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Exposing Hidden Secrets In Analog Phone Line Costs
ne of my late mentors in the telephone industry, the late Konstantin Grab, was a very tall affable Russian, who dubbed himself “Con Grab” (“Just call me Con”…), which always raised a chuckle from his Clients. Luckily, this article will educate businesses and organizations as to not only “how not to really get conned”; and, also, providing info on a program they are likely not to have heard of previously in regards to the major increases that have been implemented in the past few years by the incumbent Local Phone Companies on their regular old analog phone lines. Analog lines have also become known as POTS lines (not to be confused with Marijuana!). The acronym POTS stands for Plain Old Telephone Service.
While boring regular analog phone lines that have been in place for decades, and should remain fixtures at most business facilities in the Country, 99% of them are on Retail rates of various discounts, versus hush-hush Wholesale rates that can reduce monthly phone charges from 20-60% on those same boring analog phone lines with the same major incumbent Local Phone Service providers.
Here is why this is a big deal. In exchange for handling just the Billing and Customer service, the authorized Wholesaler receives the ability to have existing Retail Customers phone lines repurposed to Wholesale phone lines, without porting any of their phone lines. Since these analog phone lines are not being moved from one phone carrier to another, the business or organization doesn’t have the fear that they will experience a phone outage, due to changing phone service providers.
Why would the big phone companies do this? Because they figured out that they could make more money wholesaling phone lines, where they don’t have to pay employee salaries or benefits, nor pay for expensive retail commercial space to house those employees. They also are not incurring the costs of Customer Service or Billing (and Collection). However, the incumbent local phone company still provides their service trucks and technicians, if customers have a phone outage, just like they do now. So, effectively, businesses and organizations of any size in any vocation can now save money, and still, have the same phone carrier they do now! Now, let’s turn our attention to why businesses still need these archaic analog phone lines when there are all the newfangled digital phone programs.
Analog phone lines are very important for the infrastructure of any business whether the purpose of those phone lines are dedicated to being used as fire alarm lines, burglar alarm lines, fax lines, POS lines, elevator lines, parking garage lines, and having a backup analog line in the case the business or organizations Internet Service Provider’s digital phone lines crash.
More importantly, many businesses and organizations need to always retain analog phone lines for their faxing, because not all fax machines recognize digital signals, as well as cases where the business or organization has Internet connectivity that doesn’t have adequate bandwidth for their digital phone lines, thus compressing the fax signal. If they don’t, they could lose receiving Contracts, or Invoices sent to them by fax, since digital phone lines, also called VOIP (Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol) lines, may not deliver the intended transmission.
Similarly, a colleague of mine shared with me a story where a business had a fire that destroyed their building. And, their Insurance Carrier didn’t honor their insurance claim, indicating to them that the digital phone line they had hooked up to their fire alarm line wasn’t received properly by the Fire Department. So, it would be a good idea for businesses to check with their Insurance Carrier, as to how their Policy may be interpreted.
POS (Point-Of-Sale) phone lines that transmit credit card processing batches of transactions are also best transmitted over analog lines. The reason is that just like sending a large file over the Internet may not go through due to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), the same can be true of a large batch of credit card processing transactions, particularly similar to the situation described in faxing, where there is not enough adequate bandwidth due to compressing the signal beyond recognition by the receiving party.
For those businesses that have multiple locations, their Accounts Payable Department has to pay multiple phone bills per month from different Incumbent Local Phone Service providers. This is a hidden cost of time and labor. However, a Wholesale Local Phone Service provider can typically consolidate all of the phone bills from all of the phone locations onto one bill monthly. Imagine having to pay hundreds, or even thousands of individual phone bills each month from locations around the Country, because the incumbent local phone company does not consolidate the bills.
Next, it is important to know that there are different Plans for analog phone lines offered by both Retail and Wholesale Local Phone Service providers. Yet; often times, businesses and organizations don’t even know that there is a difference. That can cost them. For example, if a business or organization has a fax machine that doesn’t include long distance they can ring up exorbitant long distance charges because it is not obvious that fax calls are charged just like voice calls, even though they are sending data.
On the other hand, if a business or organization has an alarm line, elevator line, or parking garage phone line or infrastructure line, it doesn’t need to have a Plan that includes a long distance feature on those phone lines. Why pay for services you are never going to use. It doesn’t need any other features such as hunting (sometimes called roll-over lines), call-waiting, call-forwarding, etc.
Finally, these pesky analog phone lines have risen in costs in some Regions to over $100 per month! Even for a small business that only has four (4) analog phone lines they might be spending $1,200 per line, per year and about $4,800 annually. If they only save 20% on those analog lines, they are saving $960 annually. And, if they save 60%, they are saving $2,880 annually. Yet; most businesses and organizations have no idea that they can obtain these analog phone lines at a Wholesale versus a Retail cost.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country. Exposing Hidden Secrets In Analog Phone Line Costs
f your Business or Organization accepted Visa or MasterCard for any portion of any year, or any inclusive year during the whole calendar periods of January 1, 2004 to January 25, 2019, inclusive, based on a final approval by an Anti-Trust Judge on December 13th, 2019, you are likely to be entitled to file a claim as part of an ongoing Class Action Suit filed about fifteen (15) years ago that can result in obtaining refunds that the Court determines may have been Merchant fee credit card overcharges. In order to get a refund, business or organizations that accepted credit cards from January 1, 2004 through January 25th, 2019, inclusive, need to Register their Claim by calling 1-800-625-6440, which is the number of the appointed Third Party Administrator. Please note that no Claim Forms have been yet established by the Court as of this date.
