Read more to find out. What else is missing? Maybe several of these $100’s in your wallet every day. Wouldn’t it be great to get more? Well actually you wouldn’t be getting more you would just be keeping the ones that you are giving away. You see every month realistically hundreds and thousands of dollars are being paid out to telecom service providers for services that are either not being used, were never contracted for or worse hidden 3rd party fees that found their way in and were never discovered and never canceled. Therefore, errors just continue to appear on your monthly invoices, get paid anyway and your business losses money almost every time.

Unfortunately, this occurs so often that U.S. Businesses have a $13 billion a year in Telecom billing over-charges and only 2% is ever found. On average U.S. businesses waste over $38 billion a year due to telephone company errors.

If your organization is like most, you are purchasing an increasing variety of telecommunications services, each with a unique pricing schedule based upon a combination of complex service guides or tariffs and contractual agreements. The validity of the charges on the resulting bills cannot be easily verified.

Do you think that your telecom bill has errors? Well for many businesses like yours, surveys show telecom bills having over an 80% error rate which is HUGE and means every month their and potentially your providers are being overpaid. That probably doesn’t rest well with you? Are you OK with overpaying these large profitable companies every month – out of your pocket? If you are under the notion “well they are large corporations and they can’t overcharge or this is probably against the law and can’t occur or they wouldn’t go against best business practices”. We don’t like telling you this but you are probably WRONG! In fact, it happens every day.

So much so, that in some cases these providers are even in the news pending lawsuits for overcharges.
So how do you find out if this holds true for your business? Have you been over spending for years and are now missing $100’s of dollars or maybe $1,000 due to over-charges. How can you protect yourself from over paying? The first step is to obtain copies of your telecom bills. Then start reviewing each line item for charges that:

1. Don’t match your initial contract
2. Look for unexplained items like “other services”
3. Many times there are tax inaccuracies
4. In some cases you are paying for lines that you are not using
5. Look for hidden fees. Once you find errors or unexplained charges contact your provider

Ask questions, review your contract and request that any unauthorized charges be removed.
In many cases it is easier to assume that the bill is correct. However, this could cost the company considerably. Business owners who review their telecom bill and make even minor changes are saving money every month that can be put back in the growth of the business. Here’s an example of how overlooking an invoice can affect a business.

A healthcare organization was paying for a data circuit to effectively provide for a less expensive way to cost out long distance services. This technology had changed and so new carriers were selected to provide long distance making the circuit obsolete. While the company felt they had disconnected the circuit and we’re no longer being charged – charges for the circuit continued for over four years creating a billing for over $232,000. We were able, as a company, to recover that money that was misappropriated by the carrier who continued to bill the client.

So while you may be thinking to yourself, “I don’t have time to check every line item, I don’t know what all of the taxes, government fees, service charges and other fees represent” – Often times not knowing where to begin, or not having the time to perform these tasks keeps you from what you are missing – a potential savings on your telecom invoices.
If you have concerns about your telecom expenses and want to find out if you are overspending – contact us with your questions.

Did you answer the puzzle above? Click here to see if you were right?
http://limitlesstechnology.com/missing-1-hundreds/

407-330-4466
866-504-4050

You can keep as quiet as you like, but one of these days somebody is going to find you.”

-Haruki Murakami

Verizon has taken new steps to becoming a leader in the mobile industry. They are now allowing consumers to increase their data for free, or allow them to stay at their same level of data for ten dollars less. Each plan for different levels of GB is a different price. This is a deal that could save each existing mobile plan $120 dollars per year. For businesses, this could mean thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars saved.

However, Verizon reps are not automatically giving existing customers these discounts. Instead, they are making it the customer’s job to monitor these deals and making no effort to tell them about the promotion. Not only do the customers have to be constantly aware of new promotions, they also have to call the company and sit on hold to tell Verizon they want this discount. Both consumers and businesses alike are too busy to monitor these confusing promotions. This trend of mobile service providers discounting services and host promotions for new clients, without informing existing customers is occurring too often. This is because telecom service providers normally focus on obtaining new clients, and not retaining existing customers.

Thankfully there are expert third party telecom specialists available to you that are aware of all telecommunication promotions and can work with your providers to get the lowest rates possible. These companies take over the job of monitoring new savings and working with reps to alter contracts. However, a simple warning, make sure to use a third party telecom vendor that wants to work with you as a partner and is experienced in contract negotiation. This can make the pivotal difference between you saving hundreds of dollars, instead of thousands of dollars.

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.

