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New Year's Resolution - Resolve To Reduce - then take the credit!>

You should think of yourself as the Chief Financial Officer of the Telecom Department. Telecom expenses are the 2nd or 3rd largest monthly expense in your company and it is your responsibility to control, manage and reduce them in any way possible.

A call accounting system, if used properly (and if programmed properly) can be a very effective Telecom Expense Management Tool, and your career can benefit greatly if you use it to produce measurable cost reductions.

Misuse and Abuse

If monthly Summary Reports of extension activity are sent to Department Managers, employees will know they can be accountable for their telephone activity and will make shorter and fewer unnecessary calls to family and friends.

Productivity Increases

Remember that the cost of a phone call is only about 10-20% of the cost of the LABOR that is consumed while making the call! If you can document a 10% decrease in telephone usage - that means you have reallocated a block of labor costs that is 5 - 10 time greater than that. Find out from your CFO or personnel department what your company's average loaded labor rate is and use that number in your documentation report!

Telephone System Efficiency

If you are not getting any complaints of busy signals - you have too many trunks! But do you know how many more you have than you need? A trunk utilization report from your call accounting system can tell you if you have trunks that you are paying for that are not being used. There might be a bad card in the PBX that needs to be replaced, there may be no dial tone on the block (it should be reported to your telco) or you might see that you just have too many trunks.

Telephone System EfficiencyIf you are not getting any complaints of busy signals - you have too many trunks! But do you know how many more you have than you need? A trunk utilization report from your call accounting system can tell you if you have trunks that you are paying for that are not being used. There might be a bad card in the PBX that needs to be replaced, there may be no dial tone on the block (it should be reported to your telco) or you might see that you just have too many trunks.

Frequently Dialed Number Report

This can be an easy way to find problems. One user found hundreds of calls to a modem. After researching the calls he learned that they were slow, dial-up modem calls. He had installed high-speed circuits to access the desired service, but the final call routing had never been finished so the high-speed service was never utilized. Once the error was discovered and fixed, the department experienced a dramatic increase in productivity - thanks to this one report.

This report can also reveal calls to another branch or facility that could be accessed less expensively by installing dedicated lines or possibly VoIP service.

Document it and Take Credit

Assuming you do reduce your telecom expenses, it will not benefit you unless you document and publish the results so that you receive the credit that is due to you. Ask your manager to include these documented results in your quarterly or annual review and in your personnel file.

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