CloudOgre

844-OGRE-NOW

Three Tips to Lower Telecom Bills for All

by

Lower Telecom Bills

Want lower telecom bills? 

Let’s face it, we all want lower telecom bills? There are three surefire ways to get a better deal on your telephone and internet bills. 

These tips three tips to lower telecom bills pretty much work across the board, in residential and commercial settings. These tips are better to keep in mind for larger companies with multiple offices in diverse locations. 

Dealing with many carriers can be time consuming, having the wrong mix of services can be expensive! Here’s what you can do to fight back and get lower telecom bills.

  1. Cancel service and order new 

New customers get better deals because the ISPs and telephone companies value new connects over disconnects. The same holds true for cell phones and it frustrates us all. Who wants to see an ad promoting service for $100/month for new customers when you, an established customer, is paying $200/month? Can I get the same deal? Nope. You have to move to a new provider and then back to your old provider. Either way you’ll be dealing with the Win Back team who’ll be responsible for that cancelled account for a particular window of time, after which you can order new service. Carriers do this because its such a painful process to cancel and re-order to lower telecom bills. 

  1. Long term contract 

This will save money since telecom providers want to lock in their rates and revenue. A contract will certainly guarantee lower telecom bills and the longer the contract the lower the rate. Questions is, how long of a contract makes sense? Will prices go down so much that it’ll make sense not to contract? Probably not, the rates on bandwidth and dial tone have been commoditized to a historical low. That said, changes often happen like the shift from copper to fiber, point to points to MPLS and SD-WAN. The correct configuration of services can do wonders for your telecom budget. 

  1. Bundle or separate

That leads us to the good ole bundle. Phone companies want you to buy their internet and cable companies want you to buy their internet along with their TV. What’s the right product mix? In enterprise environments bundling is more complex and entails network routing like MPLS and SD-WAN mentioned above, as well as, ad danced security services like DDoS and Managed DNS or Network Based Firewalls. Additionally, mobility services may be bundled in but whats’ the right product mix? Whose reselling, whose the actual underlying services provider, and where can you get the best deal? 

Expertise in these areas is cheap compared to the amount that can be saved. The right product mix and contracting can help you do a lot more with your telecom budget or simply get you lower telecom bills. Apples to apples comparisons are infrequent since every provider has its nuance. If you just want to save money, that’s easy… If you want to do more with less or, better yet, accomplish your goals for whats in your purse, you’ll want an expert… and guess who I’m gonna recommend… That’s right the Ogre! 

Five Reasons a LAN Assessment is Required for a Voice Quote

by

LAN Assessment

Tech Testing Local Area Network

The LAN Assessment is a crucial part of any system implementation and as a former salesperson a LAN Assessment was the bane of my existence. Before I could provide a firm quote or a contract a LAN Assessment was required, slowing the sales cycle. As a customer trying to budget, decide, and pull the trigger on a solution it slows down your decision making process.

Truth be told, the LAN Assessment is a necessary evil for a successful implementation. Many times customers request a telecom auditto ascertain what equipment and services are in use. A LAN Assessment takes it one step further, testing all cables, connections, and switches. It’s a much more difficult process than a telecom audit because at times, it can require taking down parts of the network during business hours.