The Court established a website to provide all the information in regards to the Anti-Trust Lawsuit. It can be accessed by going to PaymentCardSettlement.com. It is important to note that the Owners of any Business that was sold during the 2004-2019 calendar years that accepted Credit Cards can now file a Claim if they sold their Company as an Asset Sale versus a Stock Sale. And, any Business that went Bankrupt during this period may also file a Claim, if they meet that Asset vs Stock Sale threshold.
Here is why this is a big deal. In exchange for handling just the Billing and Customer service, the authorized Wholesaler receives the ability to have existing Retail Customers phone lines repurposed to Wholesale phone lines, without porting any of their phone lines. Since these analog phone lines are not being moved from one phone carrier to another, the business or organization doesn’t have the fear that they will experience a phone outage, due to changing phone service providers.
Why would the big phone companies do this? Because they figured out that they could make more money wholesaling phone lines, where they don’t have to pay employee salaries or benefits, nor pay for expensive retail commercial space to house those employees. They also are not incurring the costs of Customer Service or Billing (and Collection). However, the incumbent local phone company still provides their service trucks and technicians, if customers have a phone outage, just like they do now. So, effectively, businesses and organizations of any size in any vocation can now save money, and still, have the same phone carrier they do now! Now, let’s turn our attention to why businesses still need these archaic analog phone lines when there are all the newfangled digital phone programs.
Analog phone lines are very important for the infrastructure of any business whether the purpose of those phone lines are dedicated to being used as fire alarm lines, burglar alarm lines, fax lines, POS lines, elevator lines, parking garage lines, and having a backup analog line in the case the business or organizations Internet Service Provider’s digital phone lines crash.
More importantly, many businesses and organizations need to always retain analog phone lines for their faxing, because not all fax machines recognize digital signals, as well as cases where the business or organization has Internet connectivity that doesn’t have adequate bandwidth for their digital phone lines, thus compressing the fax signal. If they don’t, they could lose receiving Contracts, or Invoices sent to them by fax, since digital phone lines, also called VOIP (Voice-Over-Internet-Protocol) lines, may not deliver the intended transmission.
Similarly, a colleague of mine shared with me a story where a business had a fire that destroyed their building. And, their Insurance Carrier didn’t honor their insurance claim, indicating to them that the digital phone line they had hooked up to their fire alarm line wasn’t received properly by the Fire Department. So, it would be a good idea for businesses to check with their Insurance Carrier, as to how their Policy may be interpreted.
POS (Point-Of-Sale) phone lines that transmit credit card processing batches of transactions are also best transmitted over analog lines. The reason is that just like sending a large file over the Internet may not go through due to your Internet Service Provider (ISP), the same can be true of a large batch of credit card processing transactions, particularly similar to the situation described in faxing, where there is not enough adequate bandwidth due to compressing the signal beyond recognition by the receiving party.
For those businesses that have multiple locations, their Accounts Payable Department has to pay multiple phone bills per month from different Incumbent Local Phone Service providers. This is a hidden cost of time and labor. However, a Wholesale Local Phone Service provider can typically consolidate all of the phone bills from all of the phone locations onto one bill monthly. Imagine having to pay hundreds, or even thousands of individual phone bills each month from locations around the Country, because the incumbent local phone company does not consolidate the bills.
Next, it is important to know that there are different Plans for analog phone lines offered by both Retail and Wholesale Local Phone Service providers. Yet; often times, businesses and organizations don’t even know that there is a difference. That can cost them. For example, if a business or organization has a fax machine that doesn’t include long distance they can ring up exorbitant long distance charges because it is not obvious that fax calls are charged just like voice calls, even though they are sending data.
On the other hand, if a business or organization has an alarm line, elevator line, or parking garage phone line or infrastructure line, it doesn’t need to have a Plan that includes a long distance feature on those phone lines. Why pay for services you are never going to use. It doesn’t need any other features such as hunting (sometimes called roll-over lines), call-waiting, call-forwarding, etc.
Finally, these pesky analog phone lines have risen in costs in some Regions to over $100 per month! Even for a small business that only has four (4) analog phone lines they might be spending $1,200 per line, per year and about $4,800 annually. If they only save 20% on those analog lines, they are saving $960 annually. And, if they save 60%, they are saving $2,880 annually. Yet; most businesses and organizations have no idea that they can obtain these analog phone lines at a Wholesale versus a Retail cost.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country. 
New Program Virtually Eliminates Credit Card Processing Fees
f your Business or Organization accepted Visa or MasterCard for any portion of any year, or any inclusive year during the whole calendar periods of January 1, 2004 to January 25, 2019, inclusive, you are likely to be entitled to file a claim as part of an ongoing Class Action Suit filed about fifteen (15) years ago that can result in obtaining refunds that the Court determines may have been Merchant fee credit card overcharges. The Court established a website to provide all the information in regards to the Anti-Trust Lawsuit. It can be accessed by going to PaymentCardSettlement.com. It is important to note that the Owners of any Business that was sold during the 2004-2019 calendar years that accepted Credit Cards can now file a Claim if they sold their Company as an Asset Sale versus a Stock Sale. And, any Business that went Bankrupt during this period may also file a Claim, if they meet that Asset vs Stock Sale threshold
As background, about fifteen (15) years ago, a group of Retailers filed an Anti-Trust Case against Visa and MasterCard. In simple terms, the Case obtained Preliminary approval to be settled. And, a hearing was conducted on the proposed settlement on November 7th, 2019. The hearing on November 7th was dubbed as a Fairness Hearing. At that time, both the Claimants, and Defendants alike from the original Class Action Suit which is detailed at the web site of PaymentCardSettlement.com communicated to the Judge any info they wanted to add, before she makes her ruling. The timeline for her ruling itself does not have a calendar date attached to it. So, her ruling may be made in months or years, depending on the issues she has to take into consideration.
