Small businesses sometimes pay hundreds of dollars a month more than necessary for their telephony - thanks to inertia.
Many have a mish-mash of telephony services. It's not uncommon for small businesses to cut costs significantly following a telecommunications health check, says Kelly Blomfield, business account manager at Telecom HubSouthland.
One such organisation, insulation provider Awarua Synergy, inherited many different telecoms services from three different suppliers when it took over a local business.
"It was a mess," says Awarua Synergy's general manager Sumaria Beaton. "We were trying to merge with another organisation and we had mobile phones, landlines, 0800 numbers, fax and EFTPOS."
All of the services were combined into one single package by Blomfield using clever tricks to reduce costs. For example all of the landlines needed to be retained, but instead of paying monthly line rental, the old numbers became virtual landlines, that redirected to the main switchboard. Beaton says her organisation's accountant was impressed by the savings.
Business customers often simply don't know what's available to them, says Blomfield. Other benefits include a reduction in the number of missed calls, and an increase in business efficiency.
Many small businesses don't keep up with the telecommunication services available to them. Some of these services save money, others make the business more efficient. They include:
Telephony is becoming ever more feature rich and is evolving at an ever faster rate. As a result small businesses should reassess their telephony needs and costs every couple of years. A lot of changes can happen in that time.
