Business Essentials: 'Staying in touch is costing us too much'
As a software company has expanded, so have its phone bills. Kate Hilpern reports
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Your support makes all the difference.Smart Technology Solutions is a small company, with 15 employees, founded in 1997. Based near London, in South Croydon, it has a global reach, delivering smartcard software through partnerships with computer giants such as IBM and Fujitsu.
"We are the only company that specialises in enabling the use of smart cards at any point of interaction - for example in shops, in unattended devices or over the internet," says Mr Cairns. "In the UK, about 50 per cent of the top retailers are now using our software to process chip and PIN and loyalty cards."
Because the business has customers worldwide, at any one time a staff member may be travelling to Europe, the US or Asia. Others may be working from home.
"So far, we've relied on mobile phone technology," says Mr Cairns. "But while that works fine in the UK, it is getting expensive on a global basis because of things like roaming costs. Our mobile phone bills have been huge lately. We want advice on how we can keep in touch as and when we want to, but in a way that's not going to cost us the earth."
The company has so far considered Voice over IP systems (ie, internet telephony) for staff working from home, and technology such as a Blackberry for travelling colleagues.
"The problem is that we are finding it hard to really determine their value to us," says Mr Cairns. "Unless we can justify these up-to-date technologies internally, it's going to be risky to put them in place."
Communication is important to Smart Technology Solutions because it is such a team-based organisation, he says. "It's unusual for someone to be working on their own thing completely. They need to be in touch with other people in the company at least twice a day."
That said, Mr Cairns is willing to consider re-evaluating the team structure. "I don't think we've stepped back enough to look at why we need so much communication."
WHAT THE EXPERTS SAY
Angela Baron, organisation and resourcing adviser, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development
"All companies need effective communications in place, particularly if their people are on the move. Has Smart Technology Solutions thought about why it is communicating so much by mobile? There must be face-to-face contact to enable everyone to be clear about what they are doing.
"By establishing regular meetings, the company might be able to reduce the need for staff to talk to each other from twice to once a day.
"They might also look at their team structure to ensure that someone always has clear responsibility for making decisions when key members are out of the office.
"But however streamlined their decision making, they will always need to be able to contact people, which in itself is a powerful justification for the cost of the technology."
Eric Burrows, director, The Work Foundation (consultancy)
"First, ask yourself, what exactly does the business and team need? Try developing business scenarios as a guide to the cost/benefits of buying a particular piece of 'kit'.
"The second area to consider is what sort of culture the business has. Clarity about how workers prefer to communicate pays dividends. A hi-tech system makes no sense if the most benefit can be derived from people talking face to face.
"Bringing the team together to work through these issues should lead to practical answers. There is nothing as dispiriting as fighting with recalcitrant technology in a far-flung hotel room at the end of a long day."
John Nicholson, chairman, Nicholson McBride (consultancy)
"Smart Technology Solutions sounds stretched to breaking point. The key questions here are: what are all these conversations about and why must they happen so often?
"Just cutting the calls back from twice to once a day would halve the phone bill. If the subject matter tends to be either account-specific or focused around, say, a recurring problem with a new product, then conference calls could also significantly reduce costs.
"Blackberries can cut costs, but can create new problems too. I'd favour behavioural over technological change. Get the team together in Croydon for a day to analyse pressure points."
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