News from BBW Consultants Ltd - April 2008
 

Spring Clean

Is it time to complete a communications spring clean? How much are you spending? Have you benchmarked costs? Can costs be reduced? What service levels are you receiving?

It is often overlooked, but a spring clean of your communications infrastructure could save you thousands of pounds by simply checking on market trends in the past year or looking at how your business has changed and what infrastructure can be reduced.

How much are you spending? When trying to manage your communications infrastructure knowing how much you’re spending can be a challenge. This first step is essential if you wish to mange the costs your infrastructure correctly and/or reduce costs.

Can costs be reduced? We estimate that over 80 percent of organisations are paying above the market rate on call tariffs. In businesses the highest costs relate to mobiles and PDA’s, the pence per minute rate and bandwidth costs on these have substantially dropped in the last year.

Have you benchmarked costs? Achieving savings is a lot simpler if you have something to compare with. An effective benchmarking exercise allows you to know if you are paying the right amount for the service you are receiving.

With spring now upon us, if you are looking to reduce costs, work out how much you are spending or simply make sure you are not getting over charged, BBW can design and carryout detailed analysis of your infrastructure and costs and compare with the current market rates. Please contact 0800 458 0550 or email support@bbwcomms.co.uk if you would like to discuss this further.

 

Changing Mobile TAX Rules

As the new tax year starts, it is essential you are compliant with the HMRC rules on tax liabilities for mobile devices. Failure to do so can result in penalties and unexpected costs to staff personally.

You will be aware that some staff use their work mobiles for personal calls, even if it’s a quick call home to say their going to be late for dinner, all these calls add up and trying to identify personal calls from work calls can be a long and laborious task.

The VAT rules allow organisations to claim back tax on business calls however not on personal calls. This can be an issue when completing your VAT return regarding what to include and what not to.

This is something the Government is clamping down on and something to monitor for future tax returns.

Important - Use 0845 or 0844?

If you use these number ranges you need to decide if you wish to change to 03 numbering. The 0345 and 0344 ranges are available for existing 0845/0844 customers. You need to consider the implications and the benefits.

The 0845 and 0844 number ranges have for years had a poor reputation and bad press with consumers. These numbers can include a revenue share with the company called and are marketed as a local rate. Another confusion with the public, is that 0845 numbers are charged at different rates depending which 0845 number you call. 0844 numbers did have the solution to this issue as they are billed a maximum of 5ppm whichever 0844 number is dialled, however, this is still a revenue sharing scheme and different tariffs apply to different numbers.

Ofcom, the industry regulator, has countered this negative publicity with a new number range. You can now swap your 0845 and 0844 numbers for the equivalent 0345 and 0344 number. This service is not a revenue sharing scheme and will allow your customers to call you on a non-geographic number at a genuine national rate. Discounts and packages which apply to national rate numbers also apply to 03 numbers.

All the other benefits of a non-geographic number still apply, whether it be to project a national image or for ease of changing the delivery number when moving office etc. The service is still in it’s infancy but the market is slowly adapting to this new scheme and is proving popular.

For advice on this or anything in this newsletter please do not hesitate to contact BBW on, support@bbwcomms.co.uk

Considering VoIP?

The decision to move to VoIP has a dramatic impact on any organisation. The technology in terms of the LAN, WAN and Telephony is very different and the support and management implications are considerable. To ensure you have the skills, consider our Convergence or VoIP Configuration courses.

VoIP Course - Voice over IP is being adopted by more and more people. This practical course explains the technology and allows you to practice with actual equipment. The course covers the benefits and likely problems implementing VoIP. For full course details click here.

Next course dates - 9th & 10th September 2008

Convergence - Can VoIP, unified communications and convergence really work for your organisation? What is Convergence? What is the business case? Who are the suppliers in the market? Which system is right for your organisation? For full course details click here.

Next course dates – 16th & 17th September 2008

Can Facebook Help Your Business?

The social networking website Facebook (www.facebook.com) has been big news over the past year. With almost 2 million members in London alone, it has certainly attracted a lot of attention. The response of most IT departments has been to ban access to the site during working hours. But can Facebook and other similar sites actually support your business?

Facebook has enabled millions of people to keep up to date with their friends but does this really work in the business environment and is it appropriate? It certainly enables your organisation to have more publicity and it may also allow members of staff who wouldn’t usually interact to do so. It could also allow certain areas of your business that you wish to promote or advertise to be seen by your staff.

However, there is a darker side to social networking sites. The issue of advertising for instance, if you put your organisation on a networking site which has advertisements on each page, your company could be associated with these and you may not wish to be.

Then there is the issue of security, you are allowing almost anyone to see your company profile and allowing anyone who is interested to potentially find names, dates of birth and marital status of employees if they wish.

Then there is the issue of what is being discussed on your companies page, this can often be out of your control until it is too late. Do you want your staff or the public to be writing on a public “wallboard” that can be seen by anyone and associated to your company?