Some South African banks have been able to save millions of rands just by managing their telephony networks properly.
Unison Communications MD Craig Young says the communications infrastructure in banks is a lot more complex than in many other industries.
The vast network is the result of high demand for communications, both internally and from customers, as well as high data connectivity demands. But this comes at a cost, with some banks paying call cost bills of more than R10 million a month.
However, Young says proper management of the network can save millions of rands. Some of the company`s public sector clients have lessened their call costs by 25% to 30%.
One bank is aiming to drive down costs by 20%.
Young says increasing the complexity of communications infrastructure is not the solution to high costs.
"We provided a highly sophisticated call costing solution with an advanced billing system that drastically reduced inaccurate account allocation. This meant precise reports allowed for accurate forecasting of budgets. Now, 99% of communications costs can be accounted for.
"Being able to break down costs and make decisions based on real-time reports means these institutions can plan ahead and avoid the black hole of communications costs."
He says the main problems experienced by banks and other large institutions are inaccurate reporting, manual processing and outdated information. In addition, call bills are often incorrectly allocated and billing departments are not able to recover costs.
The result is that budgets are not met, leading to future budgets being based on estimates and inaccurate statistics for the entire organisation. And call costs are increasing as clients increasingly expect their banks to communicate with them via the cellular network.
"The answer is not to simply change or increase infrastructure," Young says. "What is needed is information about the kinds of interaction taking place over the infrastructure, and reports that show how to optimise it."
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