These days, a mobile phone is considered an essential part of doing business. More workers are out of the office on a regular basis, and in a fast moving business, communication is often the key to succeeding. But no matter how large or small your company, keeping a handle on costs can be a problem.
It is difficult to prevent employees from making personal phone calls on their company mobile; and the best alternative is to try to limit them as much as possible. More importantly, getting the best rate possible from your operator can also help keep bills low.
The plan is…
There are three mobile operators in the Irish market, and all three offer plans for SMEs.
Vodafone currently holds the larger market share for business customers. Daniel Johnson, product marketing manager for Voice Products, outlines the services businesses can take advantage of on the Vodafone network.
Johnson points out that Vodafone offers a number of ‘Sharetime’ schemes for companies. Depending on the company size, there is Sharetime 500, Sharetime 1000, Sharetime 2000 and Sharetime 3000 — the number denotes the amount of minutes included on the scheme. Daniel explains that smaller companies, with about four or five phones, usually go for the Sharetime 500 scheme.
According to Daniel, the key benefit of the Sharetime plans is that the company can buy a group of minutes, and then employees can share those minutes and get discounted rates. The time options include calls to national fixed lines, Vodafone numbers, O2 and Meteor mobile numbers. However, it doesn’t cover international roaming calls or text messages, Directory Assistance, 1800, 1850, 1890, premium calls and diverted calls.
A scheme for frequent travellers is also offered — Sharetime Globe.
The Business Contact For Free scheme is the latest offer from Vodafone for business users. It is similar to Vodafone’s consumer scheme in that it allows them to phone a friend for free. This new scheme is very relevant to the SME market, Daniel says and those on the Sharetime scheme can nominate a Vodafone business contact number and then get 60 free minutes per month to that 087 number.
Daniel points out that the minutes are given to the customer straight away, not after their monthly allowance under the Sharetime scheme has been exhausted. This scheme has tested well with customers, he says.
Catch-up
O2 is working to catch up with Vodafone’s market share. The mobile network has conducted extensive research to find out the needs of Irish businesses. The company discovered that companies don’t want to have to hand over a large sum of money up front for expensive handsets, as many SMEs wouldn’t have a large capital budget for equipment.
As most SMEs don’t have the luxury of an IT manager, the phones and packages, such as wireless email, must be easy to implement and maintain, Gerry McQuaid points out.
With all businesses, making and saving money is always important. According to Gerry, the companies need to see quickly what’s on offer, such as sharing revenue form text message services. For example, estate agents may use text services to promote housing and keep their customers informed of the latest properties on the market.
In response to business demand, O2 has introduced a new package, known as Group Worker. According to Gerry, this idea was developed in conjunction with IBEC. O2 asked the business association for input on how to save money for businesses. When businesses asked for a reduction on a certain rate, it would often end up costing the company more. Psychologically, phone users would think the phone calls were costing less and so would use them more.
According to Gerry, O2 wanted to help businesses to manage their costs, not just offer cheaper rates.
Group Worker represents a EUR1 million investment by the mobile company, and allows companies greater transparency in their mobile costs.
The scheme operates as a dual account service. Employees personal calls are allocated to a separate personal account. By prefixing personal calls with a certain code, the phone calls are not charged to the company bill, and instead come out of the personal, pre-paid account. Top-ups for these accounts are available from ATM and voucher/recharge cards from the launch of the service, while credit card top-ups are planned for the future. The employees won’t lose out on call charges, because although the calls are made on a pre-paid system, the company describes the charges as ‘comparable’ to the mobile network’s business post-paid tariffs. Companies can also contribute to the employee’s credit account by giving them free top-ups.
Under the service, employees will also be able to prefix an extension number to connect to a colleague’s mobile phone number.
A web-based management system allows companies to manage their short dial service without having to contact O2.
Gerry points out a second way to manage the costs is for the company to pick up the bill for calls made during peak hours, while the employee pays for all other calls. ‘Some companies like it because their employees are at home after six’, he says. ‘This can result in a significant reduction in phone bills.’
According to Gerry, there has been huge interest from companies in the Group Worker scheme. It is not something we will be seeing adorning billboards though; O2 will be marketing this directly to businesses. ‘It’s not something you market aggressively above the line,’ says Gerry. ‘We communicate to the businesses directly rather than use heavy advertising.’
Incoming: Meteor!
The newest entrant to the mobile market, Meteor, also has an offering for businesses. Its Business Saver plan offers up to 70 percent discount on 085 to 085 calls, up to 70 percent off calls to the UK and Northern Ireland and free rental. There are no peak or off peak rates. To give businesses the best value, call rates are calculated on company-wide usage.
Users who want to get on the Business Saver plan have to agree to a minimum commitment for a certain number of users. There are three Business Saver Plans. Those on Business Saver 1 must have two users, with a minimum company commitment of EUR64 per month. Business Saver 2 has a minimum commitment of EUR225 for between two and five users. Business Saver 3 is for between two and ten users with a minimum company commitment of EUR650. If a company wants to add more users to the plan, there is a charge for each additional user (which varies according to the plans) but the plans also have a limit of how many can avail of the plan. For Business Saver 1, there is a limit of ten users allowed; this rises to 20 for Business Saver 2 and 30 for Business Saver 3. International calls are included under the Business Saver Plan, as are roaming calls.
Vodafone
Vodafone business customers can avail of the Business Contact for Free scheme, which allows you to nominate a frequently-used Vodafone number. Sixty free minutes are allocated for calls to this number every month. The Sharetime options can be chosen according to the company size and mobile usage. The business contact minutes are given directly to the customer, not just when the Sharetime minutes are used up.
O2
O2’s Group Manager allows companies to separate personal calls from business calls, using a pre-paid account. A prefix code for personal numbers prevents them from appearing on the company bill, charging them to a pre-paid account instead. The account can be topped up using vouchers, recharge cards and ATM top-ups.
Another option is for the company to pay for peak calls, while the employee pays for calls made off-peak.
Meteor
Meteor has three Business Saver Plans that offer free rental and discounted calls. The plans require a minimum company commitment for a certain number of users each month, varying according to each plan.
27/03/2003
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