During the past twenty five (25) years, I have run my own business. About a half dozen years ago, I had to get a Merchant Account to be able to process Visa and MasterCard, because some business colleagues wanted me to produce an affinity group symposium that required me to procure lodging and meeting space and ground transportation in addition to provide onsite meeting planning and staffing of the event. As my last business which I sold in 1994 was in the hospitality business, this was familiar territory for me. The point of sharing this is that my Company itself is eligible to file a Claim with the Court through their Third Party Administrator.
After reviewing the information, because our Company was eligible itself for a Refund, So, I called the toll-free Contact Number of the Third Party Administrator who can be reached at 1-800-625-6440. And, asked them what I needed to do in order for me to file a Claim. They instructed me to provide them with the usual Company information, as well as my Federal Taxpayer Identification Number, which I did. They then told me that I would be receiving further information in the mail. To this date, the Judge has not made any ruling.
However, the danger of a Class Action Settlement Case is that even when a judgment is issued, the amount of money that each Claimant can receive can be a pittance in relationship to the amount that they would envision that they would receive. This weekend my wife and I went to see a new Movie entitled Dark Waters starring Mark Ruffalo. Regardless of this article, it is an important movie, as without giving anything away has a direct effect on any reader of this article. One parameter of the movie focuses on the futility of Class Action Lawsuits.
There is a great website on Class Action Lawsuits located at ClassAction.org. In reviewing a couple of blog posts, I learned that the Claimants of a Class Action lawsuit against Dial Soap because Dial claimed that is soap killed 99% of germs, when it actually did not work better than regular soap and water took years and years won a judgment that was capped at an award of 27 cents per bottle of Dial Soap with a maximum of 30 Bottles for a grand sum of $6.40. In the case of the Exxon Valdez oil spill case, that Class Action Lawsuit dragged on for over twenty (20) years.
While ClassAction.org cites that a typical Class Action Suit takes 2-3 years, the Claimants for this pending Credit Card Processing Fee settlement case are currently in never-never land, where they may never-never get paid anything because the Case continues to be up in the air. Is there an option available for Businesses and Organizations that would like to sell their pending refund? It is possible. Why in the World would anyone want to buy a pending refund on a Class Action Suit? The answers may surprise you.
There are Global Financial groups that have investors that are looking to place their monies in investment opportunities that are alternatives to standard interest rate accruals that Banks generally yield. Investopedia has a good article entitled How Negative Investment Rates Work which provides a good overview of European investors (see https://www.investopedia.com/articles/investing/070915/how-negative-interest-rates-work.asp, So, buying positions in a future long-term investment can make economic sense to some investment groups, such as those based in Europe.
So, because the Court recognized that some Medium and Large Companies are not going to want to wait years and years to get an undetermined amount of money, because there are so many variables that effect the actual payment of Claims in a Class Action Lawsuit, the Court actually recognized that it is okay for anyone who accepted Credit Cards during the 2004-2019 calendar years to be able to sell their position in their Claim. And, stipulated as such, per the info on the paymentcardsettlement.com website.
So, in general terms, if a Business or Organization has processed $250 million dollars or more in gross Credit Card processing sales over a 15-year period, which is only just over $1.3 million per month, which is an amount generated by any decent size restaurant, would likely be in a position to be able to sell their future Claim position in the Credit Card Refund Settlement. And, to do so, they would simply have to provide the prospective buyers verification in the form of as much prior credit card processing statements, or accounting or bookkeeping statements, and general ledger line items in regards to credit card processing that they filed on their tax returns. In other words, as in any business transaction where you have a Buyer and a Seller, the Buyer wants to have verification of what they are purchasing! Let me continue.
In my own review and personal opinion of the Third Party Administrator, the estimated number of Claimants for this Class Action Suit are over 7 million. Common sense dictates that before any Claimant can be paid, it is going to take years and years for the Third Party Administrator to confirm what each Claimant was paying in Credit Card Processing Fees, because unlike Dial Soap, where you had a relatively defined price, in the case of Credit Card processing fees, it is disparate. Card-Not-Present Merchants routinely pay less than Retailers. While a group of Retailers filed the initial Claim, the Court is going to adjudicate the entire Class. This brings me back to the Dark Hours Movie (Spoiler Alert!). At one point in the Movie in regards to a Case that had dragged on for decades to a few years ago, the Judge quips that the Class Action Suit could go on for hundreds of Years. My point is that even when the Judge issues a ruling, my personal opinion is that the number of Employees of the Third Party Administrator will not be able to pour over each individual Claim in regards to the fees that they paid versus other Merchants. Additionally, the number of very large Merchants, such as Airlines and Utilities are each going to have the weighted dollar volume processing of thousands and thousands of Smaller Merchants.
The bottom line is that there are some Businesses and Organizations who do get offers from financial entities who wish to purchase their future Credit Card Refund Claim. And, those who avail themselves of opting for that opportunity may subscribe to the old adage, “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.”
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country.
Are You Getting Screwed On Electric, Gas, And Telecom Bills?
o matter what the size or vocation of your Company or Organization, when your electricity bill arrives at your Accounts Payable Department, they pay the bills, so that the lights do not go off at your facility. Yet; the bills themselves are incomprehensible. How does your Accounts Payable Department know that the Utility bills are correct? They don’t because no salaried employee has the skill set to comprehend the bills. You wouldn’t expect your employees to be able to analyze the invoice accuracy, rates, and tariffs on your electricity bill to be able to determine if you are overcharged. And, if a billing error is going on, it will continue, month after month, and year after year. And, even if they are detected, the policies on issuing credits on past billing errors, varies on a State by State basis, with recovery generally being limited to 1-3 years. So, these undetected billing errors are a silent thief that never gets punished.
