While a telecom audit hones in on many areas of a hospital’s operating expenses, telecom audits generally focus on reducing costs in four areas. Here are the main areas of focus where you can expect to save the most money:
1. Monthly Recurring Charges (MRCs)
The MRCs determine the base rate on your standard telecom and IT related bills. These are what you spend every month for the services you need, or think you need, and have ordered whether you use them or not.
Since this portion of the bill often bundles several services together, it may take some investigation to determine what you’re paying for exactly, in order to unbundle the services you don’t need.
2. Telecom Overage Charges
Overage charges are what you spend in addition to the base rate for the services provided by a telecom provider. This can include minute or data usage and text messaging services. Additionally, there may be non-recurring charges, one time fees to cover set-up and installation fees, service charges, or other out of the ordinary expenses. By adjusting your plan to account for any ongoing activity that regularly results in overage charges, you can save thousands of dollars each year.
3. Third Party Billing
Third party billing is when another agency uses the telecom provider as a billing agent to charge for separate services. These fees tend to be hidden, and often you’re not even using them. These bills can often be removed with a simple call to the provider.
4. Unused Features
Unused features are the added services that have been forgotten about. Most telecom providers encourage you to buy features at the beginning of a contract in order to maximize the standard offering of a particular product. These features are often forgotten about, adding to your organization’s bottom line expense. Once identified, these can be removed to return immediate savings.
[author_bio username=”Ken” name=”yes”]
