Here's the 411

It's a solid bet that you're getting a busy signal on the right rate for telecom

The modern telecom industry is a shining example of capitalism at its best: fierce competition from multiple providers, coupled with constant innovation, offers today's consumer better products and greater service at lower prices than at any other time in history.

But that's no excuse to be spending up to 35% more than you have to, which is what Inc. magazine found in a recent study. The problem was particularly prevalent for government agencies and non-profits. This from a service that has become one of the top five business expenses.

What's going on? Simply put, telecom is also a shining example of capitalism at its worst. A business decision that once was a no-brainer has become bafflingly complex. Yesterday, you chose a phone service. Today, you must consider which plan offers the right combination of local, long distance, wireless/paging, Internet, conferencing, faxing, equipment maintenance, and other voice and data services.

Providers, seeking any advantage they can find in a tightly competitive market, have a powerful incentive to sell plan combinations and add-ons which increase their profits, whether you need them or not. And here at Cost Containment Intl. we're got to admit, even after almost 20 years in the energy industry, that we find telecom bills a tough read to decipher.

But we've done the homework, assembled the providers, and put our plan into action. And we're finding that for an increasing number of our customers, telecom is fertile ground for added savings.

No matter what the industry, the plan is the same. First, find the right plan. Then get the right price.

Telecom audits are considerably more complex than energy audits, but that's not your problem. All you need to do is send us a few old bills and your existing contracts. We'll take it from there. We'll analyze usage and feature sets to come up with the plan that really meets your needs as a telecom user. We'll look for the traps...and there are a lot of them...that typical users miss, including:

• locations with suboptimal rate plans
• vendor billing errors
• vendor contract enforcement
• network design flaws
• asset management negligence
• failure to track moves/adds/changes
• fraud and abuse
• unenforced employee expense policies
• unnecessary services
• bill proliferation
• late fees
• duplicate payments
• misapplied taxes
• "slamming"
• "cramming"
• departmental cost allocation errors

Anyway, that's a partial list. How many did you recognize?

The best way to use your existing telecom service is to pick up that phone, hit that speed dial, send that e-mail, text that TM...heck, send us a fax, plenty of our customers do...just contact Cost Containment Intl. today. 877-265-2799 gets you started.