Incumbent Utilities that deliver your electricity and your natural gas, by Law, cannot make money nor lose money on your electricity or natural gas bill. Utility bills not only include your electricity and natural gas bills. They also include your Water and Sewer bills. And, they include all of your Telephone bills, including your regular analog Plain Old Telephone Lines, dubbed “POTS” lines, and/or your digital data lines that carry your Network traffic and Internet connectivity. They also include all of your mobile devices that carry your cellular calls and texts. A common problem with telecommunications contracts is that embedded within the terms and conditions are automatic renewals that can kick-in during a short time-window. They can also include covenants that have abhorrent early termination penalties. The worst type of telecommunications contract will assess dramatic surcharges if your company or organization does not achieve the historical usage level that may be required in that service agreement.
Telephone regulations allow your incumbent phone company to provide third party billing for other telecommunication providers who can range from anything from independent phone companies who provide long distance services and voice mail providers to psychic hotlines. These incumbent phone companies can charge these entities 15% to bill their customers. Many of these 3rd party telecom providers get their sign-ups by outbound telemarketing efforts to unsuspecting employees who may unwittingly provide verbal consent to begin a service that again is silently appended to the phone bill every month, year after year. Your incumbent phone company is allowed by Law, to do business with these entities.
While deregulation of the Telephone industry occurred back in 1984, deregulation of the electricity and natural gas industry is still underway. Some States offer both deregulated electricity and deregulated natural gas. Other States only offer deregulated natural gas. The problem with deregulated electricity and natural gas is that it has become another haven for outbound telemarketers whose sales tactics are structured so it seems they are telling the truth. But; unlike the swearing in of a witness in a criminal trial, it is not the “whole truth, and nothing, but; the truth.” Here’s how you get screwed. Incumbent Utilities are also allowed to act as third-party billing companies in doing the billing and collections for these deregulated natural gas companies.
Deregulated electricity and natural gas rate quotes can be represented by simply communicating the cost of the commodity itself, which is like buying a mattress without the box springs or the bed frame. So, if you received a rate quote for electricity from a telemarketer, it likely does not include major charges such as capacity costs, line loss, and ancillary charges that the deregulated company doesn’t have to even mention which are then appended to your bill as what are deemed pass-through charges. These pass-through charges can amount to paying an effective rate that can be much higher than just the cost of the energy commodity itself, because all of those pass-through charges are being billed to you by the Incumbent Utility, versus being included in the rate quote you received from the telemarketer.
With deregulated electricity and natural gas rate quotes, they come in two flavors, fixed rates, and index rates. Fixed rates are just like a real estate mortgage. You sign up typically for 1, 2, or 3-years and you get a fixed price. However, if for example, you signed up for a deregulated electricity contract at 9 cents a kilowatt, because you were previously on a fixed rate contract and were paying 11 cents a kilowatt, you need to be aware that even though you are saving money from what you were previously paying, there is a risk that the cost of electricity may dip to 7 cents during the term of your contract. Similarly, if you sign up for an index rate for natural gas, which is a rate that fluctuates monthly on the open market, and there is inclement weather that drives up the cost of natural gas, you can lose money that way.
Now, let me tell you how you now get screwed. Rate quotes can be represented with what are called swing charges. Basically, a swing charge is a variance from the amount of usage you have contracted for electricity and/or natural gas. So, if you get quoted a 10% swing charge, it means that the rate quote is only good for the usage that is within 10% of the amount of electricity or natural gas you had agreed to purchase. And, that any higher variance would be charged at the prevailing retail rate, just like buying a retail pair of shoes. So, knowing to ask for a rate quote for 100% Swing, meaning that the deregulated service provider is not going to charge you a higher rate for any variance in usage, is one way you can reduce the chances of getting screwed. The point here is that these basic facts are not being disclosed, and do not have to be disclosed, at the point of sale. Knowing how the Utility game is played, will help you not to get screwed going forward.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country.
New Check Acceptance Solutions Increase Business While Avoiding Fraud
hat if businesses could accept a check just like a credit card? The answer is to implement a program that allows the customer to pay by check, and treat them in the same way as you would a credit card paying customer. And, what if a business could tailor check acceptance solutions they needed that was specific to solving a payment solution for their vocation? For example, if you have an automotive transmission shop, and a customer’s transmission fails, it is an unexpected expense, and costs thousands of dollars, which can be well beyond the credit limit on the customer’s credit card. The customer may not have the monies readily available to pay to have a new transmission installed in their vehicle. The same situation is true in a bereavement situation where the family has to pay for an expensive funeral, because a death came unexpectedly.
The answer to all of these problems is for the business to also have a check acceptance service provider, just like their credit card service provider. And, to tailor the program so that the Client can pay the business in a 30-60 day period, so that the business does not lose the sale, while allowing the Customer to be able to finance the unexpected expense at no cost to them. Being able to accept a credit card just like a check allows the business to accept In-State, Out-Of-States, and Canadian checks, with a Drivers License, State I.D., or Military I.D.
Financing a sale for 30-60 days becomes particularly attractive to auto dealerships. Let’s say a husband and wife comes into the showroom and the husband gets paid on the fifteenth of the month, and the wife gets paid at the end of the month. The couple finds the car that they have been looking for all over the place at a price they can afford. However, like about 30% of the population, they don’t have a credit card. The check acceptance solution solves everyone’s problem, as the couple can now finance the down payment on the vehicle.
The risk of accepting a credit card is that the business can be defrauded. Even new chip-based credit card terminals can’t overcome a clever criminal who simply tampers with the magnetic stripe on their credit card so that the business has to enter in their credit card number manually. If it turns out that the credit card has been lost or stolen, the new credit card terms and conditions do not protect the business from having no recourse from the credit card company that does not reimburse them because the credit card was not swiped and accepted.
