Don’t overlook reliability when reducing your telecom costs

The growing complexity of the telecoms environment in the average enterprise means that organisations need to partner with solution providers that can help them understand and optimise their telecom infrastructures and services in a holistic manner. Itec group chief operating officer, Philip Perkins, explains why reliability is as important as cutting telecom costs.

Most organisations today are managing a mixture of telecom services from a range of service providers and equipment from a range of vendors, and have little visibility into the costs and return on investment that their telecoms environments are generating.

Most companies are working with a mixture of fixed-line and mobile service providers and operators that provide them with a selection of products and services ranging from least-cost routing (LCR) and voice-over-IP (VOIP) through to cabling and infrastructure.

With such a mix of service providers in place, it can be difficult for companies to understand the true cost of their telecom environments and to identify opportunities for cost-savings. For that reason, they need to partner with independent solutions providers who can find opportunities for cost reductions and help them to choose the right mix of telecom products and services to meet their needs.

Many telecom solution providers simply act as box-droppers, which is not good enough in a market where customers have such a daunting and confusing choice of products and services from a range of networks, service providers and vendors to pick from.

Telecom solution providers need to be able to analyse a company’s business to match the right solutions to its needs at the best cost – which demands that they have a high level of business and technical skill across the worlds of voice and data, partnerships with the best vendors and service providers and an intimate understanding of the offerings on the market.

In this environment, trust and established working relationships between company and solution provider is a vital part of the mix. Companies should not need to become experts in the complex telecom market, they need to be able to trust that their solutions providers will act in their best interests and help them to minimise costs and maximise returns from their telecom spending.

Telecom solutions providers need to take a consultative approach, helping customers to look not only at their costs, but also at their business needs. The goal should be to drive the customer’s costs down without compromising on the reliability and quality of the telecom service and infrastructure.