THE COST OF NOT HAVING A BUSINESS CONTRACT

The cost of not having a business mobile phone contract can be high and in the UK, this has been recognised by 57% percent of SOHO businesses, who have already chosen a business contract. However, what that also tells us is that almost half of small businesses are relying on a personal contract which puts their businesses at risk from a variety of scenarios that could see them disconnected from their valuable clients and team members.

Imagine a scenario where a plumber’s mobile phone has stopped working. Under this situation the plumber will not be able to receive incoming calls from potential customers, who have sprung a leak or suffered a blockage. Confounding the costs, the plumber may not only lose new or repeat business, but may have spent precious funds on costly ads in publications, directories or online. It may even be conceivable, for clients to imagine that the plumber has ceased trading and gone out of business. So in this scenario it is imperative that the phone is back working as soon as possible to minimise the impact.

It has become an increased necessity for Small SOHOs, like plumbers and electricians, to be available at all times, both over the phone and via email, social media & chat.

The reasoning for SOHOs not having a business contract, has traditionally been one of perceived cost. Consumer focused deals are often perceived as better value for money, on the face of it, and while the monthly line rental can be slightly cheaper, the overall bundle is often not as rich and could leave our fictional plumber in hot water.

THE KEY BENEFITS OF A BUSINESS CONTRACT

Fast faulty handset replacement

One of the key benefits of a business contract with us is the next day, like-for-like, warranty replacement. Continuity of service is essential and the business mobile phone contract recognises this. Other 3rd parties and network providers may vary in terms of response times, but what a business contract offers you across the board is a much faster replacement service which you can’t put a price on when you risk losing business.

Dedicated service

A fast resolution and response to issues is desired and professionals and small businesses cannot afford to spend untold hours chasing a resolution. At Go Gloucestershire Communications and through our key suppliers, you will have direct access to a UK dedicated service team and account managers, who in turn have direct links to the networks.

Making accounting easy

A business mobile phone is also a legitimate business expense and as such it is tax deductible. Further costs can be saved through business share tariffs, which give free calls between users and keep costs down with shared allowances that ensure businesses do not pay for unnecessary individual allowances.

Cost effective, better value for money tariff solutions

Business mobile phone contracts are offered with a tariff structure review, clearer billing and mix and match network solutions to ensure that regionally located businesspersons have the best possible coverage.

For sole traders, it is sometimes fair for them to argue that they do not require a separate contract for business and personal use. But, when we consider the costs of not having a business contract and the benefits of having a business contract, then a single business contract may be preferred over a single personal contract.

Top 3 reasons businesses choose a new contract

Our suppliers most recent research has highlighted that for 71% of business users, the key reason to swap to a business contract was to gain better value for money. 67% of the businesses that we spoke to wanted to move to a business contract because of inadequate network coverage, while 54% wanted to swap because of poor customer service.
We noticed that subtle differences appear as business sizes increase. The larger the small business is, the more specific the business requirements are. This creates a stronger inclination towards business contracts and represents a shift from consumer type behaviours.

As new technologies continue to integrate themselves in everyday life, the cost of not having a business contract will continue to grow.

Claim your free review HERE

To request a free review of your current contract contact our professional and helpful team on 01452 238866 or at michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk

The beginning of the end for analogue lines

How accelerating VoIP usage is forcing the pace of change and engulfing old analogue lines

Businesses that rent landlines off BT and still make analogue calls on those lines, may have noticed that their prices have gone up recently. This should have come as no surprise – BT will have informed you of the changes some time ago.

Although the increase was small, businesses may well have asked themselves why it was necessary? After all, the cables and the infrastructure has been there for some time now and BT is the dominant player in the UK telephony market. It is also the leading player in the broadband market, both for consumer and business, so overall it would appear to be doing rather well.

Competitive environment

Indeed, it is broadly accepted that BT is performing well in what is a very tough environment. In pretty much every area of the market, BT is being compelled to make further investment while fighting off fierce competition. In broadband for example, it is pumping billions into the roll-out of high speed fibre broadband across the UK, while competitors are pushing Ofcom to impose more restrictions on the company and – in their eyes – give them a better chance of attracting new broadband subscribers.

In the area of calls and lines however, the situation is a little different. Here BT is fighting against competition that is introducing hosted and cloud-based VoIP services as a replacement for the analogue telephony. BT has to walk a fine line here. On the one hand it knows that, eventually, everyone will switch over to using IP-based services. On the other, it is making good money out of its calls and lines business, which has held up remarkably well over the past few years.