To highlight other vocational industry specific payment problems, if a family has a sick pet that needs to be rushed to the veterinary hospital, when they find out that it will take an operation to keep the pet alive, the parents may not have the funds readily available, and certainly do not want their children to think that they didn’t want to put out the money to keep the family pet alive. Conversely, if any service professional such as a veterinarian or a dentist encounters a new customer that they have never seen before, how do they know that the customers check is not going to bounce? They don’t. The check acceptance solution pre-authorizes payment to these business professionals before services are rendered. And, the cost to the business is comparable to accepting a credit card. Yet; there is a big difference.
When you are a business and you accept a credit card, you are at risk that your Client will calling their credit card company to dispute the charges, after services have been rendered. This is called a credit-card chargeback. For example, in the case of the family that the sick pet that had to go to the veterinary hospital, if the pet dies in the care of the veterinary clinic, this is a real possibility. Yet; services were rendered. Alternatively, in the case of the check acceptance program, if the Customer puts a “Stop Payment” on the check, the check acceptance service provider covers the amount of the sale. Automotive muffler shops are notorious for having their Clients issue “Stop Payments”. This check acceptance solution eliminates the risk to the business because they know they are going to get paid.
Some businesses such as wholesalers and distributors receive orders all day long from retailers they may have met at a trade show, many of whom may be new Customers. It is common practice for businesses to ask the new retailer for a credit application. And, then; to extend them credit terms of Net-30. This common practice is seriously flawed. First of all, let’s say that you have an automotive parts distributor who is selling clutch-kits. If an automotive repair business has an auto up on their rack, they don’t have time to complete a credit application. With a check acceptance program, they can have their clutch-kit shipped C.O.D. (Check-On-Delivery), by having the business provide their telephone number for authorization of the business-to-business transaction, and to be able to ship the product to the customer the same day they made the request, allowing them to not lose the sale, and to befriend a new client.
Finally, many businesses are located miles from their nearest depository Bank, such as businesses located on the highway, or in a recreational area. They have hesitated in accepting checks because they don’t have the time to go to the Bank to deposit their check. Or, they may be so busy during the day that they don’t have time to accept checks and go to the Bank. This problem is overcome by having the check acceptance service provider consign an electronic conversion terminal to their business at no cost. This allows them to accept a check from their customer and have the check converted into an ACH/Debit transaction at the point of sale, eliminating the problem of going to the Bank. This solution is particularly attractive to any lodging or campground facility, as this ACH/Debit solution acts as an ATM Machine, allowing them to advance monies to their valued guests, and be guaranteed payment by the check acceptance company. All of these check acceptance solutions say, “We Trust Our Customer”.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country.
New Utility Bill Cost Solutions Eliminate Direct Capital Expenditures
tility bills can make you as frustrated as a termite in a petrified forest. Businesses and organizations would love to avail themselves of any and every energy efficiency program that is available in the marketplace. Yet; every year, it’s the same old snag: “It’s not in the budget!” In order to fully understand the scope of the problem, let’s examine the cost components of Utility bills, beginning with electricity.Electricity bills are made up of two components: 1) The meter side which consists of any cost element pertaining to the rate itself, the meter, and billing, and 2) The demand side which consists of everything at any facility that consumes electricity. This includes, but; is not limited to the following: lighting, heating/ventilation/air conditioning (HVAC), inductive energy equipment (i.e. boilers, chillers, pumps, cooling towers).
In regards to the meter side of electricity bills identifying energy industry professionals who are willing to work on a performance-based shared benefit basis is difficult, because since they do all of the work, if they don’t find any past or future savings, they may have spent hundreds of hours for nothing, while providing whomever retained their services with a free audit of their bills. On the other hand, this is generally not the case and can unearth opportunities that would never have been uncovered, such as errors in metric unit conversion, double-billings, and phantom-billings.
Conversely, in regards to the demand side of the electricity bill equation, retaining the services of a performance-based shared benefit energy industry professional has a greater likelihood of success if they can facilitate cost reduction on an ongoing prospective basis. This can include being able to obtain commercial lighting, HVAC, and even solar panels without any direct out-of-pocket capital expenditures whether a business or organization owns the building that is housing its facilities or is being billed by the Utility company and leasing the facilities it resides. How is that possible?
Energy efficiency commercial businesses have also recognized that their sales have been stymied by the same problem that their Clients have been telling them for the past several years: “It’s not in our budget!” So, these entities have decided to “take the risk” of deploying their equipment to businesses and organizations and billing them on a subscription basis, just like your Cable-TV provider bills for their services.
So, these energy efficiency subscription services eliminate the dollars and cents systemic problem of not having enough money in the annual budget to implement immediate Utility cost reduction. For example, in HVAC cost reduction, whether the facility has rooftop of ground-mounted systems, the cost savings can also apply to any walk-in cooler or refrigeration unit that the facility has on its premises. Once the information has been evaluated by the energy efficiency subscription service provider, a site visit is scheduled to confirm that the percentage (%) cost savings can be obtained. Then, if the cost savings projections are verified, the Client receives their subscription Service Agreement. In cases where the Client is leasing its commercial space, all they need to do is to have their Landlord sign a waiver, which is in their interest, as the subscription is assumable.
Savings in Natural Gas expenditures can also overlap in savings for other Utility costs. For example, a Co-Generation system, which is a Natural Gas Generator that converts Natural Gas to electricity, can also be obtained on a subscription basis. This solution not only reduces Natural Gas costs, as Co-Generation systems receive a favorable rate from Utilities since they are creating additional capacity for the electric grid of the Utility; more importantly, it creates significant cost savings on electricity. And, in cases where the Client is a health care facility, hotel, or a school, the waste heat from the Natural Gas generator can be used to heat the water of the facility. Or, in the case of a facility that purchases its steam, a similar solution, called a Tri-Generation system, can eliminate the entire steam bill costs in the same manner. Most Co-Generation systems have the ability to also act independently of the Grid, allowing mission-critical businesses and organizations to know that they will be able to continue to operate during power outages.
