i.t.e.m.s. Mobile ^tm
"Intelligent Total Expense Management System"

rate plan optimization.

Due to the explosion in the number of corporate mobile devices, organizations have been faced with a whole new set of challenges. These new challenges require new strategies.

As it relates to rate plan optimization, these challenges are largely due to the "engineered complexity" of mobile phone rate plans, it is virtually impossible to get the best rate plan structure for your organization. If this were not true, the mobile companies would just charge you a cost per minute and make it easy to see what you are paying. It is estimated that 30% of a mobile carriers revenues come from what the industry insiders call "Breakage". This "Breakage" is defined as usage which either goes under your plan or over your plan. If you sign up for a 1000 minute plan for $100, in a perfect world, you would pay $.10/minute. If you only use 200 minutes of the 1000 minutes, you still pay $100, thus your cost per minute is $.50/minute. If you go over your 1000 minutes, they charge you $.45/min overage fees. This "over/under" is the "Breakage" Unless you have the right rate plans for each of your users, you will end up paying a significantly more than you should. Even with Pool plan

To combat these new challenges Optelcon has put together a team of industry insiders, cutting edge technology and proven processes to dramatically reduce your mobile / data device expense.

These methods will save your company an average of 26% on your annual mobile expenditures within 30 days.

How do we do it?

What do we need from you?

• The last three months of electronic billing data from your mobile vendors.
  
• 30-60 minutes of your time to reveiw and approving the results.

What Do We Do?

• Normalize all of your different vendor data into our proprietary database.
• Run Multi-Dimensional optimization algorithms against over 10,000 rate plans, including pooling options.
• Perform review of results by with internal consultants.
• Present recommendations summarized in easy-to-approve format.
• Optimize, review, and confirm savings for 3 additional months after initial optimization.

What We Deliver

• Immediate 26% average savings.
• We make all the rate plan changes and/or approved disconnections and confirmations with underlying providers.
• We perform a second optimization and review 90 day after the completion of the first analysis to further fine tune rate plans and assure orginal changes were made.

• We only make recommend changes to rate plans within the same carrier you are currently using. We never recommend changing vendors, phones, corp contracts, services areas or even account reps. (unless you want us to).
  
• NOTHING changes except the rate plan code and your cost drops the next month.
• Your users will notice absolutely nothing different.
• We offer a 200% guarantee on our fees for these services.
  
• If we can't find savings, it costs nothing. There is absolutely no risk.
• It takes about an hour of your time
• Actually, there is no catch... "Really..."

Why Wouldn't You Do This?

There are many myths and misconceptions which lead many companies to believe that they are powerless against this exploding use and expense of mobile phones and devices. The following is an exerpt from an article written by Optelcon to TMCNET, a major I.T. and technology marketing and analyitics firm.

Misconception # 1 – I have already negotiated a great corporate contract.

Answer: Having a corporate contract provides companies with a number of benefits which typcially include; no early termination penalties for devices under the contract, Volume discounts and other assorted terms. They also provide the enterprise with a false sense of security as well. These volume discounts are almost always based on the total dollar volume spent and not on the individual rate plans underneath its umbrella. By optimizing the individuals rate plans, the discount will be applied against a smaller gross number thus significantly reducing your cost. Typical corporate contracts provide between a 12-20% discount off of the total bill. Optimization can yield an average of an additional 25% savings. In short even companies with the best large corporate contracts can benefit from optimization services.

Misconception # 2 – We have a pool of minutes and thus we don’t need to optimize.

Answer: Pooling plans can provide companies with significant benefits however they can also provide a false sense of security in cost of use. Pooling is incredibly complex. Carriers do not just provide you with one big pool of minutes. A pool is made up of the sum of the individual contributing plans. This means each user either gets a plan which has a certain number of included minutes which other people can share or they get a “bolt-on” plan which does not contribute minutes, but they can take from the contributing minute plans. There are hundreds of different variations of pool plans which have different rates for data, night/weekend, roaming, international etc…If you company has 1000 users, the collective pool plan will have 1000 individual plans which make up the total. In addition as your company’s usage grows or contracts, having the wrong pool plan can actually cost you significantly more than if you were on individual plans. Using a professional mobile optimization company with access to the thousands of rate plans and the algorithms to systematically analyze these different variations and combinations will assure you are getting the lowest cost per minute overall. On average, even companies with pooling plans can cut their usage costs by over 25%.