Changing perceptions

Part of the reason that BT’s traditional old cash cow has continued to yield is that customers have been reluctant to make the switch to VoIP. In the early days of VoIP, this was as much to do with a lack of confidence as much as anything else. But the perception that more bandwidth was needed to support IP-based voice was also factor. While this was largely a misconception, the arrival of faster broadband in the UK – for which BT must take quite a lot of the credit – has swept this concern aside.

This has opened the floodgates on VoIP. Over the past year, suppliers have seen three-figure increases in the number of users and a growing number of businesses are now switching all their voice services to host or cloud-based VoIP. This is not happening overnight, but it is rapidly accelerating. As a result, BT’s projected revenues from calls, and to a less degree, line rentals, will be starting to decline, putting pressure on the pricing model.

Transitioning to VoIP

But BT can’t just hike its prices because the competitive landscape is becoming more challenging. Its rivals would soon be banging on Ofcom’s door again. BT however, may feel it has to start increasing its charges for landlines and calls as this area of its revenues declines. Paradoxically, that will shake a few more customers out of their inertia and add a little bit of extra momentum to the transition towards VoIP, which will mean a further erosion of the calls and lines business.

For BT, the fine line between balancing the books and driving customers to adopt more digital services is getting finer. These latest price rises presage the end of the calls and lines era and the beginning of one in which hosted VoIP will become ubiquitous.

If you would like to know more about this and how you can future proof your business then please call complete the contact form below or call on 01452 238866 or email us direct at michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk

For more information please READ HERE

BT to axe 13,000 jobs and move out of central London HQ

BT is to axe about 13,000 jobs over the next three years and move out of its central London headquarters after almost 150 years, as it seeks to cut £1.5bn in costs after a torrid 18 months.

The telecoms company said the job losses would come mainly from back office and middle-management roles. About two-thirds of the job cuts will fall on its UK workforce of about 80,000, with the remainder coming from the 18,000 staff it employs internationally.

BT is also moving out of its central London headquarters in St Paul’s, where it has been headquartered since 1874 when the group was known as the General Post Office, as part of a wide-ranging restructuring.

“This is probably the most significant transformation we have made in the last 10 years,” said Gavin Patterson, the chief executive of BT. “We need to do this to be competitive in the future. If we are compared with our peers we are frankly too complex and overweight. While I recognise the pain, ultimately it is the right thing to do for the business.”

The group also said it would be hiring about 6,000 new staff, primarily in customer service and engineering.

BT’s standalone subsidiary Openreach, which is responsible for building and managing most of the UK’s broadband infrastructure, has already announced 3,500 of the new jobs. It is looking to hire engineers this year as part of a plan to speed up the rollout of fibre broadband and eliminate “not-spots” in cities and suburban areas.

The job cuts, which amount to about 13% of BT’s total global workforce, mean the company will ultimately be cutting about 17,000 jobs over a four-year period. Last May, it cut 4,000 jobs, with about half coming from the UK, to save £300m over two years.

BT said the move out of St Paul’s formed part of a plan to cut the number of locations it owns across the UK. Patterson said that about 80% of its staff were based in around 50 offices across the UK. That number will be cut to 30 “modern, strategic sites to create a more collaborative, open and customer-focused working culture”.

“In many cities we have multiple offices, it is about consolidating in key towns,” said Patterson. “We will certainly have a headquarters in London; this is not BT moving out of London. It is more likely to be in a smaller, future-oriented working environment.”

he company said it is looking at “all options” for the future of the St Paul’s site. It would not comment on the value of the property.

Prospect, the union representing 140,000 public and private sector workers such as engineers and managers said the larger-than-expected cuts would be a “devastating blow” to its members and sounded “unrealistic”.

“Decisions like this are not easy to make,” said Patterson. “And I recognise it is going to affect a lot of people.”

The large-scale redundancies are the biggest since 2008 and 2009 when 30,000 jobs went, largely as a result of the poor performance of its global services division.

BT’s share price fell as much as 8% in early trading, reflecting concern from investors at the group’s forecast of lower revenue and profits this year. BT reported profits of £7.5bn, down 2%, with revenue down 1% to £23bn in the year to the end of March.

Patterson, who has endured a torrid 18 months including an accounting scandal at BT’s Italian unit that cost £530m to clean up, said the company had “proved its mettle” over the last year.

He said successes included closing the final salary pension scheme and agreeing a multibillion-pound deficit recovery plan, legally separating Openreach and striking a new Premier League rights deal at £295m a season, saving £25m annually ending years of spiralling inflation.