A different problem exists with regular Diesel and/or Natural Gas Generators that primarily in the Northeast and Midwest in that there are new EPA Regulations in place in regards to air pollution that require them to upgrade their catalytic equipment. For these entities, they may be able to have all their costs paid for by an energy efficiency hosting solution where their equipment is upgraded, saving them tens of thousands of dollars, while creating a new revenue stream for them in the monies that the hosting Company receives from the electrical Grid operator in creating additional capacity for the Utility.
This new type of energy efficiency hosting solution can now be applied to commercial solar installations. In other words, in certain States, if a business or organization, whether it be an agricultural farm, landfill, or religious institution, can qualify to be the host site of a commercial solar array. And, get paid a monthly fee from the energy efficiency hosting Company. They even have the option of reducing their own electricity cost. This solution is particularly attractive, for a multi-family apartment building, where the hosted solar array can actually reduce the individual apartments of the tenants of the building. The same would be true of a Home Owners Association (HOA) or Condominium Association.
Utility cost savings can also apply to water and sewer costs, such as laundry technology that saves on water, sewer, natural gas, and electricity costs. With traditional energy management consulting firms, they are either retained on an hourly basis or a Project basis that can run tens of thousands of dollars. Alternatively, engaging the services of performance-based energy professionals, there is no risk since if you do nothing, you will continue to pay what you are paying now for your electricity, natural gas, and water and sewer bills. With utility bills constantly on the rise, procrastination can get awfully expensive.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country.
New Breakthrough Reduces Cost Accepting Credit Cards Payments
hen a Business decision-maker is being pitched on anything new, all they want to know is the following: 1) What is it? 2) Why should I care? 3) What is it going to do for me? As some decision-makers do not have the patience of a gnat, here is what you need to know: 1) Rates to accept Credit Cards on every single transaction can vary as much as 30-40%, due to additional data that Visa and MasterCard require when a Commercial Card is being presented. 2) Unless their Credit Card Terminal or Point-Of-Sale system has the computer memory to capture all the additional data, they are currently paying 30-40% more on all of these transactions. Even some Payment Gateways may not be programmed to overcome this problem. 3) What the new technology that has now been developed can do to overcome these problems is to correct them seamlessly in the background.
In order to better understand this opportunity, let us start with some basic information. Every time a Business or an Organization such as a Trade Association, or a governmental entity, such as a City, State, or Federal Agency such as the U.S. Patent Office, who collectively are called Merchants, accepts credit card payment from any Consumer (e.g. Individuals) or Commercial (e.g. Business, Organization, Government) account, the Merchant incurs a cost that they have to pay. That is because the Bank that issued the Credit Card, called the Issuing Bank, is ostensibly underwriting a short-term loan to the Cardholder.
Credit Card processing cost is comprised of three components: 1) Interchange: The rate schedule established by Visa and MasterCard that makes up over 80% of the credit card processing fees. These Interchange costs all go to the Issuing Bank. 2) Assessments: Visa and MasterCard recoup their operating expenses and make a profit, which is a profit center that augments Dues that they bill any entity that wishes to resell their services. 3) Processor Mark-Up: The Bank, Credit Union, or Independent Sales Organization (ISO) that signs up anybody to accept Credit Cards, along with the Credit Card Processing firms such as First Data, TSYS (formerly Visanet), and Chase Paymentech which serve as intermediaries to do the actual back-end processing of the monies tendered all have to meet their operating costs and make a profit.
Because the Bank that has issued the credit card is going to make 75-90% of the monies that are being used to purchase goods and services, they have absolutely no incentive to proactively alert the Merchant who is the party that is selling the products or services to the buyer, that they are highly likely to be incurring extra costs, because they issued the credit card to the buyer; not the seller! Why is this occurring? Visa and MasterCard establish the rules and regulations on the pricing for every type of credit card that is issued in the United States.
And, they classify pricing based on the risk that they assign to each type of Category based on the type of Credit Card being presented by the purchaser of the products or services. These Categories include Corporate Cards that itemize business and travel expenses and Purchasing Cards (sometimes called P-Cards) which are used to procure products or services versus sending a Purchase Order in a Business-To-Business transaction. The latter two (2) types of Credit Cards are eligible for Visa and MasterCard special Category pricing that Credit Card processing resellers have largely ignored.
Even in the case where a Business, Organization or Government entity has a Credit Card Terminal, Point-Of-Sale Terminal, or Payment Gateway that has the capability to obtain the best pricing for accepting a credit card from another Business, Organization, or Government entity, the transactions that are eligible to save up to 1.5% on that transaction are oftentimes not settled by the Credit Card processing provider because their Credit Card Terminal, Point-Of-Sale Terminal, or Payment Gateway is not capturing the data elements that need to be provided to qualify for these special rates. And, similarly, if an employee of the Merchant inadvertently omits any of the requisite data requirements, they would not qualify to save up to 1.5% on that transaction.
The new proprietary Credit Card processing technology works on any Credit Card Terminal, Point-Of-Sale System, or Credit Card Terminal that has been certified by major Credit Card processing platforms. The new proprietary technology overcomes the problem of employees not entering the data properly when they are entering in the Client information to process any Credit Card Transaction. Implementing this technology is the only way Merchants can be assured of optimizing their cost savings in accepting these special Category pricing Credit Cards that they are not benefitting from currently. Procrastination, in this case, can be expensive.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country.
