Private Equity firms can easily add value to their portfolio’s through telecommunications.  In fact many PE firms have already started adding value to their portfolio’s following these 2 easy steps.  If you’d like to add more value to your portfolio, and in trn more value to your clients follow these two easy steps.

Telecom Audit

A comprehensive telecom audit is one of the easiest ways to save on telecommunications.  When done professionally telecom audits are non-invasive, and often times the company only gets paid if you do, so it is truly no risk.  With nearly 80% of telecommunication bills containing errors, and telecom being one of the most expensive line items, it can certainly pay to have an audit. The audit, while a vital part of the value creation process, is just the beginning of things you can do to cut costs across your portfolio.

4 Reasons to Get a Telecom Audit

Are you tired of not understanding your telecom invoice? Does your IT team begin to stutter when questions move to the finances of telecom? Ensure your company is receiving the best telecom service through an outside telecom audit.

An audit is performed by a telecom consultant or firm and is a review of your invoicing and telecom contracts to confirm that your company is receiving optimal service and pricing. While performing a telecom audit, a long-term strategy is sketched out to help your company discover and outline future telecom requirements.

Let’s examine 4 specific reasons that your company should consider a telecom audit, allowing you peace of mind that you’re receiving the best telecom service and price.

Telecom Audits Find Overcharging

Did you know that as many as 80% of telecom invoices contain errors? Some estimates actually pin this number higher! Each error on your telecom invoice will inevitably cost your company unnecessary charges and wasteful monthly expenditures.

By studying your telecom invoices, a professional can uncover if your company is currently affected by telecom invoicing errors, including over-charging and inclusion of unnecessary, unused services.

Get Better Telecom Service and Prices

The overall price structure for telecom is dropping, especially for newer plans and products. The opposite is true for aging telecom plans and options, where sustained pricing is actually increasing. Regardless of your current plan, reflective rates for reasonable telecom pricing are not often published and are sometimes hidden from the public.

A telecom audit can uncover a myriad of options that will reduce your monthly invoice and provide you more comprehensive service.

Gain an Understanding of Your Telecom Invoice

Telecom invoices are consistently ranked as one of the most confusing of all business invoices. Allowing a telecom audit to be performed for your company will not only give your company clarity, it will also give you a better overall understanding of what your invoice includes.

Many executives find it difficult to understand their telecom invoice and in turn, don’t hold their telecom providers accountable. It is in your company’s best interest to have an audit performed. Don’t think of outside help as a sign of weakness. Telecom invoices are confusing for a reason and having an expert audit them is in your company’s best interest.

Defining Your Future Telecom Needs

Most companies do not have a formal telecom contract strategy in place, which allows your contract to develop as your business evolves. Unfortunately, not having a contract strategy means that your company is under “Contract in Perpetuity” (or permanency), which is an unfavorable and disadvantageous telecom contract position.

Getting an insightful look into you telecom invoicing will also allow your company to form a long-term and short-term technology strategy. This will allow your company to easily transition into new plans and service lines without experiencing excessive transition costs, service delays, or termination penalties.

Once your telecom audit is performed, you will have the comfort of knowing that your company is engaged in the correct services and plans for your current needs and your company is being correctly invoiced each month. You will have a direction of where your telecom needs will evolve so your company can adequately prepare to minimize downtime or for an overlap in services.

Best of all, your telecom invoice audit will find savings and boost your bottom line.

Control Telecommunications Costs

Be sure that the telecom expenses being paid out each month are dollars spent with intention. Here are some ways to do that:

• Work with your operating companies to establish at least a quarterly review of telecom usage and vendors. Sometime just submitting a formal RFP can lower your costs and you won’t even have to switch vendors.
• Avoid long-term commitments to pricing plans. Long-term commitments are generally advantageous for the carriers.
• Negotiate savings from vendors by bundling services and getting volume discounts.
• Offload communication and telecom costs to other vendors, such as SaaS providers and cloud-based applications.
• Look into free products that might be able to replace paid products
  • Freeconferencecall.com (conference calling up to 1000 callers)
  • Google Drive (file storage/sharing)
  • Asana (task management

Anytime you have a chance to add value to your portfolio you have to jump at the opportunity, and doing so through telecommunications is one of the easiest ways.  Not only can you add value by changing the terms of your deal or bundling services, you may also qualify for a credit from previous billing errors.

[author_bio username=”Ken” name=”yes”]