 

It is an odd question, but it is one that you are not asked enough. Let’s say you are walking down the street and you realize your money clip is missing. Thankfully your id and credit cards are all in your wallet, but you have lost about $400 (not including the value of your money clip). Are you upset? Of course you are! Question is, what are you upset about? Are you mad about losing the 6 or 7 sheets of green paper in that we define as currency? Probably not. You are most likely mad because you had made plans for that money to make your life better in some way.

Now here is another scenario; there is a hole in your pocket and you are continually losing about 2 dollars a day. You wear these pants every day (because apparently you don’t like to shop) and you never figure out that there is a hole. Does this cause the same reaction? I am sure many of you were upset but far less than in the first scenario. However, when you look at the numbers, you would lose $730 a year in the second scenario which is twice as much as that random large amount of money you dropped on your way to work in the first.

The negative reaction we have from quickly losing a large amount of money and slowly losing a small amount of money is human nature. We tend to notice large impacts and grow complacent to small losses. I argue, however, that we tend to lose more money on continual small losses because we ignore them. When we lose big, we tend to investigate and resolve the problem.

Why do we do this? Let’s go back to the scenarios listed above. Why did we not care about the pants having a hole in them? There are two reasons:

1.       People generally don’t pay attention to what they wear or use everyday

2.       Because we don’t think the money was enough to worry about it.

In many business scenarios, professionals let money go down the drain because they don’t understand or recognize there is a problem.  They simply let money filter out of their pockets because they figure the problem is not large enough to worry about. In the long run, some businesses let these scenarios get so bad that they end up losing hundreds of thousands of dollars! So please, for your business, go to a seamstress. Find an expert that can fix your issues and stop your from losing money. That way you can work confidently knowing that you are doing everything that you can for your company.

Limitless Technology ~ CRS

www.limitlesstechnology.com

407-330-4466

While this may seem the simplest of questions, because of the sheer number of companies offering “auditing” in this arena it will certainly be anything but simple to select a company that is both capable and will truly optimize your entire Telecom and Technology platform. If we start with who can perform the service we quickly see where the complexities arise. So let’s take a look at how to get the most bang for your buck. 

Insight Research Corp reported in May 2012 they estimate that all U.S. businesses will spend $154 billion for telecommunications services in 2012 and business spending on wired and wireless calling will grow to $184 billion by the close of 2016. If every company optimized now and saved just 20% the savings could amount to $100 billion over the next three years. 

Here are a few terms to look for when you decide it’s time to optimize your Telecom & Technology monthly recurring expenses and begin the search for the best resources. 

Totally independent = Takes no fees from any carrier or technology company 

100% contingency based = Assumes all the risk of finding savings and only makes money on your savings 

Risk Free = Okay free may subjective here but if you have no out of pocket expenses and they minimize your staffs time involvement then we will call it risk free. 

Employees

This is a great place to look until you recognize you hired your IT guy for his knowledge about things like security, exchange, networks, software compatibility, cabling, disaster recovery and the list goes on and on. IT may order phones but can they identify errors in your bill? Chances are if the carrier codes something wrong or misapplies a discount code your IT person may not be trained to catch it, and if they do, do they know your rights with regard to maximizing recovery? What about accounting? Same here they are not trained in the areas that a telecom billing expert is and thus may well leave money on the table. These resources should be assigned to work with your chosen partner to ensure the project runs smoothly. Your partner should work tirelessly to minimize the amount of time these in house resources spend on the project ensuring the best possible ROI. 

Carriers/Service Providers

Most carrier can certainly look at their own bills and those of competing providers to determine if there are rate plans, discounts, or even other services that might be better able to meet your current needs and this can save you money. But can or will a large landline provider look at your conferencing, cable, internet, 800 or any other of a multitude of services with an eye towards saving you money. Chances are no unless they offer a competing service and you may then only be getting an offer to switch to their particular version in order to save. What about credits from the past carrier will they actually spend time maximizing these? 

Third party providers

These guys are fantastic if you are shopping for service and want to get the best rate from all the providers. The question then becomes will they actually optimize your spend across the platform, apply for and obtain maximum credits or do they simply look for a better rate from one of their carrier partners and make you switch. While switching is not always bad it should not be a requirement to optimize your spend but rather part of an overall strategy and only done if your current carrier will not come to the bargaining table. Bottom line…if someone gets paid by the carrier for 10 – 20 – 50 – 100 accounts or more per year are they looking out for your interest or are they protecting their position with the very carriers that have been overcharging you? 

