Auto Attendant
Many businesses use these. They are without an doubt a cost saver. A business doesn’t have to have a call taking receptionist. Just let the automatic voice answer the telephone and with a short menu of command they are directed to where they need to go.

However many businesses have Auto Attendants that are useless or just confusing to the caller. After listening to the commands was that 1 for John at Sales? Or maybe it was 2. Or I was looking to reach Jane and she’s not mentioned. That’s because she has replaced John, but the Auto Attendant was not changed.

Or after the list of items were given, but none of the options seem to be the one the caller wants.

And then there’s the problem when each and every item takes the caller to another menu or a Voice Mail Box.

Voice Mail
It has become a to common practice for some people to always have Voice Mail answer their calls. Or to give their caller no idea on when they may be receiving the Voice Mail and having their call returned. I’m sure many of us have placed a call to a person, left a message, or two or a dozen only only to discover two weeks later that they had just started their two weeks vacation.

Some of these problems can be resolved simply by using common sense. Answer the telephone with a real person who can make a quick decision on the right place to direct the caller. If an Auto Attendant is necessary, check its options and correctness. Always check after any type of office change.

Change the Voice Mail greeting as often as needed. For some people that may only be a few times during the year. An office worker who is at the desk just about every day and the call only rarely goes to Voice Mail and when it does the call is returned within the hours, may only need to change it when they are on leave.

Others may need to change it a few times during the day.

Then again the business can, and really should have a Telephone Usage Policy that is in place and followed by all.

How recent have you done one of these? Or do one before the end of the year?

Email:
Use Reply All when intending reply only to the sender.

Send a list of email address embedded within the body of the message to someone who may be collecting addresses. Or send a private email address to a person that the address owner would rather not have it known.

Send an email referencing an attachment, without adding the attachment.

Be reminded that the attachment was not attached by a person who you are trying to impress.

Telephone:
Think that the telephone is muted and say something you don’t want the other party to hear. Or say something inappropriate.

Accidentally conference two parties together.

Erase a voice mail message that holds important information, more than likely it’ll be important contact information.

Start leaving a voice mail message to someone only to discover you are actually talking with the person.

Leave a message or adding to the message on someone’s voice mail thinking that you have been disconnected, but not.

Energy:
Turn the lights on in the supply room, forget to turn it off only to find that it was left on for the entire weekend. Worst a long weekend.

Wonder why the office is cold, use a space heater only to find that the thermostat was blocked from getting room air.

Cellphone
Forget to turn the ringer off on the cellphone before entering an important meeting and then have the phone ring. Worst case, heading a meeting and requesting that everyone silent theirs only to have yours ring.

Forget where you are while talking on the phone and talk about important or private information where others can hear.

Stop in mid conversation with someone to answer your cellphone without an apology.

Have a person respond to something you said while talking to the cellphone. Or respond to another person who is on their phone.

While there’s not a way to completely eliminate any of these things from occurring, by taking a second to think and not rushing can help.

Some consider the two the same. Which of course they aren’t.

In short Transfer is the act of taking a call and then transferring it to another location. This could be another extension, telephone user (inside or outside of the organization) or as it may have been for the past 15 years or so, to someone’s voice mail.

To Forward is to have all calls that come to your number forwarded to another number. Presently this in most cases is to your voice mail box.

One of the items that can be added to an invoice is Third-Party billing. This is when a company is allowed to pass charges onto your local provider bills. This could be for a club membership or other add-on services.

A lot of third-party billing is fraudulent. Important to note, the local provider does not have any responsibility or liability for third-party charges and third-party billers must be contacted directly for billing resolution. Many local providers will allow you to place third-party biller block on your account. It’s advisable to do so.

Knowing this you shouldn’t simply short pay your invoices. Many vendors require written notification of disputed charges and authorization allowing short payment of amounts due. Sometimes it is even easier to pay the full invoice amount and request a refund for those incorrect charges. Any delay could give the vendor a reason to assess late charges.

Proper documentation can and usually will protect you. Short payment of invoices may look as non-payment and late charges can be assessed on those amounts. Should at some time disconnection be threatened, the correct documentation gives a paper trail that can be used to substantiate your actions.

You want to always only pay for the correct amount, but big telecommunication companies also want to receive payment for services they believe were provided.

Are you paying replacement insurance?
If you are, should you?
Replacement of a cellphone or other wireless product can be expensive. A question that need to be asked is; How many phones do you have? If you have a few, it may be a valuable cost. If you have quantity of phones then the added cost of the replacement plans may be greater than the costs of replacements.

One way to determined whether it’s a waste is to take an inventory of how many replacements you made in the past 2 years. Determined what it would have cost to replaced those phones and and compare it to the cost of the insurance. If the Replacement cost would have been less than the insurance. You didn’t need the insurance.

How are you using your minutes?
Do you regularly use more minutes than you have on your plan?
It may be easier to purchase the all inclusive unlimited plan, but for most this is much more than needed and just making a couple of minor adjustments and reductions may save a bunch of money. Also if you are using more minutes than you have on your plan even if it’s only a few times a year, moving to the next higher plan could save you a few dollars.

