The flow of communication is essential to good business operations. However, costs can soon add up when waste is unchecked and when organisations are stuck with a system that is no longer fit-for-purpose. Out-of-area calls, unreliable long-distance phone conferencing and even unnecessary face-to-face meetings (when factoring in the associated expense of time and travel) mean that communications budgets can easily spiral out of control. Still, with the right IT project management company and a tech partner who understands your organisation’s needs and objectives, these costs can be significantly reduced.

What’s more, a good tech provider could even unlock additional benefits and features that may otherwise be impossible with, for example, a traditional phone system.

First steps

The first step in implementing change for the better is taking a step back, assessing what is working (and what isn’t) and where improvements can be made. When it comes to communications systems, your organisation may want to ask:

  • How many outgoing calls are made?
  • How many incoming calls are received?
  • How many people need access to a phone?
  • Will there be a requirement for features such as video conferencing or integration with CRM software?
  • Does the company make many long-distance or out-of-area calls?
  • Will employees be primarily office-based or working from handheld devices?
  • Are additional numbers required now, or might they be in the future?
  • Does the business need professional call-centre capabilities without employing extra staff?

Asking the right questions and identifying what your company requires from its communications systems is a daunting task. Fortunately, help is at hand and many businesses prefer to turn to external support to enable them to find the answers.

As IT consultants, when we are asked to look at ways to improve communications systems, we start with a thorough audit before only then making careful recommendations based on our findings.

Cost-effective communications

More businesses are choosing to upgrade from the traditional telephony model to a VoIP system, which uses an Internet connection rather than a landline.

This is not surprising. VoIP offers a number of benefits – not least of which are the large cost-savings that can be made on local and international calls.

There are other advantages too, including mobile connectivity, easy teleconferencing and the ability to share a wide variety of media formats including audio files, images and documents.

Organisations can add numbers, allowing for long-term scalability. Meanwhile if, on the rare occasions where there is a problem, communications are often back online with minimal disruption – without the need to wait for an engineer.

Cutting down on the time-consuming irritations that come with traditional landlines, as well as freeing staff from being tied to a physical desktop, are just some of the ways where business can also save money.

Don’t waste money with the wrong IT project management company

Just because a solution has worked for one business, doesn’t mean it is the right answer for your organisation. Choosing the wrong system – or the wrong IT partner – could actually end up costing your company more money. For instance, there may be hidden charges attached to the rental of additional hardware or your Internet infrastructure might not be able to support the introduction of a new communications network.

That’s why an audit is such an important part of what we do. We don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach, but we do take the time to understand your objectives and budget and assess these against your current capabilities. If we find that your current Internet infrastructure needs completely updating, then that’s what we will recommend. However, if you need a relatively straightforward upgrade of your existing system, then we’re happy to help with that too.

Just so that you have an idea of how we work and some of the ways our consultancy services have helped business to cut communications costs, take a look at our testimonials. If you would like to book a free IT audit, call us on 0845 241 6370 or email info@msvconsultancy.co.uk