Why Businesses are getting killed on commercial lease overcharges?
ust as the Corona Virus is an invisible killer, personally, I too have been a victim to another personal disease that silently changed my life: Glaucoma. Let me explain. In the Fall of 1982, I was representing the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in Biarritz, France. The event comprised competitors from eighty (80) different countries. During that Bridge Tournament, I found myself making mistakes that seemed to be due to a loss of visual acuity. When I returned back to the United States, one morning I decided to give myself a self-eye exam by first closing my left eye and staring at my wall clock. Then, closing my right eye, and staring at the same wall clock. From just a few moments, it became clear that the vision in my right eye was remarkably better than the vision in my left eye. I went to my local Eye Doctor, Dr. Robert Balfour, whose Medical practice is still in business today! Anyway, Dr. Balfour did this test and remarked to me, “Let me do this test again.” This is never a good sign.
After doing the eye test, Dr. Balfour indicated to me that I had Glaucoma. And, that I should see a group of specialists in San Francisco. From that date in early 1983 to the present day, I have lived with Glaucoma. And, now, today, in these challenging times, I want to share with everyone that they too should do a self-test of their eyes, because Glaucoma, like the Corona Virus, has no signs. In the medical industry, it is called the Silent Thief. Now, let me turn to another silent thief for any business or organization that leases it’s Office Space and/or is leasing its Land, in cases where it owns a Building it built on the Commercial piece of property that it is Leasing. I am speaking about Commercial Leasing.
The majority of businesses and organizations in the United States currently are routinely overcharged by their Landlords on their Commercial Leases.
Here is why. Monolithic Property Management firms routinely buy and sell Commercial Property in their Portfolio. When a Tenant signs a Commercial Lease, the covenants of that Lease are drawn up by the Attorney for their current Landlord, who is either an individual or a Property Management Company. Yet; the monthly billing of the Lease is not done by the Attorney who drew up the Lease. It is done by the Property Management Company that is currently administering the Lease. And, again, those Property Management Companies can change, year after year. Let me continue.
When the business or organization gets any invoice from the Landlord, it generally goes to the Accounts Payable Department who pays that bill to stave off any bad relationship with the Landlord, in the same manner, that Accounts Receivable Departments pay electricity bills, so that the lights won’t get turned off by the electricity company.
The problem continues there because the Tenant is not an expert in Commercial Leases. They are not going to understand why they are getting billed. The solution is for the Tenant to retain the services of a Commercial Lease Auditor that typically works on a performance-based shared benefit basis where they split out their retrospective (past) refunds that they find and prospective (future) savings that they identify as the authorized advocate for the Tenant. It is recommended that the Tenant find a Commercial Lease Auditor that has their own Legal Staff onboard, and also represents to the Tenant that they will present all recommendations to them before presenting it to the Landlord.
More importantly, because the human beings who are given the responsibility of administering Commercial Leases on behalf of their Landlords do the calculations for the billing and interpretation of the covenants of the original Lease drawn up by the Landlords, they are generally not Attorneys, and even if they are, they are human. Unlike a telephone bill or electricity bill that is calculated using fixed numbers from a relational database, these are individuals who are interpreting the intent of the covenants. Commercial Lease Auditors are the only way to establish oversight.
The great thing about retaining a Commercial Lease Auditor is that in the rare instance where there are no savings found, there is no fee.
In that case, because all recommendations flow from the Commercial Lease Auditor to the Tenant, the Landlord does not even know that the Tenant had their Lease reviewed by an outside third party. More importantly, Landlords want happy Tenants. And, the monies that the Commercial Lease Auditor is recovering from the Landlord are overcharges that would have gone on for years, unless the Tenant had retained the services of a Commercial Lease Auditor.
Commercial Leases represent the second most expensive general ledger item to any business or organization besides the Employee Payroll. In this time of business hiatus due to the Corona Virus, the Commercial Lease overcharges continue silently to drain monies from the coffers of Tenants silently. Its time Tenants be heard.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country. 
How To Maximize Savings On Voice, Data, Internet, And Wireless Costs
he purpose of this article is to ensure that any size business in any vocation in any location in the United States is made aware that telecommunications cost savings can be attained in every type of telephony that is in the marketplace. And, it may surprise businesses and organizations alike to know that cost savings can begin when ordering new Phone or Internet lines themselves. The biggest mistake that businesses and organizations make is to believe that it is only their incumbent Local Exchange Carrier (ILEC) of their Cable provider that can provide connectivity. That is completely untrue.
The first thing to know is that there are many types of Telecommunications companies that have a presence in a Local or Regional geographic territory. And, that there are some entities that act as wholesalers for the incumbent ILEC’s and the Cable companies. These firms utilize a network of authorized agents who are authorized to resell the wholesale rates below retail costs. These agents can either provision new or existing Voice, Data, Internet, or Wireless phone lines. To draw a parallel, Mortgage Brokers have to earn their Client’s business because Real Estate Mortgage Rates are posted all over the Internet. The same is not true of ordering telephone services.
Analog phone services would seem to be an innocuous telecom cost. However, if you make the mistake of ordering a fully featured phone line for an elevator, which includes long-distance calls, call-waiting, and call-forwarding, you are being billed every month for services that you cannot use. The solution is to order a phone line that does not have long-distance or any features on the line. Conversely, many businesses spend a slew of extra money on an analog phone line if they are situated in an area where actually having long-distance included on their fax line saves them money because they are avoiding metered phone costs in States where the calls are being billed by distance for local toll-calls and long-distance calls.
Alarm lines, sometimes called Security lines are generally an expensive item. However, there is a new technology that delivers a wireless Alarm line that has two (2) wireless SIM Cards onboard. This ensures that if one Carrier is out of service, the Alarm can still be handled by the other Carrier. Besides delivering greater peace of mind to the Customer, these wireless Alarm lines are less costly than analog Alarm lines.
