Large, multi location companies typically have a number of business phone lines (POTS), or analog phone lines, at each of their sites. If a business has 100 locations and 10 business phone lines at each location, that could mean they’re receiving 100 separate phone bills. It’s estimated that it costs a business $25 to process one bill. In this scenario, processing 100 bills each month could cost the business $2,500.
Typically, the incumbent local phone company is the main supplier of the business lines in a given part of the country. The incumbents limit the offering to the areas they service. For instance, Verizon doesn’t offer business phone lines in CenturyLink’s territory and CenturyLink doesn’t supply POTS in AT&T’s footprint.
Business phone line bill consolidators or POTS Aggregators have resale agreements with all the incumbent phone companies that service the country. They’re able to provide business phone lines in all areas of the country, bill them on one statement and provide a single point of contact – all at discounted rates.
Here are four reasons multi location companies should consider using a POTS aggregator. Uncover the benefits, cost savings, and efficiency gains that make POTS aggregation an essential strategy for businesses with multiple locations.
POTS lines sort of fly under the radar because they range in price from 20 to 40 dollars a month and are grouped in small clusters. MPLS is an entire network, SIP trunks are typically centralized, PRIs cost between three and five hundred dollars a month…no one is going to forget about these services. POTS lines are installed and forgotten all the time.
If you can group all your POTS together, you’re going to achieve a much higher level of visibility which will help you to properly manage telecom services of your multi-location company. Otherwise, your business will spread out over tens of bills and multiple providers.
In the example above, the company receiving 100 different bills could reduce that number to one. Most aggregators offer web portals so companies can view their billing and inventory online. This is an advantage because it provides the subscribing company a greater level of visibility compared to multiple providers and paper billing. Moreover, you can easily reduce the cost of your business phone lines.
Actually, for the 100 location company, the bill total would most likely be greater than 100. Companies typically order their phone lines at different times. Many times, the phone company representative taking the order will create a new account for the new lines. This is especially true with large companies because the phone company reps know they won’t receive sales credit if they add services to an existing “named” account.
If you have multiple locations, spread out across the country, you’re probably dealing with at least a half dozen phone companies for your POTS service. It might take some time just to determine who you should call if you need to add, move or change a phone line. You’d have to keep track of all the separate account numbers and make sure the correct people are authorized to request changes on each individual account.
I was dealing with a company that had an individual listed on all their phone company accounts that was no longer one of their employees. Imagine if that person was disgruntled and wanted to “get even”? He or she could request the disconnection or an essential phone line or service, leaving the company scrambling
Working with an aggregator simplifies everything. The business has one account number and company to call. It simplifies records keeping and inventory management.
Most of this will be related to the cost of administering the billing and managing the lines, but aggregators offer discounted rates for the services they sell. It is possible to achieve lower rates directly from the phone companies but you have to have a good handle of your inventory and some idea of what’s possible. Typically, phone companies don’t proactively offer their best rates for phone lines. Working through a telecom consultant or agency can help. Agents work for their clients and have access to the various rates a carrier has to offer. But achieving a lower line rate from a carrier won’t solve your multiple bill problem.
CarrierBid is unique because we represent a number of different aggregators, so we can help our clients discover the best option and pricing available. POTS aggregation can be a time consuming process – CarrierBid will do all the work and we don’t charge a fee.
Click here to receive more information on CarrierBid’s Business Phone Line Bill Consolidation or any other telecom consulting service.
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