Telecom is an unavoidable expense for any business, but costs can add up quickly. As companies rely more heavily on communication technology, telecom expense management solutions are necessary to keep costs under control. The good news is that the right provider, paired with smart telecom expense management, can significantly lower your monthly costs while still providing the services you need.
So how can your organization get everything you need while saving money? Read our guide to telecom cost optimization to learn best practices for staying connected without overspending. We’re located in Atlanta, but we serve the entire US with VoIP and IT services, including Phoenix, Miami, Boston, and New York.
Telecom Expense Management: What Is It?
Telecom expense management is the process of reducing and controlling telecommunications expenses while maintaining service quality and performance. It’s not just cutting features. Telecom cost optimization involves consolidating services, getting rid of tools you don’t use, and upgrading to cloud-based platforms. By analyzing your usage and optimizing your tech stack, you ensure you only pay for the services you need and use across all business telecom services.
Effective telecom expense management solutions provide visibility into usage, invoices, and contracts. By continuously monitoring your telecom environment, you can prevent overspend and surprise charges, turning telecom into a controlled, strategic cost.
Ways to Cut Telecom Expenses
Telecom expenses can quietly become one of the highest unmanaged costs in an organization. Between mobile plans, data usage, cloud communications, and legacy contracts, overspending can happen without anyone noticing. A strong telecom expense management strategy helps you identify waste, regain control, and reduce recurring costs while still providing the features you need to run your business.
So how can you cut telecom expenses without sacrificing services you need?
Start with a Full Inventory Audit
Before you do anything else, do a full audit of your telecom assets. Many businesses are paying for unused lines, inactive devices, or outdated services without even realizing it. Auditing all your telecom inventory, including mobile phones, VoIP lines, data circuits, and cloud services, will show you what your company is actually using versus what you’re paying for. Cutting these unused or underutilized services is an easy, almost-immediate telecom expense management solution that any organization can benefit from.
To begin, start by gathering invoices from the past 12 to 24 months from every carrier and service provider. Pair these invoices with current contracts to understand what you’re being billed for versus what you originally negotiated. Create a centralized inventory list that includes every asset.
Compare the inventory against actual usage. Speak with department heads to understand what services are essential. Look for disconnected employees, unused phone numbers, dormant data lines, or legacy services you no longer need.
Optimize Plans Based on Real Usage
With the inventory complete, you can analyze usage trends to find cost-saving opportunities like plan downgrades, shared data pools, or service consolidation. Telecom providers often sell bundled plans that don’t match actual usage patterns. With an analysis of how employees are using your tech stack, you can determine which plans actually fit the needs of your company.
Mobile and data services are often one of the largest and most unpredictable components of telecom spending. Without oversight, businesses frequently overpay for unused capacity or incur surprise charges. You can create additional telecom savings by optimizing mobile and data plans.
- Review call minutes, data consumption, hotspot usage, and roaming activity across users and departments. Identifying low-usage and high-usage trends allows you to determine the right-sized plan instead of relying on default carrier bundles.
- Use pooled data to share data across departments rather than purchasing separate data plans for each.
- Control roaming with clear usage policies. Setting usage policies and enabling automated alerts can help prevent unexpected charges.
Switch to VoIP
Moving from traditional phone systems and on-premise infrastructure is one of the most effective telecom cost optimization strategies. Hardware costs, maintenance contracts, and inflexible service plans often lead to higher long-term expenses, but when switching to VoIP, or Voice over Internet Protocol, you can save a ton of money.
With VoIP, all you need is an internet connection and an internet-capable device to make and receive phone calls. There’s no expensive hardware to purchase, and your provider handles updates, security, and system management. You save on IT labor and capital expenses.
Plus, you pay only for what you use. Most cloud communication platforms operate on a subscription model. It’s easy to scale users and features up or down as your needs change. Have a busy season and need more employees? You can quickly add lines to your plan. As soon as your seasonal needs slow down, you can just as quickly remove those users.
Centralized platforms included with most VoIP plans provide real-time visibility into users, usage, and costs. Paired with other telecom expense management solutions, switching to VoIP makes it easy to track spending, remove unused licenses, and optimize your telecom plans.
Consolidate with UCaaS
Many businesses overspend on telecom services because their communications tools are spread across multiple vendors. If you have separate systems for phone service, video conferencing, messaging, and collaboration, you can find significant telecom savings by consolidating to a single UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service) platform.