Subscribe to the CloudOgre YouTube Channel 

  1. The customer experience will suck if you’re rolling out a phone system with faulty wires so many telecom carriers require it prior to accepting an order for a Hosted System. Larger organizations that manage their own PBX will have IT staff that also manage the network, keeping it in tip top shape. Prior to making a decision, one of the key considerations is whether you want to have a converged or non-converged network. The LAN Assessment will help make that decision.
  2. IP Addressing, Subnets, VLANs, and security settings need to be analyzed to ensure that there is no traffic interference that would degrading QoS or Quality of Service. Codecs may also need to be adjusted in environments with a reliance on video calls.
  3. The LAN is the proverbial long pole in the tent. Once you get past the complexities of the WAN, your day to day functionality is dependent upon the wires that connect your end-users together. So many devices rely on the LAN that additional issues can be uncovered by past Band-Aid fixes.
  5. Construction and lack of existing conduit can dictate what you can do with your LAN. Sometimes you just can’t get a wire there or it’s so difficult to do it that it’s not worth it. No need to break out the Hilti to drill through a foot of cinderblock to install a phone that for a staff member that is typically out of office. Large campus environments may require wireless line of site connectivity that needs to be tested to ensure their throughput.
  6. The main reason you want to do the audit and LAN Assessment before your roll out is to know what you’re getting into. Proactive collaboration is a best practice for the success of your project. You know the saying, the little things are the big things. This little step can make your budget and implementation timeframe more accurate. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in an environment that had a 100M switch paying for more than 100M of bandwidth from their ISP.

Sometimes, a LAN assessment isn’t necessary or needs to be skipped. When you’re dealing with a system that’s failing and impacting performance you gotta rip that things out and do it right no matter what. Of course you want to be cost conscious but if you’re paying for additional electric, old POTS lines, or rodents chewing through your wires then time is of the essence. Also, if you’re building from the ground up a LAN Assessment isn’t necessary, you’ll need a detailed network diagram proposed to suit the business’ needs.

Comcast Business Admin Tool

by

Comcast BusinessComcast Business is hated by some and loved by others for different reasons. The company is notoriously difficult to deal with and has a reputation for poor customer service. The Comcast Business Admin Tool provides a centralized place to manage your Comcast accounts. This, along with a 2-hour service window, is a major improvement. Here’s a link to the Comcast Business Admin Tool.

 

In 2011, Comcast Business began offering dedicated internet access and other metro-ethernet technologies over its existing fiber optic network. This service isn’t available everywhere and it can be costly for smaller businesses or over budget for smaller satellite offices. Furthermore, ordering Comcast Business services at multiple locations spread throughout their network is difficult to do directly since only some sales reps can sell certain products. If you need assistance including pricing or availability, please contact us here and we’ll streamline your ordering process while guaranteeing the best pricing available.

 

Unlike Spectrum’s bill pay site Comcast has integrated all of its business services into a single platform where you can see each account individually. You’re not able to view or pay from a single window, however, you can link all accounts to a single user.

Comcast Business Admin Tool

How to navigate the Comcast Business Admin Tool

The Comcast Business Admin Tool is great for bill pay but doesn’t allow for advanced functionality like the CenturyLink Control Center tool. You won’t be able to get bandwidth utilization reports or call detail, but you will be able to view your whole bill. Spectrum is still working to working to integrate all of their various billing platforms.

 

The Comcast Business Admin Tool breaks down billing per site. The Manage Account drop down will allow you to add multiple users to your account and assign permissions. Manage Services is a drop down that will try to sell you additional services like cloud storage, web hosting, and email. Nothing you’d actually need. There’s also a field for scheduled service appointments. If you’re dealing with multiple sites, this may be the sort of thing you would like CloudOgre to handle on your behalf. Click here to learn more about how we handle Network Connectivity.

 

As you browse through our site, what you’ll realize is that we are carrier agnostic. We bully all carriers equally on our customer’s behalf. Our order volume and relationships with key management personnel allow us to better manage the customer experience. Basically, you’ll never have to call that 800 number again. Check out how we manage expenses across multiple carriers, take away the headache, time listening to bad on-hold music, and rude customer service agents by checking out our page here.

 

 

Update on CenturyLink Control Center Upgrade 

by

CenturyLink Control Center UpgradedThe CenturyLink Control Center was recently “upgraded” yet users aren’t feeling the love. CenturyLink has some great products like Fiber+ but they’ve grown so fast that there is a lack of customer service. That said, if your internet speed is awesome but your billing sucks, how happy is your customer?

 

It Looks Good: 

The new CenturyLink Control Center is sleek and slick looking with a great aesthetic. Big icons and bright colors provide the illusion of an updated, user-friendly experience. Unfortunately for users, it’s much more complex and less functional. You can’t even log in and view your bill, so what’s the point?