Misconception # 3 – I don’t have to worry about it since I have my employees own their own phones and expense their business calls

Answer: Due to the speed in which mobile phones have taken over telecom, many companies still allow their employees to own their own phones and expense their charges. This equates to waiving the white flag and believing it can’t be managed effectively. Although this removes the burden to manage it, it creates a number of problems including:

Individuals are paying rates which tend to be 20-30% higher than corporate plans.

Very little visibility and accountability.

Often miss allocation of expense.

Management does not have the time, or tools to manage effectively

Corporate liability, if your employee leaves the company, they take with them the number, their phone and quite

possibly your clients.

Quite often the reason for this behavior is that management feels they don’t have the experience, resources or tools to manage this growing problem. In the past several years, there have been new breeds of firms, with new technology, processes and expert advice which can allow you to manage a very large expense just as you would others. Everything from procurement, helpdesk, reporting, and policy management is available. Typically for just a few dollars per month per device your company can get control and reduce overall costs by more than 25%.

Misconception #4 - My vendor takes care of that for me.

Answer: “The wolf is guarding the hen house”. Although there are some good account managers and well meaning people, asking your vendor to reduce the revenue they receive from you is an inherent conflict of interest. Ask yourself if your company would train each of your account managers to contact every customer monthly and tell them how to spend less money with your company? In most cases even the best account managers only have access to the same rate plans and web interfaces that you do. If a carrier offers a set of rates to one client, they have to technically offer it to everyone. This does not mean that have to put it out on their website or in the hands of their account managers. You have to know what rate codes to ask for. Our database currently has tracked and stores over 10,000 cumulative rate plans that are available. Using a truly objective mobile management company which is not compensated by the carriers is the only way to know for sure that you are getting the best deals. Using a professional mobile management firm, will enable you to keep your vendors honest.

Misconception #5 – I don’t want to have to change carriers and phones and coverage areas to save money.

Answer: By utilizing a professional mobile cost management company you do not have to. Optimizing your rates based on your specific usage patterns by using the latest computer algorithms allows you to keep your existing provider. Stay away from any firm which advertises optimization but recommends switching all your phones to another carrier. Chances are they are getting paid by that vendor. If you use the right company to do this, the only thing that changes is the lower bill the next month.

Misconception #6 - I have a department which handles that.

Answer: Even companies with the largest telecom staffs can benefit from bringing in an outside professional Mobile Cost Management company. Most companies manage the costs on excel spreadsheets and are doing it along with many other jobs. A professional management company uses rate plan algorithms which compare your usage patterns against over the 10,000 available rate plan variations and pool plans. The combination of the technology and industry insiders will provide your existing telecom team the tools to do be more effective.

Misconception #7 – We manage it pretty well, how much savings could there be?

Answer: A lot. On average each user spends approximately $100/month on mobile service. On average, a professional management company will reduce this cost by 25% or greater. This means: Monthly savings = $100 x .25% = $25/month per device or $300/year savings per device. 1000 devices equals over $300,000/year in savings with relatively little effort by the company. If a company operates on a net profit margin of 5%, every dollar saved is equal to $20 in new sales. 1000 devices = $300,000/year in savings or the equivalent of adding $6,000,000 to the top line. Is it worth spending an hour of your time to look at this? You bet.

In closing, getting control of both your spend and your processes is a very attainable and relatively quick and easy solution. By using a professional Telecommunications/Mobile Cost Management company, you can take advantage of lessons learned by others, use proprietary technology, dramatically reduce your costs and improve your processes.

Thinking this challenge going to go away is simply denial. There are several firms which provide these services in a similar competitive manner. Our recommendation is to find one that you like and just go with it. Developing and managing and closing an extensive RFP, can take 3-6months. Every month you put this off is costing you an average of $25,000/month/1000 devices and the bottom line equivalent of $500,000 in new top line revenue. The extra couple of thousand dollars you save by doing the RFP will end up costing you significantly more at the end of the day.

Article Written by: Robert J. Pommer, CEO of Optelcon.

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