The lazy person's guide to telecommunications management

CHIPS, Jan-March, 2005 by Dale J. Long

It's winter, and amid the bright, snow-covered landscape surrounding my home in Vermont, this young man's fancy turns to thoughts of what we pay just to keep the lights on, the phone working and enough heat inside the house to keep ice off the inside of our living room windows....

Because telecommunications management has recently become a hot issue, this article will address various aspects of managing enterprise voice telecommunications services. It will focus on managing traditional phone services: dial tone, long distance and voice mail.

Mission Needs

Managing telephone systems is not the primary mission of most government agencies. We provide phones to our employees as a means of communication. Theoretically we acquire, own, lease, administer and maintain these systems because it is either more economical, efficient or secure than having someone else do it for us. We may get certain bundled services, like long-haul communication circuits or long-distance service though the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) or Government Services Administration (GSA), but we can set up and manage our own private branch exchanges (PBXs) and other telephone infrastructure within our own facilities.

The two main capabilities that constitute basic voice telephone service are local and long-distance calling. I mention them separately because, for management purposes, they represent different cost centers in our telecommunication accounts. Local phone service is generally provided by a commercial local exchange carrier (LEC) or a government agency acting as a LEC, like GSA. Long distance service is provided to most government agencies by commercial carriers through the GSA Federal Technology Services (FTS) program.

Traditionally, local service costs have been more predictable. The local phone company gives you a certain number of lines at a consistent cost. Long-distance services vary depending on the amount of use. However, LECs in many states now appear to be transitioning to a fee structure based on message units. They lower the cost per line, but then add in usage charges. Having your monthly cost per line go from $20 a month to $8 a month plus message unit charges may sound good but since phone companies are in the business of making money, I'm willing to bet that the total message unit charges they get will make up the difference.

The trick to reducing costs in this new environment is to know at least as much about your calling habits as the phone company.

There are call detail reporting applications that can help with this, but to take advantage of them you need to scale them across the entire organization.

Other Services

The most common service most people are familiar with beyond basic dial tone is voice mail. Voice mail may be provided either as part of the contracted service provided by the LEC or by leased or purchased equipment installed in your facilities.

More advanced telephony services may include: (1) Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) systems that route calls in an Office based on pre-programmed options; (2) Call Detail Reporting (CDR) systems that monitor and report on system use; (3) Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) auto-attendant systems capable of responding to voice input; (4) Call recording systems; (5) Directory systems that allow callers to navigate through and find specific people or Offices; (6) Group paging systems that allow mass notification of Office personnel through the phones; and (7) Configuring phones to act as intercom systems.

Providing advanced services requires installation of a PBX and related equipment. This costs money. In fact, every service I have listed adds in some way to the cost of providing phone service. But before we get into a discussion of cost management, there is one more concept to cover.

Service Levels

The main drivers for the overall cost of any system are the expectations of its users. When people look for a car, they have a good idea of what performance, comfort or safety levels they are looking for. All of my customers have very definite ideas of what they expect from their phones, and most of them are fairly similar. The want local and long-distance calling, voice mail and a predictable cost each month so they know how much to budget for the fiscal year. There are some people with higher expectations who want or need more advanced features, but the three I've listed are the standards of telephone service.

From a management standpoint I find it useful to describe service levels in terms of maturity that describe both functionality the customer will notice and capabilities that help us manage systems. A change in service level is usually based on one of two factors: functionality or control. The first is a customer perception; the second reflects our ability to manage the system. With that in mind, here are my six service levels for voice telephony:

Level 1: Basic Dial Tone. Users can make and receive calls. Service may be provided by commercial analog lines or via centrex (central Office exchange service, provided by a switch managed at the provider's central Office). This level may include voice mail but only on an individual line basis.