Patterson also announced an increase of about £200m in capital expenditure to £3.7bn in each of the next two years, to drive the rollout of superfast broadband and 5G mobile networks.

BT said it would hold the dividend unchanged for last year and the next two years, given the outlook for earnings and cashflow, but added that it remained committed to a long-term policy of growing the dividend.

The company also agreed a 13-year plan to reduce its pension deficit, which stands at £11.3bn, including payments of £2.1bn over three years and a further £2bn to be raised from a bond issue.

Patterson said that BT would also look at the sale of non-core assets and that its under-performing global services operation, which provides IT and communications services to clients ranging from the BBC to Bromley council, would be streamlined.

Should you use a cloud-based phone system?

Essentially, this is a very simple argument. And before we explore the pros and cons, let me tell you that the resounding answer is ‘yes’. Eventually, you probably won’t have any choice anyway, as all voice systems will be cloud-based. And before we get to that point, given the choice, the cloud or IP option would always be more attractive.

First off, let’s look at cost, just to get that particular genie well and truly out of the bottle. Every hosted IP voice salesperson will tell you that it’s cheaper by a certain significant percentage. This could be anything from around 30 per cent to 80 per cent. The reason the figure varies is because the actual savings will vary for every business – and you’ll need to choose the right hosted voice service for your needs to maximise those savings.

If you are a small business that makes mostly local calls for example, a simple, all-inclusive service that provides you with a set monthly fee is probably going to suit. If you make a lot of national, and international calls, or calls to mobiles, you will need a package that offers lower costs on these calls. But one way or another, the cost to your business will be lower when you used a hosted voice service. Like what we do, your supplier ought to be able to perform an audit for you and put forward different options and the approximate savings each one should deliver.

Positive reasons

But it’s certainly not all about saving money. There are many other positive reasons to use a cloud-based phone system. (By the way, when we or anyone else used terms such as ‘cloud-based’, ‘hosted voice’, and ‘VoIP’, we are really talking about the same thing. The voice call is made over the Internet (using ‘IP – the Internet Protocol) and it’s managed inside a cloud service that runs on the service provider’s systems).

For starters, it is much more flexible. Because your phone system is virtual and resides in the cloud, you can use it from anywhere. You or any other user – colleagues, employees, temporary workers – can just log onto the system and use all its features as normal. This makes working at home or remotely, or even upping sticks and moving the whole business, very easy.

If you should not be able to gain access to your premises for some reason, or you need to use another location while your own is refurbished or redecorated, it’s easy. All you need are the soft phones or some other access device, such as a laptop, tablet or even a mobile phone. With some services, you get a special app for your mobile that allows you to use it to access the hosted VoIP.

And cutting down on mobile bills is another way in which you’ll save money.

This easy mobility also means you are easier to find, as you can always be available on the same number; providing you can connect the Internet, you have access to your VoIP service.

Choose your location

Also, while you can be physically, anywhere, you can also give the appearance of being in a particular location – or several locations if you wish. You may be located in Birmingham, for example, but you could also set up numbers for Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester, Bristol, London and Southampton, with all calls to all numbers routed back to the same office. You could do the same thing over a much smaller area – within the local towns in a particular county or region, for instance.

With a cloud-based voice service, it is also incredibly easy to add, remove or change users. It is just a matter of setting them up on the management console. It takes minutes, so if you need to bring in more people to work on a project or campaign you can, without incurring any extra cost, barring some having some kind of phone handset (and you can usually hire these) and at the same low fixed per-user cost. You will always know what you are paying.

Take control

Management and control is another major benefit of using cloud-based telephony. You will be able to monitor activity and get detailed reports on calls made and received by individuals and teams. This can be really useful in gauging how much time (and thereby cost) is being expended on particular clients or projects, and assessing productivity and performance.

If you have a CRM (customer relationship management) system, you should be able to integrate it with the voice system, so staff can have customer details appear on screen as soon as the call comes in, and call patterns can be set.

Then there’s the almost endless list of features that you get with cloud-based voice. These will include everything from auto-attendant, hold audio or music, call forwarding, voicemail, group calling and hunting, teleconferencing, call recording and more. Most cloud-based B2B voice services offer a very wide range of options and while they may cost more, most are available as part of the different packages on offer. As ever, what you chose will depend on your own particular needs!

But just to reiterate the point; switching to a cloud-based phone system is definitely worth it!

If you would like to know more the please call 01452 238866 or email michael,stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk - or complete the contact form below and we'll contact you.

