118 calling…. Can we have your money please?

At 8020 we analyse telecoms usage and expenditure on a daily basis and it always amazes me how much money businesses spend on Directory Enquiry Services. 

Costs have continued to creep up and up, and as all the TV show disclaimers say “calls from a mobile may be considerably higher”.

The Directory market is very confusing with offers and charges varying across the board. Callers can choose a service which charges by the minute, by the second, for one number or several, and which offer everything from cinema listings to street directions in addition to telephone numbers.

It’s often however, the operators with the biggest or quirkiest TV advertising that win the day, I’m sure you can recall two or three 118 numbers off the top of your head, and they’ve probably got 90% of the market between them, but are they the best value for your business?

We have three key tips for business mobile users:

•      If you have a smartphone forget phoning any 118 numbers, simply hop on the internet at www.192.com and search for the number for free (assuming you have a data bundle of course).

•   Never get put through when they politely ask you if you’d like them to connect you to your requested number.  This can cost a staggering amount per minute for the entire duration of the call.  They text you the number at no extra cost, simply redial using your call plan minutes.

• Get to know your own networks preferred number.  This is the cheapest to use whilst on your mobile. O₂ – 118402, Vodafone – 118881, Orange 118000.

The spiralling costs of directory enquiries began in 2003 when the government opened up the market, ironically to increase competition and reduce costs to businesses and consumers.

For more information and advice on how to reduce your business telecom costs, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com 

Is free public Wifi really on the horizon?

O2 are building a hotspot network called O2 Wifi. It’s free and you don’t even have to be an O2 customer to use it.  Even if your business mobile’s with another network or you get your home broadband
from someone else, everyone will be able to use it.

O2 Wifi will give you speeds up to ten times faster than a normal mobile connection and when you’re browsing on Wifi you’re not eating up your monthly mobile data allowance.

By the end of the year O2 will have set up thousands of hotspots. And by 2013, they aim to have 14,000 hotspots across the UK – double the number anyone offers now.  This means we’ll be able to use O2 Wifi in shops, cafes and bars. Then train stations, airports, shopping centres, libraries, parks and stadiums.  

O2 has already signed a deal with London's Westminster City Council and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea to create Europe's largest free wireless hub in Europe.  

The deal is part of both councils' plans to ensure that visitors to London will be able to make the most out of London's offerings, particularly in a year in which both the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics take place. The costs of providing the Wi-Fi have been covered by O2, and not at the expense of the taxpayer.

So what’s in it for O2? 

Well for a start Wifi can immediately take some of the strain off the operators 3G network resulting in a better service for voice users as well.  Other reasons for doing so could include getting hold of user data that they can sell to venues or advertisers and of course by opening it up to everyone they can start marketing the network to people who aren't already on O2.

For advice on any aspect of your business communications, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com 

How smart is Nokia’s new phone?

Nokia is making a comeback to the smartphone arena having previously failed to impress consumers with their just-average versions of the smartphone.  Surpassed by RIM, Apple and Android, Nokia needed to shake up production or risk losing their long-standing reputation of making excellent quality, innovative phones. 

Part of their reinvention involved teaming up with Microsoft to form an alliance which would power the new range of Nokia phones through Windows Mobile.  A clever and mutually beneficial partnership most would agree as Nokia are a globally reputed manufacturer and Windows needed to get in on the mobile phone action to curtail the upsurge of its competitors, such as Google Android which is now the world’s leading mobile phone operating software.

So Nokia’s Lumia 800, with its seamless clear black curved glass chassis and large display screen looks and feels like a high end smartphone, with the operating software to match.  Windows Phone 7.5 is slick and easy to use and it’s built for business with embedded Microsoft Office which allows you to read and edit Word, PowerPoint and Excel documents, as well as share them instantly.  Email is good too with Exchange functionality for enterprise customers giving access to calendar, contacts and mail synchronisation on the move.

One of the biggest drivers for smartphones however is the availability and choice of applications, or apps as they’ve become known.  According to Microsoft, there are over 30,000 apps and games in the Windows Phone Marketplace that you can download to your handset. Many of these apps were written pre 7.5, so only a portion of them support the features that the update brings. Microsoft however is encouraging developers to write their code with Windows Phone 7.5 in mind. 

Aside from the smartphone arena, Nokia has successfully penetrated the lower end handset market with a massive proportion of businesses remaining loyal.  Many users rely on their longevity and dependability and fail to be swayed by the latest handset on the go. 

Was it perhaps naive of critics to ever doubt that Nokia could bounce back?  After all, Nokia was the world’s largest manufacturer of mobile phones in 2011.  In the global smartphone rivalry Nokia and Microsoft have some ground to make up behind RIM’s BlackBerry, Apple and Android - but the race could be heating up for 2012.  The Lumia 800 combines the simplicity of a Nokia handset with Microsoft’s powerful operating software making it a real contender in an increasingly competitive market.

For a demo of the Nokia Lumia 800, or for more information on how smartphones could improve your business communications contact 8020ltd on 01387 250008

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com 

Roaming Costs Guide

Question:

I’ve recently heard media reports of huge bill from using Windows mobilesmart-phones abroad. Could you tell me the facts please?

