How can corporate business exist without wireless contract management or telecom contract management knowledge?
The service providers love to work with companies who don’t have wireless or telecom contract management, a telecom management team, outsourced telecom expense management service, or a telecom attorney. With less knowledge of telecom contract negotiation, TnC, MARC, and SLAs your business is vulnerable.
Technology and Telecom Contract Management
With changing technology various types of telecom services, and phones equipment are becoming obsolete. Certainly your business would prefer to understand commercial contract. Yet the service providers make the telecom agreements distinct. Inside each telecom contract lies terms and conditions (TnC). The TnC details in small print that hold all those hidden clauses your business would prefer less of along with the empty meanings and contract penalties.
In a perfect world we wouldn’t need telecom contract management for wireless or wired services. We wouldn’t have service Level Agreements, also known as SLA, or Minimum Annual Revenue Commitment (MARCs). We wouldn’t need telecom contract negotiation, or have the need to understand contract termination fees. But, in this diverse world of high technology we must have legal ease with terms and conditions. We must outline all the contract non-compliances. These telecom contracts protect the service providers. Lastly, we wouldn’t have early contract termination ETF clauses either.
Even more lawyers and consultants turn to Auditel for telecom contract management, and contract analysis. We recommend giving us three months to six month prior to expiration to give enough time to negotiate your new terms. So, don’t wait until contracts expire before having Auditel review your telecom agreements. Auditel can give your company the knowledge necessary to review the complex terminology within your contract terms and conditions. We, bring out all the clauses you may not understand and check for termination fees and penalties for non-compliance.
Telecom Contract Management – What type contract is right for your business?
With Auditel telecom contract management services we analyze the current Telecom Service Provider Service Agreements and various contracts including Minimum Annual Revenue Commitment (MARC), and Service Level Agreements (SLA). With our telecom contract management contracts are scrutinized for contract compliance. We compare and verify any revisions, or addendum changes to the original signed agreements we also check your invoices. We research and review the commercial contract terms and conditions within your telecommunication agreements and deliver contract non compliance report that gives you the knowledge needed to make a difference.
What should my business do prior to contract expiration?
The good news is that you already know you have an expiration date. However, to obtain the best contract rates from your current service provider, a detailed inventory from all your service locations is helpful. If you don’t have one, Auditel can quickly develop it with our telecom audit with no added fee. We include inventory with our contingency based telecom audit or phone bill audit.
What should my telecom inventory contain?
This full detailed inventory for voice, data, VOIP, network, and wireless should include each service providers name, exact contract details including telecom contract start date and expiration date but most of all include the contract termination date that you must cancel the contract prior to renewal. Most telecom contracts include an auto renewal clause (also known as Evergreen) and your job is to find the cancellation policy and time in which you have to notify them in writing that you want to cancel service. Next, telecom inventory includes each service type, service location, circuit ID, line types, wireless lines, plan description, data cards, detailed usages, and any extra features, and fee details.
For a true comparison of Service Providers service fees and deliverables an accurate detailed inventory is needed including all current service charges, fees and usages associated. You can also learn more on taxes, technology changes, and contract terms from our telecommunications dictionary.
Why is it important to review telecom contracts?
All of your business /corporate commercial legal contracts need to be reviewed either by your legal department. But what about your telecom contracts? These telecom contracts also need to be reviewed either by a telecom attorney, or a company that specializes in telecom contract management (like Auditel). The SLA and MARC have legal contract commitments that should be analyzed to verify Service Provider revenue commitments, service level clauses, and contract termination clauses, ETF, terms and conditions, and expiration dates. This will help to avoid telecom penalties and extra charges monthly.
What is a Service Level Agreement?
A service level agreement also known as an SLA is the agreement inside your telecom contract giving you the guaranteed quality of service available, expectations for reliability, and contract guidelines. Wikipedia notes “The most common component of an SLA is that the services should be provided to the customer as agreed upon in the contract. As an example, Internet service providers and telcos will commonly include service level agreements within the terms of their contracts with customers to define the level(s) of service being sold in plain language terms. In this case the SLA will typically have a technical definition in mean time between failures (MTBF), mean time to repair, or mean time to recovery (MTTR); identifying which party is responsible for reporting faults or paying fees; responsibility for various data rates; throughput; jitter; or similar measurable details.”
