Evaluating Your Remote Telecom Spend
With more companies leveraging remote workforces, both during and likely after the pandemic, it’s important to analyze how spending shifts may correspond with less in-office work. In particular, companies should evaluate how remote work affects telecom spend.
Before the pandemic, your company may have been using a telecom plan that allowed each employee to have their own extension and desk phone. However, that may no longer be necessary with a more remote workforce. So, by evaluating your current telecom spend, you may be able to find ways to save money.
At the same time, however, employees working from home may be using their cell phones more than normal. As such, your corporate mobile plan costs may be on the rise, so it’s important to evaluate and manage your mobile telecom subscriptions too.
Digging Into Telecom Costs and Usage
To get to the point where you can save money on telecom spend, you first need to be able to get a clear view of your costs and usage.
In terms of costs, it’s important to look beyond the headline numbers. You may know how much you spend overall on your in-office telecom subscription as well as your mobile plans, but you should dive deeper. For example, does your telecom provider charge an all-in-one, annual rate? Or do you get charged based on a per-user or per-minute basis? Also consider any extra charges, such as international rates or charges like for going over your allotted mobile minutes.
Evaluating these fees can then help you make cost-saving adjustments. For example, remote work might be causing you to bring on several contractors instead of hiring a full-time employee at the moment. You may want these contractors to be part of your telecom plan, yet if you get charged a per-user rate, that might not be the most cost-effective plan. Instead, you might prefer to switch to an all-in-one plan. Or, if remote work is causing your employees to increase mobile phone usage, you may need to switch from a per-minute plan to a per-user plan.
Leveraging Telecom Flexibility
Although remote work is gaining steam, its future still isn’t entirely clear. Some companies might become permanently remote, while others may let employees split their time working from home and working on-site. That means companies may be hesitant to make changes to their telecom plans now, unless they can gain more flexibility going forward.
So, as part of digging into costs and usage, it’s important to see how much variance you have from month to month, as well as looking into how much flexibility your current plan allows for.
In some cases, you might be better off switching to a plan that allows you to fluctuate between mobile and in-office usage. Instead of facing overage charges for mobile usage when remote work levels are higher, for example, employees might be able to easily take calls from home through their computers if you have a voice over IP (VoIP) telecom plan.
Optimizing Your Mobile Spend Management
Digging into your telecom costs and usage might be as simple as contacting your telecom provider or using their account management tools. But in some cases, you may want to consult with a third-party expert that can help you evaluate your costs and usage in order to find savings opportunities, while also giving you the flexibility you need.
For example, GoProcure offers a free mobile assessment that can help you cut excess mobile spend. Through a combination of analytics and expert evaluations, we can help you save 20-40% on your wireless costs. If you don’t save more than the cost of our core Mobile Management Program, you’ll receive a credit for the difference. Plus, you may not even need to change carriers or equipment, depending on the recommendations.
Want to learn more about how working with GoProcure can help you manage your telecom spend while enabling your employees to work remotely? Request your free assessment today!
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