Regardless of size, the ideal range for operating expenses for most businesses is between 60 and 80 percent of total operating costs. The lower your operating costs are, the better – as long as you’re not sacrificing critical connectivity requirements for your business.
Operating at a low expense ratio is key if your business relies on external funding – especially if you’re a start-up or small business within the first few years of operation.
Here’s the rub – running a business takes serious brainpower and team power. Tasks get very granular for every role, from customer-facing team members to C-Level executives.
For many business owners, trying to optimize telecom services without the help of a qualified third-party expert is, frankly, a double-edged sword. Not only is it incredibly difficult to take on the mountainous task of optimizing your telecom services while balancing everything else to get done in a day, but it’s also too easy for petty expenses, repairs, and other miscellaneous expenses to drive up your expense ratio without realizing it.
When it comes to optimizing business expenses, it’s more than calling your telecom provider for a discount or turning off more lights at the end of the workday.
Pain Points:
Clients usually have a handful of common concerns: generating cost savings, building detailed inventory, finding and fixing all billing errors, contract negotiation, and optimizing all mobility services.
C3 team lies not only with telecom optimization and auditing, but technology optimization within the telecom space.
The Benefit of Third Party Consulting
Let’s say that a company has a contract expiring that they spend roughly $2,500 per month on. They bring the contract (likely one of many) to their accountant (who likely has a full plate of tasks) to see if there’s some wiggle room for the renewal.
The accountant might be able to save an optimistic 10%, but there are likely plenty more savings to be found. Yet, how would the customer know this? Indeed, how would the accountant? Without inside knowledge, it’s hard to get inside deals.
Enter C3 team. The beautiful thing about third parties is that this is truly their daily bread. This is their job. They aren’t bogged down by more urgent tasks – this is the task. More than that, third parties take over communication with the company.
Beyond Surface Level Savings:
Most of C3 clients would naturally not have access to the current market rates within the industry, much like a car dealership would know the current market rate of a used vehicle, or a realtor would know the rough market rate of a building or residence.
When a telecom audit is initiated, the auditor will first look at the going rates for all of the significant carriers. It’s often very competitive within the carrier scene, so leveraging market-rate intel is an excellent bargaining chip for the auditor.
Aside from looking at mobility optimization, the auditing team will focus on technology optimization for a business or organization. This means getting a real, raw look at billing, data, current services, and everything the business is paying for from a telecom perspective – then auditing to see where savings can be generated.
Hardware and Software Savings Opportunities
If the audit reveals outdated software or hardware, this is another natural savings opportunity. A perfect example of this is VoIP services. Integration of a VoIP system into day-to-day communication offers benefits like clearer call quality, secure lines, multitasking features, reduced costs, and portability.
Yet, when VoIP came onto the scene about 10 years ago, the service was quite young and hadn’t evolved into the machine it is today. It was brand new, a bit fumbly, and it was frankly difficult and expensive to migrate from POTS to VoIP.
Now? It’s a seamless process and companies both large and small make the switch every day.
Are you looking to discover ways to save money with new, efficient telecommunications solutions? Allow the professionals at C3 to conduct a telecommunications audit to identify your pain points and offer helpful solutions to ensure your business survives the ever-changing market.
