* Telecom experts advocate blending wireless, wired WAN service negotiations
Two telecom experts strongly advise exploiting your growing wireless network service requirements during contractual negotiations with WAN vendors to win wire-line concessions.
Telecom attorneys Jim Blaszak and Kevin DiLallo from Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, Washington, D.C., recommend getting more aggressive with wireless procurement in the April 8 issue of “The Voice Report” newsletter. They point out that many organizations have failed to do this and, as such, are leaving money on the table.
Experience base: Vendor negotiation
The attorneys indicate that the U.S. carriers’ growing reliance on wireless revenues is your big bargaining chip. Fourth-quarter 2009 financials, they write, reveal that neither Verizon nor AT&T would have been in the black without the wireless portion of their businesses.
This means that the big wired/wireless operators could be eager to create service packages that bundle wired and wireless services that leverage aggregate volume to your benefit. In other words: The big WAN companies need your wireless business and may be willing to jump through some hoops on your wired business and service agreements to get it.
Blaszak and DiLallo offer up a number of valuable tips for making combined negotiations a success. Among them:
1) Before you begin negotiating, make a wholehearted attempt to get incumbent mobile operator(s) to agree to waive early termination fees to the greatest degree possible.
2) Come to the negotiating table armed with info about historical usage and expenses.
On the wireless side, that will require you to have a grasp of your current mobile assets and associated billing and service plans. If you don’t know how to mine that information, check out some of my alerts on the subject of mobility management (a.k.a, mobile device management, or MDM) and read up on wireless telecom expense management (WEM). The MDM and WEM disciplines are currently in the process of merging across the industry.
3) Consider a wireless ordering freeze as you lay the groundwork for your negotiations, signaling to your existing carrier that you are actively seeking a better deal on price, contract terms and service.
Bottom line: Use your wireless buying power strategically.
