Recently, AT&T has been under fire for misleading its customers on several of its program’s pricing strategies. Additionally, the FTC just discovered that AT&T is also affecting how a customer’s data functions in order to reduce AT&T’s data costs.

AT&T has developed the promotion of the Unlimited Data plan which is supposed to charge a relatively low flat rate for all the data usage the customer needs in a month without charging them overages. This is a highly competitive tactics since other telecommunications providers say that there are too many costs associated with unlimited data problems.

Seems too good to be true? Well, the Federal Trade Commission says that it is. Based on FTC research, AT&T is being sued for mis-advertising the unlimited data plan. Apparently, once the customer gets to a certain level of data, the service slows up to 90% of the speed, making it impossible for customers to use the data quickly and forcing them to either wait for their connection or give up and stop using it. The barrier ensures that AT&T does not have to pay excess costs for data, essentially setting a technical limit on an unlimited plan. This technique is called throttling and it is not legal. It is illegal because AT&T is telling customers that they will get the same access to unlimited amounts of data, but really they are guilty of false advertising by making it impossible to use the data (even though technically they are providing unlimited data to the user).

Although this is frustrating for an individual AT&T user, it could be detrimental to businesses using AT&T services. Businesses rely on access to large amounts of mobile data to speak, present, and share information with clients. The unlimited data plan is enticing because business owners and corporations generally use a large amount of data. However, AT&T’s tactic ensures that business communication will slow and valuable partnerships could potentially end because of lack of response.

In many articles, I speak of how important it is to monitor costs. However, it is also important to know the company providing a service respects you and your business. Telecom providers often are not seen as partners to a business because they are a necessity. However, you need to remember that you are a client to them and their main focus should be to make their service work best for your business, not to make money. Make sure that those you form business relationships with are serving your best interests, or find another resource that wants to see their client’s succeed.

The answer to the question above is cost reduction! Every single company on earth is looking for ways to increase profits and reduce overhead. Being able to do one or the other will make you stand out above the rest.

Recently, Limitless Technology~CRS read the article “Be a Bottom-Line Contributor by Saving Your Company Money” written by a senior contributing author at Monster. In the article, the author tells several stories of employees coming up with excellent ideas that helped save their companies a great deal of money. Some of the ideas were:

1. An employee who invested in a bulk mailing machine to save their hospital a million dollars a year!
2. A process improvement change that led to radiation therapy being cheaper and quicker for the patient
3. A marketing agent buying discount chairs for her company as opposed to constantly renting expensive chairs.

Limitless Technology~CRS supports cost savings of all kinds, whether it is by internal or external resources. The examples above of cost savings are brilliant because they saved companies money by simply looking at an existing process and making it more cost efficient.

Companies need talent to look into current company processes and make sure the processes are up to date with new advancements and ways to save. For example, although the new radiation therapy process created in Example 2 saved the company a significant amount of money, the process can, most likely, be further improved once the company’s talent grows accustomed to the new process and notices ways to make it even better.

Being an innovator is a fantastic thing in a company, especially, in regards to cost savings and reducing bottom-lines. The question is how do you proceed if you have not found a process you believe you can modify to save money?

A very simple solution to this issue is to find a trustworthy, reliable, and recommended third party resource that focuses on cost reduction. These companies already have the skills necessary to generate savings. A special few are even able to find huge savings where you never expected, like saving hundreds of thousands of dollars on something as common as the company’s phone bills.

Limitless Technology ~ CRS would like to know: Do you think it is important to save the company you work for money? Leave your comment below!