Invoice Details:

Providing invoices without billing detail is simply rude. That said, you’ll get the remittance page from the new CenturyLink Control Center and you can pay via credit card for an $8.95 fee.

Compatible Browsers CenturyLink Control Center:

If you want to see your invoice details, you’ll have to request a PDF copy. They’ll send an email notification when its ready, then you’ll have to log back in to the CenturyLink Control Center and download your PDF. If you’re using Microsoft Edge or Apple’s Safari, you won’t be able to download or view a PDF version of your invoice. You’ll have to use Google Chrome or Firefox. That’s right, CentruyLink either failed to beta test the application on these common browsers or simply decided to push the update regardless of the obvious flaws.

Interpreting Your Bill:

Hopefully, you’ll speak telco well enough to interpret the bill. Line items with errors are the most difficult to read because they don’t make sense. Any line item will have an address associated but doesn’t provide simple detail that a customer would need like suite numbers. The CenturyLink Control Center is geared towards CenturyLink employee’s and telecom professionals.CenturyLink Control Center Doesn't Work Properly

Account Changes in CenturyLink Control Center:

When it comes to moves, adds, or changes to your service you’re more prone to encounter billing errors. The back end systems at CenturyLink have been the same since the days of US West prior to the Qwest acquisition. It really hasn’t changed and that leads to multiple billing errors. There is an internal disconnect between the team that manages equipment and those that manage circuits. The teams that manage circuits operate in their own inside plant and outside plant silos. Sales and Order Entry also have different goals which increases the likelihood of billing errors. This is why CloudOgre specializes in Telecom Expense Management.

 

At the end of the day, CenturyLink is still a Tier 1 provider and some of their pricing is very competitive. The new CenturyLink Control Center doesn’t allow for things like real time bandwidth utilization reports or network security monitoring. So, the CenturyLink Control Center was made with CenturyLink in mind and not the customer. It’s difficult to use, clunky, pretty browser specific, and doesn’t provide the information that a System Admin, IT Director, IT Manager, or Network Admin would want to see. Contact us if you need help managing your CenturyLink account.

If you’re a Spectrum Business customer your billing platform is even worse. Only former Bright House Networks customers can view and pay their bill online at this time. Click here to learn more.

 

Update on Spectrum: Billing systems NOT scheduled to be merged

by

Spectrum Billing Integration

Spectrum’s billing system was supposed to be integrated in August of 2017

Spectrum billing integration would greatly improve the customer experience. Back in July, I put out an article on Network World as an Update on Spectrum Billing Integration. At the time, the word we had was that in August the update would be complete merging the billing systems for Charter Spectrum, Bright House Networks, and Time Warner Cable. We specialize in Telecom Expense Management so we deal with these systems regularly.

Mergers and acquisitions have become the norm in telecom and system integration issues exist across the industry. Check out our blog on M&A’s in Telecom. Unfortunately, there has been no integration between the systems at Spectrum at this time.

Former Bright House customers can now log in and manage their bill like they used to but there’s no integration. Their old billing website was simply updated with Spectrum logos. Time Warner and Charter customers use a system which can accept payments but can’t provide additional account information.

This leads to errors in payments leaving accounts with credits and threats of service interruption. Payments taken over the phone by Spectrum don’t always hit accounts accurately and corrections take 30 days. How inconvenient! Unfortunately they’re top Tier ISP and the cable company for much of America. Their routes are typically different from the area ILEC and they’ll terminate in their own head ends rather than the phone company’s Central Offices. CLECs and other companies purchasing Type II links or 30 year IRUs will never be able to perform as well as the ILECs and MSOs that actually own the network.

At this time, we have no additional information as to when Spectrum’s billing systems will be integrated. It can be a frustrating process so feel free to contact us here for help or go to @Ask_Spectrum on Twitter. You can also follow this profile for updates on Spectrum and find outage information.

Want an ogre in your inbox?

1615 S Congress Ave, Suite #103
Delray Beach FL 33445
↑ Top of Page