How to detach yourself from your telecoms provider

Cut the cord – how to detach yourself from your telecoms provider

Find out if you are missing out by staying with your current telecoms provider and if now is the right time to make the move to a new one

Even the best business relationships benefit from a regular review to ensure both parties are still getting a good deal. In the same way consumers are encouraged to review their household bills regularly, businesses also need to start taking more control of their telecoms costs to help keep operational costs down. Despite this, many businesses are still making the same excuses not to change supplier – avoid making the same mistakes to ensure you are always getting the best deal:

“We’ve always used this provider”

With a well-established business relationship, it seems natural to assume that you are getting a good deal. But any number of factors could mean that your current agreement is not as competitive as it once could have been:

• Existing contracts do not always pass on savings realised by your telecoms provider
• Long-term clients are often exempt from the best prices
• Long-term clients are often ‘forgotten’ by their account managers – especially if they renew contracts regularly without renegotiation
• Maintaining the status quo is almost certainly costing your business much more than is necessary. Your loyalty may not be as well rewarded as you think.

“What we have works fine already”

There should rarely be an excuse to replace systems without a good business case. And it may be that your existing telecoms system is performing perfectly. But adequate performance may mask the potential major cost savings a move could bring. Traditional ISDN lines are, in the main, secure and reliable. However they are also an outdated technology that has since been superseded by a more cost-effective and flexible digital alternative – SIP trunking.

SIP trunking is effectively future-proof, using the internet to route incoming and outgoing calls. This significantly reduces routing, maintenance and rental costs associated with traditional ISDN, which are then passed directly to your business. Which is why many telecoms vendors specialising in ISDN are not keen to publicise the advantages of SIP.

“We don’t understand the alternatives”

When it comes to traditional ISDN lines, the principles behind the technology are relatively simple to understand. Your internal PBX switchboard is connected to multiple ISDN lines which carry calls one at a time. If your call volume increases you add more ISDN lines accordingly. However this can be a costly and time consuming process.

With SIP trunking, you are also able to manage an increase in call volume by increasing the number of available lines. However, as SIP uses your existing broadband connections to route calls, this is a much simpler process and in the majority of instances, if you need more call handling capacity, your provider can add additional SIP trunks to your package almost immediately. Not only is this process much  quicker, it is also far cheaper than with an equivalent ISDN solution. Becoming complacent with your existing solutions could be costing your business considerably. There is no reason why you shouldn’t want to stay up-to-date with the latest alternatives to legacy technologies – especially when they can offer significant cost savings.

“It costs too much to change”

To get the most from a SIP-based telecoms, your business will definitely need to invest. This could be in the form of a brand new IP-enabled PBX system for handling calls, or remedial work to prepare your existing system for the use of SIP.

However, the investment will soon pay for itself thanks to:

• Free calls to local geographic numbers within the UK
• Reduced line rental costs
• Reduced maintenance and support costs
• Future-proof technology – will not have to be replaced when ISDN is inevitably retired
• Not a case of “if”, but “when”

ISDN is a dying technology, so your business will need to make the transition to IP-based telephony at some point in the near future anyway. Ensure you are always getting the best deal, whatever the technology – always bear in mind that:

• You may not always get the best prices and service from your current supplier – always shop around before committing to a new contract
• Your existing system works, but newer technologies can offer great savings as well as other non-financial benefits
• You don’t have to understand every aspect of IP based telephony – but you do need to choose a partner who does

Don’t be put off by the work you think may be required to deploy a new phone system – the process to move to an IP-based phone system may actually surprise you and the savings will far outweigh the time and effort spent.