Big accounting/consultancy firms

Some of these big companies perform the services you need however you may want to look into their fees as most are not contingency based but rather charge for the engagement and often only recommend but do not actually implement the changes they present. This can leave your staff mired in months of work with the carriers trying to get the implementation and savings in place. If you have a multi million dollars a month spend this could be a good approach but even then why spend money to learn where you can save rather than engaging with someone willing to partner with you to uncover, implement and prove the savings before you see an invoice.  

Contingency Based, Billing Optimization companies.

Entering into a agreement with one of these companies can help ensure your interest are best served. After all if they only get paid for the savings they uncover, implement, and prove they are surely going to dig deeper and wider to maximize those savings. When selecting one of these you will of course want to check their references and rates. Assuming the references are to your satisfaction it’s time to look closely at the rates. 30% may seem better than 50% but if you pay 30% of $100,000 per year savings for three years your total is $90,000 vs. paying 50% of the first years savings and retaining the full savings in the 2nd and third year. Remember when working with a contingency fee less is not always LESS!!! 

So now you have some data on how to select the right company let’s look at who should have their monthly recurring Telecom & Technology bills optimized. This is an easy answer for everyone. Most Companies would rather put 20, 25 or even 30% of the “over-spend” to their bottom line rather than continuing to overpay… multi-billion dollar carriers.

US Based Executives ‘question business value’ of tech spend.

Recently I was exposed to a survey taken by multiple senior finance executives regarding their opinions and facts surrounding the cost of IT and communications. Overall the “gist” of the information gathered clearly shows technology is needed,  but do not believe they are getting the types of info they need, and the spend or “burn rate” was grossly negligent to the ROI.

Below are some of the highlights or the articles finer points.

After reading…what are you opinions or thoughts on high communication spend rates or the mismanagement of technology costs in business?

• Senior finance executives say their companies are weak at converting business spend to technology value.

• Almost none of those surveyed (3%) rate their companies as “excellent”, according to a new survey of more than 150 senior finance executives by CFO Research in collaboration with consultants AlixPartners.

• The survey also finds that more than two-thirds of financial executives (66%) give their companies a “C” or “D” grade when it comes to measuring financial returns from discretionary IT projects, such as big data ones, designed to improve or add to a company’s business and profits. Only 5% gave their companies an “A”.

• Meanwhile, at the other end of the IT spectrum, the survey reveals that “keep-it-running” IT costs – non-discretionary support and maintenance systems – are cannibalizing funds available for business-improving IT.

• A plurality of respondents (49%) estimates that, over the past two years, their company has maintained approximately a 70-30 ratio of keep-it-running to improve-the-business IT spending, and of that amount, a solid majority – 63% – believes that their company’s spending is weighted too heavily toward keep-it-running IT services, and that a greater share should be directed to improve-the-business IT projects.

• The survey goes on to show that, despite massive IT investments in recent years, companies are not getting enough of the kind of information they need to successfully run and grow their businesses.

• “The message from CFOs and other senior finance executives is loud and clear – companies are spending too much on IT, and they’re not getting the business information that they truly need,” said Meade Monger, managing director at AlixPartners and co-lead of the firm’s Information Management Services unit.

By Todd Larsen CEO Limitless Technology~CRS  April, 10th, 2013

Limitless Technology~CRS

Delivering expert results on: telecom auditing, telecom contract management, telecom expense management, and telecom billing optimization services.

www.limitlesstechnology.com

US Based Executives ‘question business value’ of tech spend.

Recently I was exposed to a survey taken by multiple senior finance executives regarding their opinions and facts surrounding the cost of IT and communications. Overall the “gist” of the information gathered clearly shows technology is needed, but finance executives do not believe they are getting the information they need, and that the spend or “burn rate” would be grossly negligent to the ROI.

Below are some of the highlights or the articles finer points.

After reading…what are your opinions or thoughts on high communication spend rates or the mismanagement of technology costs in business?