Answer:

The BBC reported a story of a German man who was reported to have been charged £41,000 after downloading a television programme on his phone.

Which? the consumer association is warning that people going abroad with smart-phones can still face huge bills if they connect to the internet. They say that a ten minute video clip and five music tracks could cost as much as £200.

It pays to be very aware of using mobile data whilst roaming on foreign networks. Your UK mobile provider will charge you around £2.50 per MB in and around Europe and around £6.00 per MB across the rest of the world. One megabyte (MB) is the equivalent of one e-mail with a photo attachment.

From the 1^st July there will be a default limit of 50 euros (£45) within the 27 countries of the European Union and Switzerland, however anyone visiting non-EU countries, like Turkey, the US or the Caribbean, will continue to have no limits on their internet usage.

On smart-phones like Windows, iPhone and Blackberry there’s an option to switch off data services while roaming, which means that you are in control of how and when you receive e-mails.

Some network operators also offer data abroad packages but you need to notify them of when you are travelling abroad and how much data you might use to get the best package.

If you’re using a USB dongle with your laptop abroad then be very careful of how much data you’re using. Most of them have a meter you can reset allowing you to measure exactly how much is used so there are no nasty surprises when you return to the UK.

For advice and guidance on any aspect of travelling abroad with your mobile please contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008 or download our guide from our website; www.8020ltd.com/roamingguide.pdf

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com

Bring Your Own Phone

With the recent boom in smartphones showing no signs of slowing down a new trend is emerging within businesses where employees would rather use their own personal device than the standard company issued handset.

'Consumerisation' as its being labelled can have real benefits for businesses who adopt this policy but at the same time it doesn't come without it's headaches. 

The upsides are if employees are prepared to pay or at least subsidise the cost of hardware then this eases any capital investment required for the business to adopt this technology but better still according to a recent study, Gartmore claim that mobilised workers i.e. those with a smartphone, are on average 240 hours more productive each year than their non-mobilised counterparts.

However the downsides are clear, scaling up to manage different user platforms, managing security on the enterprise network and bringing personal apps and social networking into the work environment are just some of challenges that lie ahead.  Then you're into who pays for the smartphone data plan and what's the data being used for, business or personal?

If you think this won't apply to your organisation you might also be interested to know that Gartmore also predict that by 2014 90% of organisations will support corporate applications on personal devices.

If you'd like to know about managing multiple mobile platforms on your business network contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com 

‘I never said that…’

Financial services companies that trade stock, shares, bonds and derivatives are in a tizzy over enforced regulation by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to record mobile phone calls by the 14th November. With less than 20 days to go it’s estimated that as many as 80% of companies have not yet ordered a system and may be in danger of not complying, facing the dreaded FSA visit and potential fines.

This enforcement by the FSA, designed to stop insider trading, follows over a year of consultation with the industry after the successful regulation and implementation of recording landline calls.

But long before the FSA took this decisive action it was reported in the Ombudsman News in 2002 that the Insurance Ombudsman had long since stressed the importance of recording critical conversations.

If insurance companies of any sort could not ‘demonstrate why on the balance of probabilities they should accept its (the company) version of events rather than the customer’s’ the Ombudsman would give the customer the benefit of doubt and find against the company.

And an unsuccessful defence of a customer dispute costs money which is at the real nub of why many businesses today record their calls.

Recording is not only about regulation but about protection of profits and reputation, protection of your staff and importantly rapidly improving your business performance, essential in these times of austerity.

How else would you find out what the your staff are really saying to your customers, who is you best performer, how many sales and cross selling opportunities you are losing and ‘who said what’ in a dispute which drains time, energy and resource and often ends up with an unnecessary and costly concession to your customer?

The next time you hear, ‘I never said that’ think how quickly call recording could prove it.

For advice on any aspect of your business communications, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com  

10 Steps To Reducing Toll Fraud

As a key starting point we suggest all business telephone systems should have a Telephone System Secure Fraud Audit, this audit will be best carried out by the system maintainer who for a nominal cost should be able to provide this service covering the following:

Remove or de-activate all unnecessary system functionality including remote access ports. If you must have the latter, protect them with strong authentication techniques such as strong passwords or pin number access.

Restrict the numbers that employees can dial into the system.

Call bar all premium rate numbers and add restrictions for international numbers, operator and international operator and Directory Enquiries.

Review your telephone system call logging/reporting records regularly to spot any increases in call volumes or calls to suspicious destinations. Treat all internal directories, call logging reports or audit logs as confidential. Destroy them securely when they're no longer needed.

Lock out all voicemail ports for outgoing access to trunks if you can, if access to lines-voicemail is vital and then introduce suitable controls. Lock any surplus mailboxes until you have a user for them.

Change your voicemail and DISA (Direct Inward System Access) passwords regularly and don't use the factory defaults ...not using DISA? Then disable it completely.

Change the system and engineering passwords.

Remove Auto Attendant options for accessing outside lines.

Only give individuals the appropriate and minimum level of system access they need to carry out a specific task. Review your system security and configuration settings regularly. Follow up any vulnerabilities or irregularities promptly.

For advice on any aspect of your business communications, contact 8020 Ltd on 01387 250008.

Andrew Edgar

Managing Director

8020 Ltd

01387 250008

www.8020ltd.com