This month we reviewed a zero usage report with a customer. This report has been the bane of his existence for many months and they have finally cleared up the charges; it was a rewarding monthly review.
So what exactly is a Zero Usage Report? It’s a report which identifies wireless devices that have not been used. We run the report for a 90 day window so that each number on the report, while being billed, is not using voice, data nor features (text etc) for a period of consecutive 3 months. We run this report for each customer every month.
While this sounds like a no-brainer, it is hard to believe how many enterprises have no idea how many users are not using their devices.
We just heard a story of a user who called their help desk internal support to report that his broadband card was not working. Well, luckily for the customer, this device was identified as a zero usage device and was turned off to save the monthly access fees. What the user didn’t realize it that it was turned off 9 months ago. This user had the unlimited data plan around $65 per month.
By the customer identifying this user as a small user and turning off the device, they saved $585 on this one user. Doesn’t sound like a great deal, but multiply this by several hundred or thousand users and you are saving yourself a bundle.
The other customer had over 100 devices with no use for 3 consecutive months and was spending about $13,000 every month on these users who did not use their devices. Pay attention to these devices…they are dollar suckers.
A few things to note about the zero usage report:
- Make sure the cost/benefit of turning off the device is worth a potential early termination fee (ETF)you might encounter with the carrier. Carriers these days are beginning to increase these fees (we have recently seen up to $325 per device (!) so confirm the contract end date before you cancel the device if you don’t want to pay the extra ETF.
- If you can, cancel the phone for an interim period of time and then reactivate. This is a great way to “own” corporate business numbers and when employees arrive or depart, that number stays a part of the enterprise account. When an employee leaves, temporarily suspend the device (some carriers have special plans for this, but Sprint is most expensive at $8.99 per suspended device per month.
- AT&T’s suspend pricing is most expensive at $10 per month for 180 days, Sprint is 2nd at $8.99 per month for 180 days and Verizon is $15 (one time) for 180 days. If you are lucky enough to have WEM partner, Enterprises should be able to negotiate this for no charge.
- Work with your employees and help desk staff to have all active phones indeed active. Active phones in a desk drawer because it was broken and the user was simply given another active device is a very expensive manner in which to manage your devices.
Clean up your act and you will save oodles. Make sure you review your zero usage every month and arrest those wireless costs!
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