Go Glos Comms Supporting BT's Ultrafast Broadband - See when it's available in your area!

BT’s new Ultrafast fibre broadband, powered by G.Fast technology, is being rolled out across the UK now. With download speeds of up to 314 Mbps, it lets more people do more online at the same time.

But it’s not just about speed. Thanks to the new BT Business Smart Hub, Ultrafast broadband comes with BT’s most powerful wi-fi signal. Plus, you get free access to over 5 million wi-fi hotspots across the country too.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you can expect from BT’s Ultrafast products.

Ultrafast 1

• Download speeds: up to 152Mbps
• Upload speeds: up to 29Mbps

Ultrafast 2

• Download speeds: up to 314Mbps
• Upload speeds: up to 48Mbps
• Both Ultrafast products include:Minimum speed guaranteed – when we say Ultrafast, we mean it or you can walk away
• BT Business Smart Hub
• Openreach Modem
• BT Device Protection by Symantec
• Unlimited usage

Contact us direct or fill in your contact details below to find out when its coming to where your business is located. You can also call us on 01452 238866 or email at michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk

5 Major Benefits for You From Supporting Local Businesses

In recent years, a huge movement has begun! It’s a movement that takes businesses away from large, impersonal corporate providers and introduces them to the people doing business in their very own cities. 

When an organisation supports their local business owners, they enjoys benefits that you can’t possibly experience from purchasing through some of the national chains.

Here are some top reasons to support your local entrepreneurs:

1. Improve the local economy.
When a business buys local, significantly more of that money stays in the community. In fact, one recent study found that for every £100 spent at a local business, approximately £68 remained in the city while only £43 of each £100 spent with a major corporate organisation.

Local business owners often have incentive to support other local businesses, patronizing local establishments for both business and personal reasons. Major chain type businesses, on the other hand, tend to get their supplies from corporate, as well as having store managers and employees that aren’t as personally invested in buying local.

2. Know the people behind the product. 
When you personally know the people behind the business where you’re buying local products and services, you enjoy a connection you would not otherwise have. Along with the rest of the community, you celebrate when a favorite local business succeeds and embrace having a face to face point of contact on your businesses doorstep.

3. Keep your community unique.
It is a well known fact that local businesses give a community its flavor.  Take for example towns across America, which have similar chain restaurants, grocery and department stores but that one diner down the street where you have breakfast every Saturday morning is one-of-a-kind. The combined presence of your town’s many local businesses makes it different from every other city in the world. By supporting those businesses instead of chains, you ensure that uniqueness is preserved as a part of your community and a collaboration second to none!

4. Better customer service.
If you’ve ever dealt with a large corporation, you know getting help can be a pain. You’ll call an 0800 number, to only then be transferred six times and put on hold. Even when you speak to a customer service representative, that person is so far removed from the decision-making process, there appears to be very little concern that the company will lose you as a customer.

When you shop local for business, the business owner is usually directly connected to every employee within their organisation. This leads to a far more personal approach that often means any problem you have is taken seriously and dealt with more promptly.

5. More personalised service.
Having the owner nearby also means that owner personally knows his individual clients. He knows the products and services that you buy or the services you request on a regular basis and can tailor services to make your experience even better. 

Buying local has benefits beyond mere convenience. When you support local business owners, you understandably get a far more personalised level of service and support, as well as helping make your community a far better/more successful place to live! In addition to this you will also get access to unique products and services that you usually can’t find with the chain and corporate type of organisations.

Contact us today to arrange your FREE telecoms and IT review - Let us help take away some of those headaches that your business has been struggling with for too long.

Please read here for more details on the level of support we can offer you: https://www.gogloscomms.co.uk/corporate-client-support-gloucestershire/

Please call us on 01452 238866 or email michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk

BRISTOL FIBRE IS HERE!

ATTENTION BRISTOL BUSINESSES!

We are in a joint venture with Bristol City Council and ITS to utilise the Council’s existing ducting throughout 180 km’s of the city!

We are pulling Fibre through this ducting, which will benefit local businesses by allowing them access to full fibre uncontended leased lines at massively reduced prices due to the infrastructure already being in place.

Current offers are:

100MB Full Fibre Leased Line on a 1-1 basis at only £249.99 per month

500MB Full Fibre Leased Line on a 1-1 basis at only £349.99 per month

1000MB Full Fibre Leased Line on a 1-1 basis at only £549.99 per month

All of these circuits are fully uncontended and have no usage limitations and based on a minimum of  a 36 month agreement.

