IT Checklist

What needs to be inspected to ensure quality communication? Here’s a short list to assist you in regular check-ups of your equipment.

Telephones

1) If you rely on a multi-line phone system for your office, make sure all the lines work. Seriously, there’s always the possibility somebody could work in his office and wonder why his line doesn’t light up. Especially if you bring new people into the fold, test lines and make sure clients can get through to anybody on staff.

2) Speaking of hiring newcomers, don’t forget to make changes to your automated directory to reflect new hires and remove people no longer working at the office. Make sure everybody has recorded an away message where applicable, and that emergency numbers are directed to the correct people.

3) If you are set up to have your business line forward to your mobile phone or email, test it regularly. You don’t want to miss an important call while you’re out of the office.

Computer

1) Update anti-virus software programs on all computers as needed. Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a rogue virus to cause problems for everybody.

2) Test connections and servers periodically to ensure the Internet works quickly for everybody. There’s nothing more irritating than slow page loads when you’re trying to get work done.

3) Test e-mail filters to make sure all spam messages are held at bay. Also check to see that messages you would typically whitelist aren’t being sent to your junk folders.

It is always a good idea to look at your business telecommunications from the point of view of a potential client. Take the time to test phone calls and e-mails into the system, and listen for any anomalies with the voice directory or voice mail. Listen, too, for interference over the phone line and send test e-mails to yourself and note how quickly they get to your inbox. Inspect your equipment with regularity and you are less likely to have problems, particularly with clients.

One way to cut costs is with your business telecommunications plans. There are new business phone deals coming out all the time and it is important to ensure that you are on the plan that is most suited to your business. If you are thinking that it might be time for a change, here are some ideas to consider when looking at new plans.

Go and visit some shops- The most common way to find out about any new deals that may be out there is to go and visit a telecommunications shop and get an idea of the plans that they have available. The only problem with this is that there are countless phone providers out there and it can be very time consuming to go to all of them.
Research the information you are looking for on the internet- If you want to avoid the struggle of visiting countless shops, you could get online and do some research from all the company websites. This is still time consuming though as you have to analyse all of their plan offerings to see which one most suits you.
Speak to a business telecommunications consultant- This is by far the best option. Do yourself a favour and seek out the advice of a business telecommunications professional. It is their job to keep track of what plans are available on the market and then be able to advise you on which one of these plans is going to best suit your business.
You do have a couple of options if you are looking at cutting your telecommunications costs to keep business spending in check. By far the most efficient and least time consuming option

Do you have a consultant that you trust- I’m going to guess that telecommunications is not your main business, so you probably shouldn’t be spending too much time and energy on your mobile, landline and internet plans? You want to concentrate on making money. In order to do this, you need a consultant who truly understands your business and can make recommendations that suit your business.
Do you understand your plans- Do you know much about your plan and what the inclusions are? Plans can include a variety of free calls and SMS’s. Some plans mean you can nominate numbers for free calls. Make sure you take advantage of all your offers to ensure your bill is as low as possible.
Does your consultant answer all your questions- There are some rogue elements of the telecommunications industry who may promise you the world but fail to deliver. If you are going to cut your telecommunications costs by dealing with a consultant, make sure that you deal with one you trust. You need a consultant that you feel comfortable with.
Do you actually know what’s out there- Whilst I’ve said earlier that you do not need to have an in depth knowledge of telecommunications (you’re wasting your time) it is beneficial to have some minimal understanding of what’s going on. This gives you a better opportunity to see if someone is lying to you.
Are there any technology options that can improve your business- It may not necessarily just be about cutting costs. Sometimes you need to look at new technology to improve your profits. For example, would having a blackberry and receiving emails on the road be beneficial to your business.
Hamish Jones [http://www.bestbusinessdeals.com.au] is

Well, one way is to ring all of them and compare their plans and rates and the easiest and effective way is to hire a business phone broker to do leg work for you. There are many business telecommunication brokers in the market and best of all is their services are absolutely free.

You might have another question popping in your head, then why would they run brokerage services if they are not making money or how do they generate revenues? It is simple they get commissions from Telecommunication Company.

Business Phone broker services are free for business and you get best rate, why do not you do your business a favour by contacting one of them and see what savings they can show you on your business phone expenses. Before you sign up on the deal you need to make sure business phone broker is independent and they are not recommending what they want to sell but they are finding best matching deal for your business and show you substantial savings or in simply they are working for you not for teleco.

Some brokers also offer you free account management, which means that you do not need to call telecommunication companies for any billing and customer service enquiry you just let your account manager know what the issue is and they will liaise with telecommunication service provider to sort that out for you.