And, regular analog voice lines just had a major increase in Monthly Recurring Costs (MRC) because the ILEC’s cost to maintain those lines is much higher than digital voice lines.
Another area of hidden costs happens when ordering Internet connectivity. The amount of Internet bandwidth that is delivered, unless stipulated by the Client, can be like going to an all-you-can-eat Buffet Restaurant where you are only hungry to eat a sandwich. For example, if all a company or organization needs to do with their Internet is to retrieve emails and process credit cards, they may be able to be completely functional with a basic DSL line that has 3M/768 kbps bandwidth. The 768 kbps bandwidth is the minimum bandwidth needed to process credit cards. Yet; oftentimes, the Carrier or the Cable company will deliver too much bandwidth without letting the Customer know that there are less expensive solutions that would allow them to meet their needs. This again goes for both new lines and existing lines.
Next, with the advent of Corona Virus’ daily life, there is a new need for those Companies and/or Organizations who had all of their telecommunications incumbent to their physical headquarters to find themselves with no solution for their employees to be able to work from home. In this case, let me do a deep dive into the solution.
The solution to being able to work remotely and use the same phone numbers that you have at your Office is called implementing SIP Trunk lines, where SIP stands for Standard Initiation Protocol. In layman’s term, you are using your Office Internet connection to then run your phone call through the Office Internet and terminate into the remote office of the employee worker at their own Office or Home. The solution is effectively transitioning from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PTSN) to voice connectivity done over the Internet called Voice Over Internet Protocol (VOIP). Now, because you are using your Office Internet to make the voice calls, it is recommended that any business or organization using the Internet to make voice calls do invest in a larger Internet bandwidth connectivity. It is important to note that those vocations such as Real Estate Agents whose offices have what are known as PRI’s, which allow each Real Estate Agent to have their own prefix and 7-digit phone number instead of an extension on their PBX can maintain their existing 7-digit number when they have to work from their home.
Next, medium to large companies or organizations use Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) to facilitate real-time applications such as video conference calling and sending data from one point to another. The problem with this telephony is that it is expensive, and is subject to network outages. A next-generation solution is available called SD-Wan (Shared Defined Wide Area Network). Simply put, this technology can save 50% or more over MPLS and can mitigate network outages. However, because there are a number of service providers that purvey this solution, it is important to confirm whether the vendors’ solution can implement their solution promptly, and in a manner that does not encroach the Internet firewall.
There is another VOIP solution that is now available for almost every business or organization in the Country called Hosted IP, which delivers Internet Phones, often at no cost when signing up for Voice phone service. This is a great way for a company to avoid spending thousands of dollars on a new phone system while saving money and allowing their employees to either work at the office or from home.
Next, just like backing up your computer so that you do not lose all your work, companies and organizations sign up for data back-up vendors. However, not all of them are created equally. It is important to find providers who do not charge an arm and a leg when there is an outage. The pricing plan you choose should also be based on where you are located. For example, if you are in the Tampa, Florida area, the lightning strike Capital of the United States, having backup telephony is a requirement for both voice and data. This can be delivered by either wireless or satellite providers. Do your homework. Protecting yourself is important for business outages, especially if you are a mission-critical entity such as a fire station. To that end, there are some Internet routers that allow you to have multiple back-ups so that you can have SIM Cards from the wireless carriers that will deliver triple back-up (e.g. AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile/Sprint).
Next, Internet circuits themselves can be replaced using the same exact carrier using a wholesaler. For example, a business might be billed $200-300 for a circuit by AT&T, Verizon, or T-Mobile/Sprint, and may be able to reduce that cost of the circuit when their initial term is up by electing a wholesaler of those major carriers to provide the same circuit at a savings of 20-50% less. The only change is going to be the name of the Company that is the wholesaler doing the billing. While there is still going to be a disconnect of the old Internet circuit and the scheduling of a new Internet circuit, the only change is going to be the name of the wholesaler that appears on the bill. The service is still going to be provided by the underlying carrier. And, those carriers make more money on their wholesale contracts because they do not have to do the billing or customer service or pay their employees for the labor of handling those Clients.
Finally, if you are an entity where your employees have cell phones, it is a lot cheaper to have them not pay for their own cell phones and then; bill back the Company. Instead, put all your employees under your own plan. That will save you some good money.
© All rights reserved (2020).
RON FELDMAN http://www.worldbusinessservices.com/
RON has been recognized by Who’s Who In California and Who’s Who In Lodging. He has taught Business Services Marketing at the Undergraduate and MBA University levels. Feldman holds an undergraduate degree in Mass Communications, as well as a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology. Feldman previously had been retained as a consultant twice by a major publicly traded NYSE payments industry company to re-engineer their order processing, and restructure their telecom costs, as he had done for the Clients of the second largest Utility Auditing Company in the World. He has saved businesses and organizations millions of dollars in performing Utility Audits, since 1994. He was also retained by another NYSE Retailer to advise them in regards to their payment solutions for their customers. Feldman received a U.S. business method patent for a transaction processing technology focused on the hotel industry that he invented while working with Citicorp in developing their global multi-party settlement system in the late 1980’s. During that era, Feldman worked with SITA/Sahara, a global Internet-based organizations of airlines and hotels, and was formerly Vice-Chair of the Association of Travel Marketing Executives. Feldman has represented the United States in the World Championships of Tournament Bridge in 1982, 1986, and 1994. He founded the first accredited organization of Professional Bridge Players. Feldman also served on the National Conduct and Ethics Committee of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL), as well as its National Marketing Committee. He resides in Petaluma, California in the Sonoma Wine Country.