Are you paying for extras that aren’t being used?
Being able to make or receive a text message is great, but are you paying for a texting plan, but not using it. Most carriers have an reasonable rate for single messages. Are you using a lot of text messages that are billed at message rates? Add a texting plan.

This is also true when looking at a data plan. Are you using it? Is there a least expensive plan that fits your usage?

The only way to know for sure is to study your bills, or have an expert review the invoices. It should be done each month. After reviewing them for a perioed of time, a year period is good, you’ll see the trends on how the phones are being used.

Google Voice offers a single phone number that can ring on all of a user’s phones, either all of the time or by a schedule that can be applied to each number. The service also has a voice mail box which can transcribe the message to text and send it to an email address or as SMS to a cell phone.

To use the service all you need is an Google account. Currently users will have to select a number supplied by Google Voice. Although this could change in the future.

The bill makes this a secondary offense which means that one can only be given a ticket if they are observed committing another offense, such as reckless, speeding, etc. Punishment is a $40 fine for a first offense and $100 for subsequent violations. No points are levied against the motorist’s driving record for a first offense unless it contributes to an accident.

Last year Maryland passed a ban on texting while driving, which is a primary offense.

At this writing there are seven states (Maryland, California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, and Washington) as well as Washington, D.C. and the Virgin Islands which has in placed bans. Other than Maryland all of these have it as a primary offense.

A list of all Cellphone and Texting Laws can be found at www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

Here are some helpful tips to try to keep your money in your pocket. Some of these may seem like ancient history, but could still happen.

Don’t be slammed. Slamming is when your long-distance telephone service is switched to another company without your permission. This could happen in many ways, it could be in the form of what appears to be a check, cashing it will allow them to change your present service to theirs, usually at a much higher rate. Another way is to receive a telephone call offering you lower rates, even declining the service you may have been switched.

Watch for Cramming. Cramming is when optional services such as voice mail, paging, a personal 800 numbers or club membership appears on your telephone bill. This can happen, like slamming, by filling out a contest entry form, failing to respond to a negative option sales pitch, or calling a 900 number. It can happen simply by the crammer picking your telephone number out of the blue and placing charges on your bill through your local telephone company by claiming that you agreed to purchase the services.

Be aware of scams. Two of the most common ones are the “809 area code” and the “90#” scam. The 809 scam is a valid concern since 809 appears as a usual US area code but you’re actually connected to a phone number outside the United States, in the Caribbean, and charged international call rates to some number. Other area codes associated with this are 284 and 876. Because they are outside of US they are not under any US regulations. The “90#” is also true, but only to a degree. It only works on systems that require a user to dial a ‘9’ for an outside line and there aren’t any other restrictions placed on the service.

Because of these things it’s important that you check your telephone bill each and every month. It’s your right to dispute any charges you do not agree, but you should put those reasons in writing. Be sure to pay your bill on time, you may subtract the disputed amount and any taxes or fees associated with it along with written notice on the reason for your dispute. Your phone service should not be disconnected, but be aware that these charges could be referred to a collection agency.

© 2006-20010 Steven G. Atkinson – All rights reserved

When looking over the total cost of a project, those cost can be put into one of three categories. Those are One-time cost, Annual operation expense, and additional support services.

The following is a suggested checklist when putting to getting a technology budget.

Hardware
• If purchasing new software is the current hardware adequate or is will new hardware need to be acquired?

Integration
• Is the new technology a stand-alone item?
• Will it need to be integrated into other current installed hardware or with existing software?
• Even it’s not being integrated into existing hardware or software, it is being incorporated in the way the company does business.
• Who is going to be doing the integration and what is that cost?

Site Preparation
• Are changes going to be needed in the physical location of the new technology?
• Is new or additional furniture needed?
• Is the electrical or telecommunication infrastructure adequate?
• Is the environmental system?

Training
• What is included in the training package?
• Who gets trained?
• How many?
• How much time will be allocated?
• Where will the training take place?

Documentation
• Are you getting any?
• What is included? Installation manuals? Operational manuals? User guides?
• It may be of benefit to have a user guide created specifically for the company and those costs would need to be included.

Additional required products
• Are any pre-existing hardware or software needed prior to installation?
• Does pre-existing hardware meet the new software requirements?
• Are upgrades or current hardware or software needed?

Installation
• Who is doing the installation?
• Are the costs in the proposal?
• Cost for after installation changes and modifications?
• Are other support people needed? Do they need to be on-site or on-call or would telephone support be enough?

After Installation Support
• What kind of support is offered after installation?
• When is the support available? 24/7? 40/5?
• Response time?
• How much free support, how long and how much?

Annual fees
• Are there recurring annual software licensing or maintenance fees?
• Is there a termination policy on maintenance contracts with an out clause?
• Who can cancel contracts and timeframe to do so?

These are just some of many items that may need to be evaluated when doing a technology budget.