Telecom Audit

Statistics show that many telecommunications firms have more than a 30% error rate on the monthly bills they send out! That's why this reference is a "must read" for anyone involved in telecom expenditure it tells how to neutralize those discrepancies and dramatically reduce your business overhead without reducing service. The author helps you analyze your existing systems, identify excessive charges, and act to minimize costs.

• Access bills to find out if you're overpaying
• Conduct ROI analysis for your communications systems
• Negotiate with service providers for the best prices possible
• Understand where and how to get the best price from vendors
• Grasp the effects of deregulation, taxes, tariffs, and more

Phone systems, service, data networks, and the Internet are critical pieces of any company's communications. And most IT professionals don't understand the effects of deregulation and parallel technologies on the bottom line.

Telecommunications companies have more than a 30% error rate on their billing each month. There are only about 4,000 telecom consultants in the country who do nothing but find errors on bills. The economy seems to be crying out for just this type of study.

This work explores the various technologies in terms of cost and ROI, sets up some case studies to solve real communications issues, offers cheap ways to meet bandwidth requirements, looks at the players in the marketplace in terms of technology as well as cost, explains what a tariff is and how it can be made to work for you, gives a better understanding of telecom taxes, which ones are required and to what degree, and provides international strategies to manage costs of a national and global network. Reading this book will be like hiring that telecom consultant.

Contents

• Introduction
• The Black Hats and the White Hats
• Demystifying Your Phone Bill
• Managing Your Local Phone Bill
• Optimizing Local Services
• Long-Distance Auditing
• Toll-Free Services
• Auditing Contracts
• Wireless
• Taxes and Surcharges
• Using Technology to Save Money: Access Technologies
• Using Technology to Save Money: Transport Technologies
• Performing a Cost-Benefit Analysis
• International Considerations
• Conclusion
• Appendix A: Common Uniform Service Order Codes
• Appendix B: Audit Plan
• Appendix C: Worksheet for Rough Comparison of Long-Distance Plans
• Appendix D: A Brief View of Current International Telecom Trends
• Appendix E: List of Reliable Vendors and Consultants
• Appendix F: Managing Your Issues with the LEC
• Appendix G: Erlang Table
• Appendix H: Glossary
• Appendix I: Bibliography