Written By: Donovan Hoare, Director ATS All Technology Solutions CC.
Published : 2017/07/04
There are a lot of methods of saving money in the workplace,
buying cheaper coffee, limiting the use of paperwork or removing the option of claiming for extra office hours.
However, all the above can reduce the morale of your employees.
So how can one actually save money while improving your company image? Well, a surefire way is to reduce your phone/telecoms bill.
So in the next few sections let me explain how this is achieved.
The Price You Pay.
Phones and telephone lines are a grudge purchase in the office, as it is appliances a business cannot function without.It is then better to utilize your costs as effective at possible, whilst still maintaining a corporate image.
The perception of an office telephone number over a cellular number is quite influential in the SME And Corporate market.
With the choices of rates from 69c – R1.20 per min based on per min or per second. So what options do we have?
There are a lot of options you need to select from such as providers and actual instruments that can be used.
Quick Benefits of VoIP
1. Lower call costs from 55c per min with per second billing.
2. Free inter-branch calls.
3. Free calls to mobile agents such as drivers, on-site technicians, and sales representatives.*
4. No land lines.
5. Unlimited concurrent calls. No more busy lines*
*Please note not all providers provide this.
What To Look For In a Provider.
1. Provider infrastructure. Make sure the provider uses his own infrastructure. Some resellers tend to rent from here there and everywhere, they have no control on downtime from server perspective and failover monitoring.
2. Use open standard equipment. As nice as proprietary systems can be, they are expensive, and normally charge extra for open standard add-ons. For example, A top “named brand” – desktop phones require an extra license (very expensive) to convert your current system to VOIP (SIP).
I personally only provide Yealink phones to my clients, however, Grand Stream and Snom phones are more than capable of the job.
3. Use a provider that has experience in the field. A new startup doesn’t have the years of experience required to run a critical function like telephone lines.
Do’s and Don’ts of VOIP.
Here are the main do’s and don’ts.
1: Do NOT use the same internet connection for Voice “VOIP” calls and your normal internet connection. Instead of “hello” you will get “he—-oo” breaking in the voice.
2: Don’t use any service provider that can’t detect you have a problem before you do. VoIP does give a lot of problems. 1 or 2 min fixes. But if you have to phone your supplier for them to know, it will sound like you have continuous problems. 97% of problems can be fixed quickly and even before you notice. Please ask them to demo this to you. At ATS we can detect an unplugged phone within 5 mins.
3: Don’t pay extra for services like call recording or IVR or voicemail to email. This should be included in all VoIP systems. Fair enough, the recordings do take space so can’t be unlimited storage, but expect 3 months of storage for free. Then maybe a bit extra for long term archive.
4: Don’t give your current Telkom or other service provider invoice before you receive rates from your VoIP provider. The biggest fraud is how they design the package to save you money “BUT NOT AS MUCH AS THEY COULD”
5: Don’t mix analogue and digital, as it gives continues problems, Rather rent or buy new phones that try take an ancient system and convert to VoIP.
Please note that should you not follow the above tips (Happens for more often than you think) please don’t blame VoIP. Please blame you not doing it properly. You wouldn’t expect a good result if you took a BMW M3 to a 4×4 safari and expect good results. Rent or buy a 4×4.
If you want more…
Please note this is the sales pitch of the article if you were just reading for information feel free to stop here. I hope the above has helped you make a decision into the world of VoIP.
At ATS All Technology Solutions, we provide all the above at extremely good rates.
So because I said you must get prices before, ATS has one price for all customers.
Here it goes.
ATS offers 2 options, Corporate Complete And DIY.
Option 1: Corporate
Corporate offers a complete solution designed for high uptime clients that don’t want to experiment and what someone to phone when there is a problem. All inclusive package
ATS Charges R300 Per branch. And R100 per phone extension.
Please note this includes the following
1: The phone. You don’t need to buy the phone then still pay for the extension. A lot of VoIP providers charge R70-R100 per month but that is just the extension. No phone included
2: The bandwidth. No extra charges for the costs of data
3: All the features of a corporate PBX, at no extra costs. Yes, that does include call recording.
4: Live monitoring during business hours (6am-5pm) of EVERY extension on your network. With After hour support options
5: Free support
6: Free calls to cellular devices linked to your PBX via the SIP application (Call us to find out more)
The only items you pay extra is your break out, so if you call a Vodacom / MTN or Telkom number that is a breakout
For this, we normally charge R0.80 per min / per second billing
And R0.40 per min / per second to land lines.
However, use this code “ATS-LinkedIn-DISCOUNT” and get your rates dropped to 0.58c /per min cellular and 0.30 / per min landline.
Please note this offer is only for LinkedIn clients on request.
So for a:
10 Phone extension will be R1300 per month.
50 Phone extension will be R5300 per month.
Please note you can cancel your Current Bill. that should save most if not all of the cost.
Setup Costs: Please note that there is a setup cost for a month to month contract. However, should you sign a 36 Month rental the setup cost will be waivered.
Option 2: DIY
Diy is used for companies that would like to run their VoIP internally.
ATS supplies a cloud server and a trunk with the same breakout rates as mentioned above.
All configuration and Monitoring and Bandwidth is your companies duty and expense to sort out. Also good for resellers
Price for server rental – R250 per month unlimited extensions.
Please fill in the form in the form below and a sales expert to contact you.
So for immediate benefits and savings, Complete the following
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