There’s also a fantastic opportunity from the DCMS Governments Gigabit Voucher scheme which allows businesses in Bristol to receive up to £3000.00 funding to have the fibre delivered directly in to your business and as such removes the costs for having this service installed.

To learn more please either complete the contact form below or email us at michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk or call on 01452 238866.

Free Telecoms And IT Audit - Save Over 30%

We’ll help you answer these questions, and many more:

• How much can I save on my phone bills?

• Is Hosted VoIP the way to go?

• How can I easily connect all my people?

• Can I combine Voice & Data connectivity?

• How can I get the latest call features?

• Am I paying for lines I’m not using?

If you haven’t had a professional audit of your telecom services in the last 18 months, there is a very high chance that you’re paying too much – and you won’t be taking advantage of the latest technologies like hosted VoIP. We are commonly able to save our customers at least 30% after the audit, often more!

But that’s not all, we will:

• Demonstrate the benefits of Hosted VoIP

• Advise on your voice & data connectivity

• Save money on your IT & telecoms costs

• Help you select the ideal solution

• Improve and streamline your network

• Project manage the entire process

How the complimentary Telecom Audit works:

We’ll look at your voice, IT, data and wireless services. We listen to your requirements, explain how the new technologies can benefit your organisation and provide one proposal that is ideal for your needs. Our aim is to reduce your telecom costs, improve your communications and provide overall telecom project management.

The benefit of using an independent telecom specialist comes from our unbiased advice and expertise. The alternative is for you to call each of the telephone companies and rely on a sales person to give you “objective” advice on your telecom needs. Our unbiased proposal favours you, not the phone company.

Please contact us direct to arrange your free no obligation Telecoms and IT review on tel No 01452 238866 or email us at michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk

Please click here for more information: https://www.gogloscomms.co.uk/

Looking to run your own profitable business? BECOME A GO FRANCHISEE

Become a Go Franchisee and run your own profitable Communications and IT business

If you're looking for a great opportunity to run your own ready made business, with a great potential for growth, then look no further. At Go Gloucestershire Communications Limited, we have everything covered for you.

So far there's Go Gloucestershire and Go Warwickshire, but you could be the next and enjoy the freedom of running your own business.

Interested? Get in touch with us and let's see what the future holds!

Call us on 01452 238866 or email michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk   

Or register your interest here: https://www.gogloscomms.co.uk/go-franchise/

BT pushes ahead with plans to switch off telephone network

BT is forging ahead with plans to shut its traditional telephone network in Britain, with the intention of shifting all customers over to IP telephony services by 2025.

The closure of the public switched telephone network (PSTN) is part of plans by BT toward internet-based voice calls via a fibre network. As such it will be looking to close a chunk of exchanges.

Yesterday, Openreach wrote to its communications providers about the move. The broadband division will open consultation next month on the withdrawal of its Wholesale Line Rental (WLR) products, which are reliant on the PSTN.

In an email, seen by The Register, it said:

"This is a truly significant change for the industry and represents a move from an analogue to a digital, fibre led future. These changes will affect how you do business with Openreach."

The consultation will seek feedback on the process and timeline for the withdrawal of WLR and related products.

Cathy Gerosa, head of Regulatory Affairs at representative body for providers, the Federation of Communication Services, noted many of its members have a large WLR presence. She said many do business directly with Openreach for managing that. "This gives them a direct route in for ordering products and for chasing when things go wrong.

"With the move to fibre-only, the B2B [comms providers] are likely to be pushed one place down the chain... and will have less direct control over the services that they offer."

An Openreach spokesman said: "In May, we’ll consult with industry around the process of withdrawing WLR and related products.

"This follows plans by BT to upgrade its customers from analogue (PSTN) to digital (all IP) telephone services by 2025.

"We’ll be working with our Communication Provider customers over the coming months as we consider the move to IP voice services - where broadband rather than voice becomes the primary service."

Other communications companies in Germany, Japan, Sweden, are already in the process of moving voice to run over IP. Orange has set a goal of having all IP (digital) networks by 2020, and Deutsche Telekom aims to migrate all its lines in Europe to digital by the end of 2018.

Openreach also plans to pass three million homes and businesses with fibre-to-the-premise by 2020. ®

Contact us direct to learn more about VoIP can help improve and future proof your businesses telecoms. Contact us direct on 01452 238866 or michael.stanley@gogloscomms.co.uk 

Please read more here: https://www.gogloscomms.co.uk/voip-telephone-systems/