While the cellphone has been transformed from the “nice to have” gadget of the mid- to late-1990s, to the essential business tool that it is today, businesses continue to manage their cellphone fleets in much the same way as they did a decade ago.
Indeed, says Graeme Victor, CEO of voice-based telecommunications solutions company Du Pont Telecoms, many businesses are not even aware that they actually have a cellphone ‘fleet’. It is not reflected in their asset register despite the fact that they either provide their employees with cellphones or have taken on the responsibility of their employees’ cellphone contracts.
“Telecoms – and mobile telecoms in particular – is one of the biggest expenses in any company. Yet it has never received the focus that it needs probably because it has traditionally been handled as a low-level, ad-hoc purchase. In the past – and even today – when someone in the organisation needs a cellphone or a data card, the MD’s secretary (or someone similar) organises it,” he says.
The result is that there could be dozens and possibly hundreds of undocumented cellphones within the organisation, each linked to an individual contract with different call rates. The same lack of control and management applies to data cards.
“If businesses don’t know what phones and data cards they have and how much they are paying for calls from those units, how can they expect to manage their costs?” Victor asks.
According to Victor, the most effective way to manage telephone costs is to ensure you obtain the lowest possible rate per minute and that calls are routed in the most cost-effective way.
Du Pont Telecoms has developed a mobile telephony management system that’s designed to help organisations to manage their mobile communications fleets more cost-effectively.
“We help businesses to keep track of their fleets including their SIMs, datacards and handsets. In addition, we ensure that users are allocated the most appropriate and cost-effective call bundle,” Victor concludes.