses Ask – Should we handle our Telecom Expense Management Internally?

April 16, 2010 By 4 Comments

As simple as one might think Telecom Expense Management might be; be aware that there are many Challenges of Internally Managing your Communications Audits & Expenses.

 

 

  • Today Businesses seem to use multiple carriers for different services that all use different invoicing formats. With this in mind, such invoicing makes it difficult to match and allocate costs accurately and effectively.

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Generally in an Organization there is one person or a department dedicated to managing the company’s mobile fleet (while they maintain their other job functions), but they may not have a complete inventory of the company’s assets including wireless devices, Blackberry Smartphone devices,  Headsets, other hardware, etc. Devices get lost, upgraded, Staff leave & sometimes take their phones, new people are hired and need new devices, units get swapped, some are just left sitting unused, the list goes on and on.
  • While using multiple carriers for different services, internal difficulties may arise in being able to apportion telecommunications costs to divisions, teams or departments with any accuracy.
  • Do you understand all of your costs? You can’t control the cost of something when you don’t understand how it is billed or what you are getting for your money. Telecom carriers have their own language and unless you can speak it, you could be over billed.

  • Not all Organizations have the resources to manually audit each invoice. Did you know in the telecom industry that 7-12% of bills consistently contain errors and/or overcharges?

 

A  full Cost Audit handled by professionals with a proven system, can identify opportunities for immediate savings and areas of improvement for the long term. Best of all, our systems and team of analysts will do the work for you, so your Organization can benefit with a multitude of savings; saving time and resources for other projects internally as well as bottom line Cost savings for your Communications.

 

Let our teams be your translator to interpret and verify your telecom charges for accuracy; today, tomorrow and the future. Along with our cloud based Telecom Expense Management solution we will give your organization the information it needs to promote cost savings with accountability, visibility and simplicity.

Filed Under: Cellular Expense Management, Cost Reduction, Telecom Audit, Telecom Expense Management Tagged With: , , , ,

Four Reasons Why your Mobile Phones Leak Money

August 11, 2009 By 1 Comment

As your mobile phone bills pile up, ask yourself this: “Why are they so expensive?” The answer probably is not because this is simply how much your cell phone fleet costs. Understanding your cell phone plans is the first step to cost reduction. Over the years we’ve seen common problems crop up again and again. Here are four of them to consider the next time your bills arrive.

Billing Errors: Everybody makes mistakes, including major carriers like Bell Canada, Rogers, AT&T and Sprint. Some experts have found error rates as high as 30%. Carriers forget to include discounts, or charge you for pay per minute/unit services you never used. This is why a cellular expense management audit is such an important step in finding you savings.

Extra Units: When your employees leave or switch roles, what happens to their cell phones? In a surprising number of cases the answer is “nothing.” The phone still appears on your statement and still costs you money. In some cases, employees end up with two or even three units associated with them as they change roles, get new phones, and never get the new ones transferred or deactivated.

Inefficient Use: Some of your plans for the mobile fleet may not survive actual use. You imagine salespeople who constantly use voice and email to keep in touch with the head office, but it turns out that it’s more effective for them to compile all of their reports and send them from a computer. Some employees with company phones never even use them, and of course, there are always issues with employees misusing their phones. You can avoid this all with a regular usage breakdown by employee. Our telecom expense management software Tele-Watch does just that.

Unnecessary Services: Unnecessary services are a form of inefficient use. In these cases your staff uses company phones all the time – but they don’t take advantage of all of the features you’ve paid for. They don’t send email, or leave hundreds of unused minutes behind at the end of every month. Pooled minutes, customized plans and bundling can all help, as long as you know your options.

While you can combat many of these problems on your own, some of them require professional help. That’s why we’re here. Contact us for an initial telecom audit and we’ll show you how to plug up the “money leaks” in your current billing.

Filed Under: Cellular Customer Service, Cellular Expense Management, Cost Reduction, Telecom Expense Management Tagged With: , , , , ,

5 Tips To Reduce Your Company’s Communication Expenses

April 22, 2008 By 5 Comments

Second only to Payroll, communications is the largest expense facing most businesses today. GILL Technologies is a solutions firm that specializes in helping businesses to manage their communications expenses and reduce over all costs by up to 50%. Below are 5 tips for reducing your company’s communications expenses.

1. Check Your Bills for Errors: This tip is so obvious that many companies overlook it. In fact, companies typically overpay six to eight percent on their telecommunications invoices because of billing errors. The most common problems are circuits that have been disconnected but have continued to be billed, and invoices that do not reflect new, lower rates.

2. Renegotiate your contracts: If your telecom contract is set for automatic renewal, you might be cheating yourself out of a better deal. Talk to other providers and see if they can beat the price you’re currently paying or can offer more services for the same price.

3. Consider VoIP: You’ve probably heard the buzz around Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). It’s already taking the enterprise world by storm, and adoption among small and mid-size businesses is gradually increasing. VoIP enables you to use your data network — which you already use to access the Internet — to place phone calls. It can be more cost effective than owning your own private branch exchange (PBX), not only because the equipment is cheaper, but also because you can make many of your calls without ever using the public switched telephone network or paying for long distance.

4. Assign appropriate plans for cell phone users: Avoid small business cell phone plans that offer more minutes than your employees actually use. If they need to make more phone calls at certain times of the year – like during trade show season, peak sales visit periods, or other special projects – consider buying more minutes during those times or carrying forward minutes from previous months. That way, you aren’t paying bloated prices year round.

5. Use conferencing instead of traveling: Conference Calling has quickly become a popular system of business-related communications. Company representatives may now promote their product or service and present business proposals to remote clients without need for actual travel and the incident expenses of lodging and utilities. Aside from money, the company’s time is also used more efficiently since scheduling conferences over the phone can be done by just dialing the phone. This can be used in conjunction with Web Conferences as well.

For most companies the above suggestions can be quite daunting and expensive to handle internally. Outsourcing the management of telecom, data, wireless and new technology costs, can often be your best solution. For information on how GILL Technologies can help in the areas of communications expense audits, management and reporting, and a dedicated ClientCare support team, contact us at 1-877-507-6988 or visit us online at www.gill-technologies.com

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Filed Under: Cellular Expense Management, Cost Reduction, Telecom Expense Management Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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