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'The True Cost of Telephony'.
No Organisation can function without their Telecoms, but how many know what it really costs. The answer from most, if honest is 'not really.' Yes they look at the overall costs and make sure they are roughly in line with their budgetary figures, but few look too closely.
 A recent Survey by Ofcom found that on average it was costing companies between £33 and £38 per employee per month, a significant proportion of a company's overall overheads.
So where are the Costs?
The common dilemma is you are paying for more than you need on the basis that you might grow into it or you have bought a cheaper Telephone System that you may need to scrap as your Business evolves.
Often the upgrade costs are expensive and require additional hardware and software in a situation where perhaps only a few employees will take advantage of the additional functionality. In some instances you just want an additional extension and you vendor informs you that you need an extension card, a £100 plus Digital Telephone, a cabling point & a reprogram by the engineer. You didn't expect to essentially invest in the equivalent of buying a new PC did you?
IP Centrex delivers all the functionality of a Telephone system, but no hardware is necessary. The advanced functionality resides at the service provider site, designed to carrier class reliability and is delivered to the business via a broadband connection. The solution is completely scaleable by user and functionality; therefore, you only pay for what you need.
The cost of the proprietary phones are expensive. Typically the cost of a Managers phone can average £175.
Basic & fully featured IP Phones are available using open standards (SIP). Basic analogue phones can be used starting at £18.00, therefore prices are not prohibitive.
Then there are the Annual maintenance costs typically between 8 to 10% 0f the Capital Cost of the equipment and of course that does not include any support costs.
The IP Centrix solution provides one fixed monthly cost per user.
Call Costs.
The largest element of ongoing expenses according to Offcom. It's therefore not surprising that there is a plethora of packages from a myriad of service providers. Initially many of the packages look very attractive but on closer inspection you find easily missed 'small print'
Site to Site, Home to Site calls are free. Local and National cost significantly less. You no longer pay BT the local & regional ingress charge.
Line rentals.
Most companies on closer inspection find this a significant proportion of the overall cost.
This uses Broadband it costs less and prices are rapidly being driven down with more capacity for less money. Freecomm offers a commitment to upgrade your broadband facility in most cases at no additional charge as & when more capacity becomes available.
Hidden Costs.
Those costs resulting from the business evolving and changing or requiring modifications to the telephone system. More lines are needed, a new line card for the telephone system another visit from the engineer.
You pay on a facility and single licence basis and only for what you need.
The Costs of flexibility and Management resources required to organise moves and changes or new employees. In a typical business 20% of employees move location in the office every year, in a larger organisation the figure is much higher. As call out rate for engineer's average at £125 per visit, a 20 user site can end up paying an extra £500 per year.
In an IP Centrex solution these costs are dramatically reduced. Adding or moving extension users are done in minutes by web based intuitive software by assigned user(s). In fact should it be necessary to work temporarily or permanently from home simply connect the extension into the home broadband.
HB fuller, Chemical Manufacturer, estimated a $370 saving after implementing an IP Telephony Solution.
Running Telephone Systems can be costly and time consuming, particularly for dynamic, evolving businesses. IP Centrex does not suffer from traditional limitations adding or moving existing users is simply a matter of connecting the IP Phone to the network or a Broadband connection and a software directory listing.
Why not find out more right now?
Pick up the phone and call me on 0191 2521543 or just send me an e-mail - dh@freecomm.info
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