Businesses are under constant pressure to manage multiple technologies at once. There seems to be a different service needed for every operational area of the business, a different vendor for every service, and a separate invoice for all of the above. For multi-location businesses, this process becomes even more complicated. Managing technology services at every location is – in many cases – a full-time job.
If these multi-location business technology challenges sound familiar, it’s time to seek the support of an expert partner like PAG:
You’re still paying for locations that are closed.
Though it sounds inconceivable, we’ve known businesses to do this for as long as two years. Multi-location telecom invoices can be even more complicated than those for a single location, which is why an error like this can go undetected. The good news is a telecom audit can easily catch a line item on an invoice listing services for a closed location.
You’re given inconsistent pricing for each of your locations.
When your branches are geographically dispersed, the same vendor may have different pricing guidelines depending on the location, and you may not be aware of the inconsistencies. Don’t operate under the assumption that pricing will be consistent across the board with the same vendor. A telecom audit will catch inconsistent pricing – giving you the opportunity to create uniformity across locations and save on costs.
Contracts at different locations end on different dates.
Many multi-location businesses lack co-terminus contracts for all of their locations. Unfortunately, this usually weakens your negotiating power when your contracts are up for renewal. PAG offers services such as RFP administration, which have the opposite effect. When you put out an RFP rather than going straight to renewal, you gain negotiating power and ultimately end up with better pricing for all locations.
You’re working with more vendors than you can keep track of.
Multi-location businesses often run into the problem of having 15 vendors when only five are necessary. This may happen as a natural side effect of opening different locations at different times, but in most cases it’s possible to consolidate vendors. PAG can help you determine which services and locations can be consolidated so that you save yourself the stress of juggling unnecessary vendor relationships in addition to saving money.
Services are inconsistent at different locations.
Even if your locations are different sizes and have different numbers of employees, your telecom services should still be roughly uniform. If you don’t have similar numbers of phone lines or the same quality of internet connectivity at all locations, employee satisfaction and customer service may both suffer. PAG can audit your services and work with you to ensure all locations receive similar services without incurring unnecessary costs.
Procurement and billing aren’t centralized.
Is there a separate decision maker at each of your locations? This situation can create the inconsistencies we reference above. It will ultimately cost your organization more money and increase the amount of time each location wastes trying to manage telecom services. PAG offers procurement services for multi-location businesses – ensuring consolidation where possible and keeping your technology costs down.
At PAG, we understand the burden of managing multiple technologies at once, which is especially challenging for multi-location businesses. That’s why we provide full-service technology consulting and guidance to simplify decision-making. We help companies of all sizes and with any number of locations improve operations by cutting costs that hinder growth potential. We can guide you toward the telecom and IT solutions that are right for your company.
Get in touch with us and simplify technology management at all your locations today.