We don’t recommend carrier switch to save money unless there are telecom service provider outages, or service issues. It is very important not to choose a vendor solely on price. Vendor service is critical and service uptime is most important. We recommend that you research the reliability and network availability of each service provider to determine their customer service, guaranteed bandwidth, network availability, uptime, maintenance, and reputation. Contact several existing clients to validate any service issues they’ve had, and the carrier flexibility in managing their services. Ask them about service outages, network availability, and percentage of service delays.
Can you tell us what we should know prior to telecom contract negotiations?
First of all you should have telecom contract management support if you don’t have adequate time prior to contract expiration. Any business should factor in several items when starting telecom service agreement negotiations. Begin at least five to six months prior to your contract expiration date. Auditel contract management will provide leverage. Especially if you have met all the contract requirements and volume levels. You may be offered the opportunity to renew your existing agreement. The competition between Service Providers varies based on economic times. Now is the time for you to consider reviewing your SLAs and MARC contracts to shave large percentages off your telecommunication budget.
Contract termination clauses are challenging, but it is critical to understand them. They should be within your Service Agreements. Beware of stiff penalties occur if you terminate your wireless contract prior to the signed agreement. Penalties occur if customer doesn’t follow telecom contract exactly as stipulated in the signed wireless contract or telecom agreement. Don’t let your agreements and wireless contracts lapse, monthly billing may be acceptable, but it may not be saving your company enough.
Does your Service Level Agreement (SLA) mention any business changes, ramifications, mergers and acquisitions, future growth clauses, or office closures?
Auditel provides corporate telecom contract management that is helpful for corporations with frequent mergers and acquisitions. We review all voice, data, and wireless telecom service contracts. In addition, we review all the legal provisions in your agreement entirely to ensure they include flexibility for future growth. Auditel understands how to navigate telecom contracts. Our telecom contract management helps our clients obtain the best telecommunications contract terms and conditions, along with the best network availability uptime. We will review all the fees assessed within managed 800#s. From multiple routing 800s, associated service fees for both dedicated and switched 800#s. We review specific time of day routing fees, managed 800 routing fees, access charges, and paper billing fees. As a result, we can review records, reports, and manage the entire service level agreements SLAs for managed 800s.
Bring us your Telecom Contracts<strong
It’s not a good idea to be caught off guard by lapsing telecom contracts. So, when we review your voice, data, and wireless contracts we give unbiased advice that leads to savings. Contract savings comes from fully understanding the contract language and protection clauses within each Service Providers telecom agreement. Furthermore, we give you options and make recommendations to give your corporation, business, or organization added security and reporting. As a result, telecom contract management saves countless penalties, and headaches for your company.
Contract Review Mid-Term
Even when commercial contract isn’t up for renewal it’s important to understand. Auditel will help you understand your voice, data, and wireless contract options. We give our clients the best telecommunication consulting advice. Our support helps your corporation make the best decisions on whether to keep the current agreement, or modify it.
Expiring Telecom Contracts
Is your Organization on the fast track with constant mergers, acquisitions, and change?
If so, our voice, data, and wireless telecom contract management will ensure you are not missing any savings or protective clauses. Most wired, data, and wireless contracts last one, two, three, or five years. The provisions in some of the older contracts are becoming outdated. This is due to changes in the data structure and service capabilities. Many companies opt to work on their own contract review until they run into issues, receive a penalty fee, or billing increases.
For a detailed voice, data, and wireless contract review just give our offices a call. We will bring the added comfort of a full telecom contract management review. We will ferret out all of your contract details. Auditel will review all the telecom agreement terms and conditions also known as T&C, or TnCs. We also check each detail within your complex addendums against your telecom invoices. Reviewing all the legal ease as we record all of termination dates, and expiration dates. Auditel will provide your business with the best contract review available.
