UK firms wasting £1bn a year on telephone services

UK companies are wasting more than £1 billion annually by simply not controlling the cost of communications, a new report claims.

The telecoms expense management specialist Aurora Kendrick James says money is wasted as more than 75 per cent of UK firms do not have a corporate telecoms policy to measure, manage and control usage.

The company bases its claims on a recent study by Matt Hatton, senior analyst at Yankee Group, which found enterprise telecoms spend in the UK was £5 billion in 2006.

With successful analysis of costs and new policies implemented, Aurora Kendrick James found the minimum saving achieved is rarely less than ten per cent and with some firms potential savings amount to 38 per cent.

On those figures the company predicts UK businesses can save more than £1 billion as a whole.

With new telecoms services such as mobile, VoIP and Wi-Fi communications offering an alternative to traditional fixed line operators, Aurora Kendrick James says firms need to pay specific attention to the telecoms services they are buying versus the actual services they need.

"A lack of insight into costs in your organisation will almost certainly mean that you are overpaying for telecoms services and missing out on significant cost savings that could be achieved without changing your suppliers," said Matt Atkinson, managing director, Aurora Kendrick James.

"Once you have established a greater control of these costs your organisation will be able to go on to tackle areas like redundant services, call abuse and fraud."