Multimatics saves Nissan R1.5m in telecommunications costs per annum

South Africa has the reputation of being one of the most expensive telecommunications environments in the world, and phone bills pose a very real threat to the company bottom line, regardless of the nature of a particular business.

It would be a mistake, however, to lay all the blame for soaring telecommunications costs at the door of the country`s only service provider. While the base line cost of communicating in SA is clearly high, most companies remain unaware of just how expensive the mismanagement of internal and external telecommunications can be. Indeed, if a company is not proactively managing its telecommunications environment there is little doubt that it is incurring a great deal of unnecessary cost.

A classic example of what the proactive management of telecommunications can achieve comes from major car manufacturer, Nissan South Africa. Since launching a proactive telecommunications management campaign, in collaboration with telecommunications specialist, Multimatics, Nissan is set to lower its total telecommunications cost by an impressive R1.5 million at the end of the current financial year.

Multimatics MD, Steven Brown, explains the details of his company`s intervention at Nissan.

"Nissan have four PABXs, comprising approximately 3 000 extension ports, spread over four sites. The PABXs are all inter-connected, and all calls are taken at one site and then transferred between the various sites by the PABX operators. Nissan also implement direct inward and outward dialling and, in addition to the main Telkom lines on the PABXs, they also implement least-cost routing for both international and cellphone calls."

"Nissan staff would be kept waiting for hours, and sometimes days, by their telephone management system when running reports," Brown continues. "The inability to produce timely reports severely hampered the company`s ability to institute effective telephone cost control."

Faced with a consolidated telephone bill, Nissan had no tools to micro-manage telecommunications within its business divisions - and it was this lack of micro management that was fuelling the organisation`s spiralling telephone bill.

"To support Nissan`s challenging global and local markets we were looking for avenues to achieve cost reductions and increased efficiencies. Our telephone bill was one of my department`s highest expenses, so it was the first one we looked at," says Claudia Siteanu, Nissan User Support Manager.

"Multimatics provided us with the tools we needed to control our telephony environment - they gave us all the reports necessary to be able to communicate effectively with management internally. We could then drive micro-management of employees and their telecommunications expenses. Essentially Multimatics provided us with a full breakdown of where all our telecommunication expenses were coming from."

Multimatics delivered targeted reports to cost centre managers, employees and divisional directors. The company also explained the importance of keeping the internal directory up to date (a Nissan PABX operator has been managing this job extremely effectively over the last year). In addition, the telecommunications specialists implemented a direct import from Microsoft Excel to its proprietary software to facilitate the reporting process at Nissan.

The Multimatics reports detailed the duration of calls, the nature of incoming calls, expensive numbers dialled and so forth. The clear identification of these trends enabled Nissan managers to guide their staff towards more efficient work performance and considerable cost savings.

Trek to the summit

00Days

:

00Hrs

:

00Min

:

00Sec

For example, the amount of time spent on the telephone on outgoing calls at Nissan has been reduced from 9 700 hours to under 7 700 hours per month. That`s equivalent to the cost of 10 full time staff members.

Key to Nissan`s decision to retain Multimatics as its telecommunications partner was the offer of a money-back guarantee.

"It`s pretty simple really," says Brown. "We offer a full refund to clients if their savings do not exceed the cost of retaining our company. We are that confident in our ability to isolate and act upon unnecessary expenses."

"No one else in the market makes this offer," confirms Siteanu. "It was very influential in our decision-making process."

Equally important to Nissan was the simplicity of the Multimatics service, which did not disrupt daily business in any way. Although backed by comprehensive and transparent planning and scheduling, on the client side the service is as simple as plugging Multimatics equipment into the existing PABX system.

"Multimatics is the best that I have dealt with - and I have dealt with a great many suppliers," says Siteanu. "They truly offer personalised service, are very customer oriented and very accommodating with the most difficult customer needs. We have been absolutely impressed, and the results speak for themselves - to be able to save R1.5 million is significant, to say the least."

Nissan is currently negotiating with Multimatics to extend the range of the company`s telecommunications services.

"They earned our trust to the extent that we asked them to come and consult for us with regards to telecommunications in general," Siteanu concludes. "And this was not at Multimatic`s proposal, but at our request..."

So, when the next round of Telkom bashing begins in the boardroom, it might be time to pause and take another look at internal operations for the source of escalating costs. While the cost dictated by service providers is beyond business control, self-examination certainly isn`t.