Are your telecom and ISP contracts up for renewal soon? Even if they are not, if it’s been a couple of years since you last looked at them, it may well be time to dust them off for review. Between deregulation, the convergence of technologies, and the glut of available infrastructure, the telecom and datacom industries have changed enormously over the past few years. Plus there’s a great deal of uncertainty in the telecom market right now, all of which can mean an abundance of opportunities for reducing your company costs and improving service on all your network and telecom needs.
And consider these two scenarios:
Is your company vulnerable to service cutoff? When Genuity, an ISP with a Fortune 2000 client list, was purchased by Level 3 last year, 250 of their smaller (read less profitable) accounts were rudely shocked after Level 3 decided to unilaterally end their contracts prematurely. Level 3, a company primarily known as a wholesale telecommunications carrier, was just not interested in their business. There was a mad scramble as these companies fought to reestablish connectivity with alternative carriers.
Do you have an alternate or secondary provider already committed? The lesson was not lost on one Boston area college that recently added wireless service access as a backup when they realized that their excellent long-term provider was the single point of failure for their network connectivity. Switching to a wireless provider as a secondary source of connectivity solved a number of potential connectivity problems and saved them substantial money in the process.
By not paying attention or staying current with all of the alternatives available, are you missing the opportunity to realize substantial savings on your data and telecom services? Now is the time to take advantage of the huge opportunity to shave significant cost and improve service by renegotiating your connectivity contracts or switching carriers. Let’s explore how to squeeze cost savings by renegotiating or restructuring the contracts with your network services providers.
Page 2: Reviewing Your Service Needs