There is one example of cost reduction I give away to demonstrate that cost reduction must be a holistic process integrating all services, whether voice or data, wireless or wire line into a single, enterprise-wide analysis.   This example falls into the overlap between wire line and wireless services -- check the mobile call details to determine if corporate cell phones are dialing corporate 800 numbers.  If that happens, the company is paying for the call at both ends.  The...

Cost Saving Tip:  Organizations with SONET/High Capacity Service need to validate that both the rate elements are billed correctly and to determine that  any "Tail" Circuits are not getting billed for Local Channel, Channel Termination, and/or mileage charges for that portion riding the Higher Capacity circuits; at most, they should only get billed for the port charges.  This is especially important when the tail circuits (eg. Voice PRI circuits, Long Distance Access.

Cost Saving Tip:  Organizations with Global "Local Service" Contracts with Verizon and AT&T (that cross the "Legacy" Companies billing footprints) need to validate that all Accounts are receiving the discounted rates for all applicable services (volume, term, etc).   For AT&T, make sure it is applied across all the acquired AT&T/SBC LEC's (Bell South, Ameritech, Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, SNET territories).  For Verizon Local Service be sure the dis

Opportunity/Challenge:  I recently reviewed my AVAYA maintenance agreement and found that my agreement does not match the number of active ports/cards in my PBX.    Cost Saving Tip:  Go into PBX administration and pull the number of active ports/cards in your system and then match to your maintenance agreement.    Be sure to send report and agreement to AVAYA to adjust your bill.   When doing so, I cut my maintenance cost by 27%. .

Opportunity/Challenge:  Your vendors are probably understaffed on the service side of their business. When you send in your disconnects for services, they probably have a back log of services to be canceled from your invoices (i.e., voice and data circuits disconnect).  We have found that the average time for a vendor to remove something from a bill could take anywhere between two and three months. Cost Saving Tip:  Document all disconnects and follow-up within 30 days to ensure credits...

Cost Savings Tip: With regard to vendors who provide "periodic" promotional credits and/or credit memos, be sure that when they apply the credits to the actual invoice that all Taxes are calculated on the post discounted amount.  Oftentimes, these periodic type credits are applied to the invoice but the taxes are still calculated on the Gross Amount when it should be on the net amount.