• Senior finance executives say their companies are weak at converting business spend to technology value.
• Almost none of those surveyed (3%) rate their companies as technologically “excellent”, according to a new survey of more than 150 senior finance executives by CFO Research in collaboration with consultants AlixPartners.
• The survey also finds that more than two-thirds of financial executives (66%) give their companies a “C” or “D” grade when it comes to measuring financial returns from discretionary IT projects, such as big data ones, designed to improve or add to a company’s business and profits. Only 5% gave their companies an “A”.
• Meanwhile, at the other end of the IT spectrum, the survey reveals that “keep-it-running” IT costs – non-discretionary support and maintenance systems – are cannibalizing funds available for business-improving IT.
• A plurality of respondents (49%) estimates that, over the past two years, their company has maintained approximately a 70-30 ratio of keep-it-running to improve-the-business IT spending, and of that amount, a solid majority – 63% – believes that their company’s spending is weighted too heavily toward keep-it-running IT services, and that a greater share should be directed to improve-the-business IT projects.
• The survey goes on to show that, despite massive IT investments in recent years, companies are not getting enough of the kind of information they need to successfully run and grow their businesses.
• “The message from CFOs and other senior finance executives is loud and clear – companies are spending too much on IT, and they’re not getting the business information that they truly need,” said Meade Monger, managing director at AlixPartners and co-lead of the firm’s Information Management Services unit.

By Todd Larsen CEO Limitless Technology~CRS April, 10th, 2013

Limitless Technology~CRS

Delivering expert results on: telecom auditing, telecom contract management, telecom expense management, and telecom billing optimization services.

www.limitlesstechnology.com

CRAMMING IS ILLEGAL – and reprimand-able with full recovery of false charges in some cases.

“Cramming”: Is when monthly charges pop up on your telephone bill for services that you never approved such as voice mail, paging, or club membership, it’s called “cramming.”  This seems to happen on all services but far more often on cellular billings, landline, long distance and 800 number services too!

Here one way it happens…You or someone in your Company may be asked to return a missed call because it’s ‘Your lucky day’ and you or they’ve won a trip to some exotic location. When you/they make the the call, an automated system is activated and you are unknowingly enrolled in a club or program, and the charge then appears later on the phone bill.

The “cramming company” or “individual”  may not need to do anything except take or  pick one of your phone numbers out randomly and place false charges on your bill through your local telephone company, claiming that you/they agreed to buy  these “mystery” services.

Bottom line is…Look at your bill closely every month. Charges for optional services should be itemized and state the name of the company providing the unknown service, how it is described and its phone number. If you or someone in your Company did not order or approve the services, call that number and insist that the services are canceled and the charges removed from your bill.

Also,  putting a third party block on your phone service accounts could save you a lot of angst. It’s often free and it does not let any third party add charges to your phone bills. Should you be unsure of how to do these processes and requests, give us a call and we can help. (866) 504 4050.

Delivering expert results on: telecom auditing, telecom contract management, telecom expense management, and telecom billing optimization services.

Bottom Line…We Improve Bottom Lines.

www.limitlesstechnology.com

(866) 504 4050

However, there is a group out there that has a head phone obsession. They pay hundreds of dollars for the ear phones the have the perfect sound and comfort. Neither of these groups are what I want to focus one, I want to focus on the group that doesn’t want to spends hundreds on ear phones but also want something a little more comfortable than a small piece of plastic shoved in their ear.

For that group of people, Grado iGrado-Behind-the-Neck Stereo Headphones is the good that will satisfy your wants. Grados go around the ear instead of inside it and are cushioned for comfort.

Instead of having the cords laying in front of you, like the iPhone, and wrapping around bags, clothes, and even door handles and ripping them out of your ears (yes, that has happened to me) Grados wrap around your neck and have one non dangling cord.

They also produce a high-quality natural sound that allows you to hear the sharpest of sounds in music and the clearest language for audio business books.

The best part is that they only cost $50 retail! So, spend a little bit more money and, I promise, your ears will thank you.

Personal Tip to Save # 1: When you pay for Apps or Ringtones to your phone, make sure it is one solid fee and not a fee plus a charge every month.

The telecommunications industry’s goal is not to target your company to pay too much. However, if you’re not looking through your bills thoroughly they are probably not going to say anything if you are over paying…

The fact is, telecom companies are not evil, they simply don’t tell you every time their rates and charges go down or if you are paying too much. However, after years of not checking thousands of bills, errors continue to occur and the most current telecom fees available are not apllied, and those small charges and old fees really add up.

The problem is, if you don’t have deep experience in the telecommunications industry you often don’t know where to look for those hidden charges. Experience is something Limitless Technology CRS has in abundance. For instance…Todd Larsen, President and CEO of Limitless Technology, has dedicated 25 years of his career to the telecommunications industry, and he and his staff know all about  those charges the average business person may miss.

Limitless Technology CRS’s only job is to save you money, so if your company doesn’t save, Limitless Technology CRS doesn’t get paid. We are firm believers in helping companies improve bottom lines and become more successful.

Give us a call at (866) 504 4050 or go to www.limitlesstechnology.com to find out more about us.

Specializing in: telecom auditing, telecome expense management, contract negotiation.