We have four offices in three states. We are looking at streamlining our internet / phone operations among / between the four offices to try and reduce our overhead costs.
Right now we are paying over $1,000 a month for our internet / cel phone / landline services combined for all four, and we'd like to reduce that cost and streamline, if possible. The above includes three 1-800 numbers, 4 cel phones, four internet connections, two e fax numbers, and three landlines. I have wireless network, the other three are DSL.
Is there any way you guys might know of to combine our services for all four offices to run through one service at least for internet? Our 1-800 costs aren't bad, but the cel phones and internet access is what's costing a chunk, and we're all on separate plans.
Verizon is the provider of choice for the cel phones, but the net access varies for all because of geography. I have not checked into anything yet regarding this, thought I'd start here first so EM could tell me to restore to a previous day.
quest. about combining internet access from multiple points
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Mister Bushice
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Re: quest. about combining internet access from multiple points
It sounds like you are probably screwed because you are too small. If you said you were spending $100k and wanted to save some money, sure there are plenty of ideas, but you are talking about 4 people/offices.
Generally when larger companies try to consolidate, they go from paying for individual internet connections to using different technologies to connect Offices to the main office and then only paying for the main office to have internet connection. Next a lot of companies are switching to VOIP services to cut down on land line/phone bills, while maintaining/increasing features.
I'm making some assumptions here, mostly in that each of your 'offices' is actually a home office for the 4 employees and they each have 1 cell phone each.
The problem here is that since you just need basic web capability, your options are very limited. You can try to control costs by controlling policy so that individual users can't just submit internet bills for the whole family, thereby reducing the amount of bandwidth and level of service needed. For example for simple internet access you could probably limit the internet costs to basic home service provided by DSL or Cable companies, but you run into issues if someone lives outside of the popular areas and needs satellite for example. Another option you could look into cellular internet (using pcmcia cards or phones). Again since you are providing internet for business only (and not for an office of people) this could be a better solution due to the fact that you are only using a single provider and could have multiple 'small business' accounts and that may save money.
Another angle you can take is to look at reducing your cellular/phone costs. This would require that you keep your DSL/Cable internet at the offices (and perhaps just ensure that people only use these connections for their business needs and not family needs) but instead of having and paying for landlines either look into a small business VOIP provider or roll out your own VOIP solution. There are a ton of providers out there who will provide you with 1-800 number(s), voip phones, PBX functionality (transfer/forward calls, voice conferencing, etc...) and voice mail for much cheaper then what you are currently paying for individual land lines and you could help reduce your cell phone calls, reducing the bills.
With cell phones I would also make sure that you are either limiting what plans you/company will pay for all together or ensure that they aren't using some cheap plan and then making hundreds of minutes of calls over their limit. These days most providers are coming out with unlimited voice plans. Also if you pay for their internet connection you probably will not want to pay for their data plans on the phone.
Ultimately to save money you may have to make some business decisions about what is important/required for the jobs that your people do and therefore you should be paying for it and what isn't. It is great to have everything paid for as a benefit, but your business shouldn't be footing the bill for their families/kids to have internet at the house, specially if they are on the road a big chunk of the time.
Generally when larger companies try to consolidate, they go from paying for individual internet connections to using different technologies to connect Offices to the main office and then only paying for the main office to have internet connection. Next a lot of companies are switching to VOIP services to cut down on land line/phone bills, while maintaining/increasing features.
I'm making some assumptions here, mostly in that each of your 'offices' is actually a home office for the 4 employees and they each have 1 cell phone each.
The problem here is that since you just need basic web capability, your options are very limited. You can try to control costs by controlling policy so that individual users can't just submit internet bills for the whole family, thereby reducing the amount of bandwidth and level of service needed. For example for simple internet access you could probably limit the internet costs to basic home service provided by DSL or Cable companies, but you run into issues if someone lives outside of the popular areas and needs satellite for example. Another option you could look into cellular internet (using pcmcia cards or phones). Again since you are providing internet for business only (and not for an office of people) this could be a better solution due to the fact that you are only using a single provider and could have multiple 'small business' accounts and that may save money.
Another angle you can take is to look at reducing your cellular/phone costs. This would require that you keep your DSL/Cable internet at the offices (and perhaps just ensure that people only use these connections for their business needs and not family needs) but instead of having and paying for landlines either look into a small business VOIP provider or roll out your own VOIP solution. There are a ton of providers out there who will provide you with 1-800 number(s), voip phones, PBX functionality (transfer/forward calls, voice conferencing, etc...) and voice mail for much cheaper then what you are currently paying for individual land lines and you could help reduce your cell phone calls, reducing the bills.
With cell phones I would also make sure that you are either limiting what plans you/company will pay for all together or ensure that they aren't using some cheap plan and then making hundreds of minutes of calls over their limit. These days most providers are coming out with unlimited voice plans. Also if you pay for their internet connection you probably will not want to pay for their data plans on the phone.
Ultimately to save money you may have to make some business decisions about what is important/required for the jobs that your people do and therefore you should be paying for it and what isn't. It is great to have everything paid for as a benefit, but your business shouldn't be footing the bill for their families/kids to have internet at the house, specially if they are on the road a big chunk of the time.
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Mister Bushice
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Re: quest. about combining internet access from multiple points
ET,
Were not worried about abuse, it's just the duplication of costs we were looking to reduce. We have good controls in place for most of these costs. No one can easily abuse them, nor would I expect anyone to try and do so.
Yeah, we're all virtual internet offices, home office with cel phones and toll free numbers. Since we've recently merged, we're just looking for possible options.
We do all have verizon cel phone service and can communicate back and forth for free. I was just trying to see if there were any other decent package internet / cel service options out there. Those two combined for the four of us are over $750 per month.
Amazing to think how much money a company like Verizon must rake in when you think of that amount of cash for just net and cel service for only four people.
I need to learn more about voip, though. I've never used it.
I have a landline at home that isn't covered by the business but I have got to switch ISPs, because clearwire has a cap on their upload that is not working for me.
Were not worried about abuse, it's just the duplication of costs we were looking to reduce. We have good controls in place for most of these costs. No one can easily abuse them, nor would I expect anyone to try and do so.
Yeah, we're all virtual internet offices, home office with cel phones and toll free numbers. Since we've recently merged, we're just looking for possible options.
We do all have verizon cel phone service and can communicate back and forth for free. I was just trying to see if there were any other decent package internet / cel service options out there. Those two combined for the four of us are over $750 per month.
Amazing to think how much money a company like Verizon must rake in when you think of that amount of cash for just net and cel service for only four people.
I need to learn more about voip, though. I've never used it.
I have a landline at home that isn't covered by the business but I have got to switch ISPs, because clearwire has a cap on their upload that is not working for me.