10 Reasons why Multi-Location Companies should Consolidate their Business Phone Line Billing

Business phone lines or POTS lines, or Plain Old Telephone Service, provided by local phone companies, like Verizon, CenturyLink/Lumen, AT&T and other rural local service providers, are the neglected telephone service that can be difficult to manage and could be costing a large company thousands upon thousands of dollars each and every month. The best way to get  a handle on their management is to implement POTS bill consolidation through a POTS Aggregator.

Here are ten reasons a multi-location company should implement business phone line bill consolidation:

1. Better understanding of your company’s business phone line inventory – Whenever we analyze a business’s POTS line inventory, 90% of the time we identify lines that our client is no longer using or doesn’t need. If your business has multiple locations and providers, it’s difficult to keep track of what services are in place. Utilizing a POTS consolidator can help an organization to save money by reducing unnecessary phone lines.
2. Traditional business phone lines and the PSTN will eventually go away – It’s not going to happen this year or next but it will happen eventually and companies that are ahead of the curve will be better prepared. Moving all your company’s POTS lines to a single provider will facilitate a future move away from the Public Switched Telephone Network towards Voice over IP.
3. Fewer bills equals lower admin costs – IOFM estimates that it costs a corporation more than $12.98 to process one bill. If your company is processing hundreds of phone bills every month, simply consolidating your services to a single provider will result in substantial soft cost savings.
4. Fewer points of contact – If your company is dealing with multiple phone companies, when you need to make a move, add or change to your service, you could spend some time determining which person, from what company, to contact. Working with a POTS Aggregator simplifies everything. You won’t waste time identifying who to contact because you only have one point of contact.
5. Greater bargaining power – The greater the volume, the lower the price. If your company has hundreds of locations but each location is operating independently, your pricing will be standard. When bidding for a large inventory of services, telecom carriers introduce off sheet or non standard pricing that is much lower than their standard offerings.
6. Eliminate third party billing – If your phone lines are currently being provided by an incumbent phone company (Verizon, CenturyLink, AT&T, etc.) your business is subject to third-party billing charges. Incumbent phone companies act as billing agents for third-party companies and third-party billing charges are the result. They’re almost always for services you didn’t request and don’t want. Once they’re present, it can be time-consuming to have them removed and credits issued. POTS consolidation companies don’t act as billing agents, so there are no such charges which help to prevent 3rd party charges on phone bills.
7. Save money – Many POTS Aggregators offer pricing below the incumbent phone companies’ pricing. On top of the soft cost savings your company would experience by reducing the number of bills to be processed, you could achieve hard cost savings as well.
8. Electronic billing – Along with reducing the number of bills and contacts, POTS consolidation companies offer web portals that allow you to review your inventory, activate phone features, request moves, adds and changes and pay bills.
9. Prepare for TEM – If your company is considering Telecom Expense Management, a good first step is to clean up your POTS inventory. Working through the process of implementing POTS consolidation will facilitate the next step towards TEM implementation.
10. It’s a Business Phone Line Consolidator’s specialty – The incumbent phone companies want to get out of the business of selling traditional phone services. Most are petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to allow them to transition to an IP network and eliminate the PSTN. POTS consolidators exist because of the existence of the PSTN and are more than happy to take over what the incumbents want to leave behind.
11. One Online Portal for ALL of your analog phone lines- Another great benefit is having the ability to manage all of your POTS lines from a single provider’s online portal where you can inventory services to ensure that you’re only paying for active lines. You’ll also be able to submit trouble tickets, pay your bill and order new lines as you’re opening new branch offices.

CarrierBid works with every Business Phone Line Consolidator in the marketplace. We can help a business navigate through a maze of options.

If your company would like help implementing Business Phone Line Bill Consolidation, please contact CarrierBid telecom consulting today or complete the web form on the bottom of this page.