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UK businesses 'wasting' billions on telecoms

Published On 13 March 2007 at 13:22:36

Businesses in the UK do not exert enough control over their communications systems, resulting in billions of pounds of waste each year.

That is according to a new report from expense management firm Aurora Kendrick James, which estimates that British firms lose £1 billion annually through mis-managed telecoms use.

Some 75 per cent of companies do not have a corporate telecoms policy in place - meaning they cannot measure and therefore control business usage of telecoms solutions.

The report suggests that businesses do not identify which services they actually need - from handset types to telephone tariffs - resulting in wastage of up to 38 per cent in some cases.

"A lack of insight into your organisation will almost certainly mean that you are overpaying for telecoms services and missing out on significant cost savings that could be achieved without changing your suppliers," managing director at Aurora Kendrick James Matt Atkinson said.

"Once you have established greater control of these costs your organisation will be able to go on to tackle areas like redundant services, call abuse and fraud."

The report recommended that the first step companies should take to regain control of their telecoms expenditure is to implement a formal telecoms policy and ensure employees adhere to it.

A recent survey from Peninsula BusinessWise revealed that it's not just through the telephone that businesses can lose out. Some 80 per cent of staff polled confessed to spending four hours a week using the internet for personal purposes.

 

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