Introduction
We all know that most businesses don’t set out to overspend on telecoms, yet it’s something that happens very often, usually because the telecoms setup tends to stand still whilst the business and its needs continue to develop.
One of the reasons for that is that telecoms rarely demands attention. If calls connect and systems stay up, it’s easy to assume everything is fine. There’s often no obvious moment where costs become a problem, and instead, it builds gradually through small compounding shifts that are easy to miss. It’s only when we step back that we can see the full picture clearly.
The short answer is…
Telecoms costs usually increase because systems don’t evolve alongside the business. Over time, services, tools and ways of working drift apart, creating overlap, underuse, and inefficiencies. Reducing cost starts with understanding how telecoms is actually used today, then realigning it to fit the way your business operates.
The cost of standing still
Most telecoms environments reflect how a business operated at a particular point in time. Often that means office-based working, desk phones, and a more fixed approach to communication. But of course, the way we work is ever changing; hybrid working is now common, we hop between devices within the same interaction, and we want connectivity from locations far beyond the office.
Telecoms doesn’t always keep pace with those changes, and when it doesn’t it can cause a mismatch between what’s available and how the team actually work. That’s where things begin to drift further and further apart.
What that drift creates
When telecoms drifts out of line with the business, the impact isn’t always obvious. Services build up over time, legacy lines that are no longer needed are still in place, features remain active regardless of how often they’re used, and new tools are introduced without offboarding older ones.
Alongside that, people adapt the way they work to suit their environment best – perhaps your team now only use one specific tool rendering a different one useless even though that was never the intention.
None of this looks like a single issue. Together, it creates overlap, underuse and inefficiencies that ultimately carry a cost.
Why it goes unchecked
Despite these inefficiencies, telecoms is rarely revisited in any meaningful way.
Part of that comes down to ownership with the different parts of telecoms often sitting under different teams. So WiFi might be under IT, phones might be under operations, and your emergency lift line might be under building management for example. This makes it really hard to see telecoms as a whole.
It can also be difficult to pinpoint exactly what the issues are, especially if your users (the ones most likely to be experiencing the issues) aren’t feeding them back. Even when they are, the picture isn’t always clear. The wifi sometimes dropping for some team members, or a few users experiencing poor quality calls sometimes, can be difficult to sort when they’re not major outages, and we often resort to ‘keeping an eye on it’ rather than sorting it.
Additionally, the overlapped usage, underusage, and small inefficiencies we spoke about earlier, aren’t clear triggers to get things sorted. By their very nature, they’re the kind of things people adapt to and overlook because they never feel urgent enough to investigate. And so the setup continues as is, and the drift amplifies more and more over time.
Stepping back can help
Once you take a step back and look at telecoms as a whole, things become much clearer. Patterns start to emerge helping you identify the issues. You can see where things have become redundant, where people have adapted their behaviour, and where things have drifted.
At that point, reducing costs becomes less about total transformation of your systems, and more about realigning your setup with how your business works today.
The result is usually a simpler and more coherent setup that supports your people whilst simultaneously removing unnecessary spend.
Where Novem fit in
Getting to that level of clarity can be difficult to do whilst also doing the day job. That’s why we offer a Business Telecoms Review. It looks at how your current setup behaves across your organisation. Not just what’s in place, but how it’s being used and where it’s supporting or hindering your teams.
Taking that step back makes it easier to spot where things have drifted and what adjustments could benefit you. And in most cases, the cost reductions naturally follow.
If this is something your business could benefit from, please get in touch.
FAQs
Why do telecoms costs tend to increase over time?
Telecoms doesn’t often get reviewed in a structured way. Services, tools and lines stay in place as the business evolves, which gradually creates overlap, underuse, and inefficiency.
What counts as telecoms in a modern business?
It’s broader than just phones. Telecoms typically includes connectivity, VoIP systems, mobile services, collaboration tools, and the infrastructure that supports how people communicate day to day.
How often should telecoms be reviewed?
There isn’t a fixed rule, but it’s worth revisiting whenever there’s a meaningful change in how your business operates. That might be changes in headcount, hybrid working, new locations, or new tools being introduced.
Will reducing telecoms costs be disruptive?
It doesn’t have to be. In many cases, improvements come from simplifying or realigning what’s already in place rather than replacing everything.
Where should a business start if they want to reduce costs?
The starting point is understanding how telecoms is being used across the business. Once that’s clear, it’s easier to identify where adjustments would make a difference.