UCaaS combines voice, video, messaging, conferencing, and collaboration tools into one cloud-based solution. By eliminating redundant services and overlapping contracts, you can reduce monthly expenses and simplify vendor management.
Consolidation also simplifies billing and helps with telecom cost optimization. With only one vendor, it’s easier to track usage data and costs, identify unused licenses, adjust plans, and avoid billing errors.
Renegotiate Contracts with Vendors
Another important part of any telecom expense management solution is regularly renegotiating contracts with your vendors. Usage changes, new technologies emerge, and market pricing evolves. However, many businesses remain locked into outdated agreements. Renegotiating with telecom vendors is one of the best ways to reduce costs and improve service terms.
Some effective strategies for negotiating the best deals include:
- Use your usage and billing data as leverage. Knowing how many lines are active, how much data is actually used, and where overspending occurs can help you negotiate better rates and terms.
- Review contracts before the renewal date. Vendors often rely on auto-renewals to maintain higher pricing, which is why it’s important to review your contracts well before renewal. This gives you time to compare alternatives and avoid being locked into unfavorable terms.
- Bring offers from your vendor’s competitors. Understanding current market rates strengthens your position when trying to negotiate lower rates.
Things to Keep in Mind
When deploying telecom expense management solutions, it’s important to keep these things in mind:
- Telecom environments change constantly. New devices, remote workers, and software updates can quickly impact usage and costs. It’s important to regularly review your telecom spending to keep expenses under control.
- You can’t manage what you can’t see. Managing all carriers, invoices, devices, and services in one system allows for accurate tracking and reporting.
- One-size-fits-all plans rarely work. Different roles and departments have different usage needs. Align plans to actual usage instead of default carrier bundles.
- Reduce unnecessary spending by providing clear policies around mobile usage, roaming, upgrades, international calls, and device replacements.
- Cost-cutting should not impact performance. The goal is telecom cost optimization, not cutting your spending down to the bone. Savings should come from smarter usage and better contracts while keeping the features and services your organization needs.
Telecom Upgrade Considerations
When it comes to business telecom, there’s always a new product or feature that promises to improve performance and productivity. But jumping on the bandwagon just because it’s what other companies are doing can increase your cost without a return on investment. Before adopting new technology, keep these telecom upgrade considerations in mind:
- Consider your actual business needs before making the switch. Just because a carrier is promoting a new product or feature doesn’t mean your company actually needs it.
- Assess compatibility with existing systems. New telecom solutions should integrate smoothly with your current infrastructure.
- Evaluate the total cost of ownership. Upgrade pricing often extends beyond the monthly rate. Factor in migration fees, installation costs, new devices, licensing, training, and long-term contract commitments before making a decision.
- Review contract terms carefully. Telecom upgrades often come with contract extensions or auto-renewals. Confirm pricing, service levels, exit clauses, and penalties before approving any changes.
- Plan for scalability. Make sure the provider offers features that will allow you to easily scale up as your organization grows.
Top Telecom Providers to Help You Save
When it comes to cutting telecom costs, choosing the right provider is half the battle. If you’re ready to make the switch to VoIP, these providers can help you lower your overall spend while still getting all the features you need:
- RingCentral: One of the top providers on the market, RingCentral offers voice, video, messaging, and collaboration features in one platform. Prices start at $20/user/month.
- Zoom Phone: If you love the ease of Zoom Meetings, you’ll appreciate Zoom Phone’s user-friendly platform. Pricing starts at $15/user/month for voice calling and phone management features.
- Nextiva: Nextiva is a feature-rich platform that offers voice, video, messaging, and collaboration. Pricing starts at $15/user/month.
- Dialpad: Dialpad offers UCaaS features with strong AI integration. Prices start at $15/user/month.
Find the Right Provider with OneStop Communications
Finding the right provider is one of the most essential telecom expense management solutions, but it takes time and effort. You want to find a provider that fits your budget while also offering all the features you need to succeed.
Whether you’re looking to upgrade from a legacy system to VoIP or looking for a provider that better suits your needs, OneStop Communications can help. We bring together quotes from multiple providers, offering our expert opinion to help you find the right business phone system for you. Contact us today to get started!
