NOTE: Agendas are the same for the 1st and 2nd days of each workshop.
Day 1:
8:00-8:20 Registration, Continental Breakfast
8:20-8:30 Introductions, Workshop Goals
8:30-9:30 Deciphering the Telecom Industry in 2012
Trying to keep up with the continual mergers, buy-outs, and name changes among the carriers can make your head spin. Then the ever-changing new technology, which seems to be introduced daily, makes it difficult to ever feel ahead of the game. As a quick refresher, we’ll review what’s happening in the telecom industry in 2012. You’ll learn who the top players are for local, long distance, data, and wireless services, plus find out who offers the most competition for the carriers. With customer service faltering as carriers change ownership and billing platforms, you’ll learn how to differentiate the bills based on areas of the country, not the name of the carrier. You’ll discover the benefits and drawbacks for customers that result from the telecom industry upheaval, and how constant change impacts performing a thorough audit.
9:30-10:30 A Little Organization and a 6-Step Process Make Audits Easy
Audits come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The extent of an audit depends on time constraints, the availability of personnel, and your persistence to keep pushing on, even when it feels like you’re walking backwards or around in circles. Whether you audit only a small segment of your telecom services, or you decide to conquer a massive telecom review, the process for finding the money will be the same. In this session, you’ll learn how to organize your data so you stay focused when you begin to feel overwhelmed. You will also be taught the 6-Step Audit Process, which will help you find money where others don’t and keep the audit on a steady timeline.
10:30-10:45 Refreshment Break
10:45-11:30 I Can Find the Money! Just Tell Me Where to Look!
For anyone who has looked at their home phone bill and felt completely perplexed, this session is for you. In just 45 minutes, you’ll learn how to read a phone bill from several different carriers to identify cost-cutting opportunities that are popping off the page. Discover the 7 areas of savings that auditors should check for on every bill. Having this quick list handy as you audit will ensure that you never overlook a chance to save money!
11:30-12:15 Taxes, Fees, and Surcharges – What am I Paying For?
Taxes, fees, and surcharges can increase your phone bills by a staggering 20% or more. It’s bad enough when you’re stuck paying them, but it’s even more frustrating when you don’t even know the reason behind the fees. The carriers are becoming masters at burying charges and creating various names for the fees to fool the masses. Even cities and counties add their own surcharges and fees to your local phone bill. In this session, you’ll get the scoop on all three types of charges to clear up the confusion they seem to cause everyone.
12:15-1:15 Luncheon
Join other participants at lunch to share stories, answer questions, or ask for advice.
1:15-2:45 Seeing is Believing When It Comes to Telecom Bills
Do the carriers really cram unauthorized charges on your phone bill? Is it true that a bill from your long distance carrier could mean there’s a problem? Shouldn’t there be a discount for service on your bill? These questions, and many more, will be answered during this session when actual customer bills are displayed from a variety of carriers. Sometimes there is too much on a bill, and other times, there is not enough. You won’t know what shows up on bills until you take a look, but once you start reviewing them, you will be shocked. You’ll learn how to cut costs on pay-per-use features, calling plans, line rates, crams, and slams on your bill. Understand how credits are given by the carriers, and discover what to do when unexpected charges hit the bill. You won’t want to miss this informative afternoon.
2:45-3:00 Refreshment Break
3:00-4:30 Workshop Participants: It’s Your Turn
For the rest of the afternoon, you will have the chance to review your own company’s bills, looking for savings opportunities or finding questions that need to be answered about charges on your bills. After reviewing their own billing records, everyone will have the chance to share their findings with the group. Karen will be available for questions and additional explanations of correct vs. incorrect charges. This session will be a great way to put what you have learned into practice.
Day 2:
8:00-8:30 Continental Breakfast
8:30-9:30 Customer Service Records (CSRs): In English Please
The second portion of the audit is to review the internal phone records for each account. Over the past few years, some local service providers have opted to put detailed line charges on the monthly bills. Even with this detail, however, there is still information about an account that never hit the bills. Auditors need to request an internal phone record from the carrier, known as a customer service record or equipment record. Local Exchange Carriers (LECs) share one thing in common with these records – they all write them using USOCs (Universal Service Order Codes). These codes, devised by the phone companies, turn account information into gibberish, making it extremely difficult to identify the information necessary for the audit. No need to worry though. Karen will translate the records into English, and teach you how to read them. They won’t be a mystery anymore!
9:30-11:30 Workshop Participants: It’s Your Turn Again
After learning how to read and interpret the customer service records, it will be your turn to pull out your own CSRs and see what additional information you can find that was not on your bills. Hand-on experience is the best way to retain what has been learned. You may find savings, while others in the group may gather more questions to investigate. Just the activity of combing through a customer service record for an account is a major part of the audit. If you can’t figure something out, Karen will answer questions and assist you in comprehending the information on your own accounts. (The refreshment break will be included in this session)
11:30-12:30 Are They Billing Me at My Contract Rates?
The negotiations are done, and the contracts have been signed, but don’t file that contract away just yet. During the implementation of discounted rates on each account, errors are the norm, not the exception. Often accounts are missed, and no discounts are applied. In other cases, discounts on the bill are given based on a 24-month term, and the bills are lower than before the contract was signed, so they seem correct. But what if your contract has a 36-month term with deeper discounts? Keeping a close eye on your contract terms is the only way to ensure correct pricing. You’ll understand why your contracts should be audited before, during, and after implementation once you learn the places within contracts where organizations lose the most money.
12:30-1:30 Lunch
1:30-2:30 That Line Hasn’t Been Used for Years!
For a complete audit, you have to ask, listen, ask, and listen again to users of the services you are auditing to gain the full picture of possible savings. After all, what good is a circuit inventory if it doesn’t show line functions? While most users will have no idea which lines go where, talking to them is critical to finding the answers and identifying where lines terminate. Discover how to make the most of your survey time by preparing your data in advance. Karen will provide a 10-point checklist that auditors should use to uncover cost-cutting opportunities that you won’t find on a bill.
2:30-4:15 Wireless Service: Help!
You love them and hate them at the same time! The accessibility gained by the vast amount of wireless devices available today can’t be matched. For organizations everywhere, though, this monster we call wireless service is attacking even the leanest budgets. It is simply the lack of control that sends invoices soaring upward. Wireless services can account for an organization’s highest percentage of telecom expenditures.
There are some tricks to auditing wireless service that simplify the task, yet allow for reasonable control over the bill. If you are struggling with an out-of-control wireless bill and are looking for ways to lower costs while keeping users happy, this session is for you. You’ll be taught how to read your bill, how to choose the proper plan for a wide variety of cell phone user personalities, and how to find savings at a glance. You’ll leave the session with the information you need to manage the unthinkable, your wireless service. (The refreshment break will be included in this session)
4:15-4:30 Final Thoughts/Wrap Up