There are many different tips and tricks to saving money on your monthly telecommunications expenses. Here are a couple of “outside the box” tips that will safeguard your bills:

1. Check your phone system for vulnerabilities! It may sound like a headline straight out of the 1990’s, but toll fraud, resulting from compromised systems, is still happening every day. It is a $12B international business annually, with Canadian companies alone being hit for $30M a year. Most organizations think their systems are secure and it’s not until they’re compromised that they discover otherwise.We recommend having an independent third party perform a security audit on your phone system. It’s an easy measure to safeguard against toll fraud. Granted, your telecom service provider may credit a large percentage of the fraudulent charges, but the time it will take you to recover the charges and tighten security after-the-fact is valuable. Spending days solving the mystery is a costly distraction from your more important projects. Plug the holes before they’re found by someone else.

2. Manage your contract dates! Once you’ve done the leg work to optimize your monthly bills, you want to safeguard and maximize your optimization. If your process included contracting services, it’s important to closely manage these dates going forward.We all know that long term contracts give you the lowest rate, but when they auto-renew, you’re locked in for another long term. This limits you when you look to change or upgrade your network. I’ve seen termination charges quoted as high as $80,000 for a client who just wanted to go to SIP, but they hadn’t been managing their contract dates. That low monthly rate may cost you more in the long run if you don’t properly manage your dates!Even better, tell your carrier that you do not want your contracts to auto-renew. Don’t sign a new contract unless they eliminate the evergreen clause. Let your carriers know that you want to negotiate a contract regularly. It may take a little extra time every few years, but in the long-run, you’ll be taking advantage of the most competitive rates and keeping the term lengths in check with your long term technology strategies.

Remember to think outside the box to maximize your efforts and minimize your bills!