The Ever-expanding Phone Bill (and how to avoid paying it)

Excerpt from Strategy for Business, issue 16. - Autumn 2004

You're a big, multi-branch organisation and you live or die by data. Sales, stock, cash and credit information flashes between branches and head office in real time and the value it delivers for supply chain, decision times, customer response and management awareness is immeasurable.

But the bill is terrifying. Even with the biggest discounts going, you’re paying millions every year.

There’s your actual network to consider, too. Bit of a patchwork quilt? ISDN, Ethernet LANs, ADSL. Will it hold together as you grow? Is it about to devour more money to stay reliable and secure? How’s the support and maintenance burden? Getting heavier?

What about the cost of inter-personal communication? Good management means regular contact, branch-to-branch, hub-to-rim. The intranet, too, is vital to boost morale and build a shared culture among your far-flung outposts. More paralysing numbers.

And then there’s tomorrow. You know that competitive advantage comes from knowledge. Understanding your customers – touching and recognising them at more points, more often – will demand much more from your network.

So are those wires, routers, tills and terminals the most business critical of all your resources? Probably. Are networks your core business? Not at all.

Maybe it’s time you were optimised.

More data, more securely, for less money

That’s the result of Network Optimisation, as practiced by Fujitsu.

Put simply, it’s an outsourcing arrangement that takes over your voice and data services and network links, plus the voice and data traffic between sites. It maintains them, guarantees their performance and keeps them secure. And then sells the entire package back to you at a cost that’s much less than you’re paying now. In fact, the difference is often telephone numbers.

So where does the optimisation come in? Well, as you grow, those difficult integration problems simply won’t occur. Expansion into new branches will be smoother, costs will be linear and network availability will never falter.

You’ll be safer, too. The Fujitsu High Security MPLS data network is private, and much less vulnerable to attack than a public network.

Your staff will have fewer problems. Help desk services are built into the contract and Fujitsu’s help desks are unique. They operate ‘Sense and Respond®’, the award-winning methodology that eliminates recurring problems, reduces call volumes and increases user satisfaction.

Your voice calls will be routed via the internet. No more BT bills, and PC/laptop video conferencing will be available to everyone if you wish.

Optimised customers, too

Oh yes. And your customers will be more loyal.

How so? Because an optimised network makes it easy to embrace new technologies that can reach and build relationships with more people, in more channels. No need to worry that your network couldn’t handle a new loyalty card, or whether your online, instore and telephone CRM systems can share the same data. They can.

Optimising 1,100 pubs, clubs, hotels and restaurants

One current Network Optimisation project is for Whitbread, the leisure retailer whose blue chip brands span pubs, hotels, health clubs, coffee shops and restaurants. The five year contract will save them millions, while also enabling new technologies and a step-change in customer relationships.

"The migration to a single, Whitbread wide converged Voice and Data Network will provide access to new technology that will enable a range of new business opportunities. Just as important, though, is the flexibility Fujitsu have shown in agreeing to a guaranteed savings profile with built-in decreases over five years and fixed annual pricing that allows our brands budgeting certainty," says Derek Risk, Whitbread’s Director of Group Systems.

For more information about Fujitsu Network Optimisation, please call Ask Fujitsu on +44 (0) 870 242 7998. Just give us your number and we’ll call you back – how’s that for a good start on the road to smaller phone bills?