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"Simply Everything" and Friends
By Chet Thaker , CEO

In late February of this year wireless service vendors introduced calling plans that offered unlimited voice service for $99.99 a month. Most vendors excluded data and text services from this. Sprint has attempted to differentiate from other competitors by including data services in the $99.99 fee, calling it “Simply Everything”.

We believe these plans are mainly a retention tool for high-end customers.  Many of our clients have wondered if they should consider migrating to an all inclusive rate plan of this sort whether for business or personal use. We urge caution!

CTIA – the Wireless Industry Association’s numbers show over 240 million wireless users in the U.S.  spend around $134 billion per year. That makes it roughly $48 per month per subscriber. This average spend means the unlimited voice calling plans will be twice as expensive as what the average subscriber needs. Therefore, a migration to one of these plans makes sense only if your voice usage (minutes spent as talk time) exceeds $100.00 per month. The adoption of Sprint’s “Simply Everything” plan is made attractive by its inclusion of all of your data usage as well.

Given the 2x discrepancy between the average monthly subscriber spend and these new flat-rate plans, we think America’s adoption of these plans will be slow and dependent upon the growth of wireless data services.

Although text messaging has tripled in volume over the last two years (now 29 billion per month), The Wall Street Journal is skeptical about these plans dropping the wireless service providers’ share prices by about 10% after these announcements.

Our Veterans
By Mellenie Runion, Marketing

Snowmass, Colo. - Thanks in part to the support of TeleBright, more than 400 disabled veterans are expected to ski the Rocky Mountains at the 22nd National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in Snowmass Village, Colo., near Aspen, from March 30 to April 4, 2008. Recently wounded veterans from the War on Terror will participate in the event, which is the largest annual rehabilitation event of its kind in the world.

“We admire the courage of the veterans that this event celebrates,” said Chet Thaker, CEO of TeleBright. “It’s a privilege to lend our support to these brave men and women who’ve sacrificed so much for our nation.”

Check out the entire news release.

As more and more organizations struggle with the economy and global competition many are asking – how can we continue to enhance our business and survive? Re-evaluate the way you do business. What would have the largest impact on your budget, recruitment, retention, business continuity, office requirements, a reduction of gasoline usage, and more importantly the environment we hope to leave for future generations? A local company in our tri-state area shared their results from a 2 year telework transformation, in a recent Tech Council of Maryland meeting.

The company made a decision to change the way they do business and this decision was made by the entire company. Management formed policies and procedures in advance of any changes. All candidates were given the option of working from home or the office. Some individuals opted for the office and certain positions were simply not conducive for teleworking. As managers reviewed their candidates one issue was apparent, if you have good people this will work. If you don’t have good people this will never work.

Each candidate was provided a phone which cost the company $400 per person. Each person was required to have a high speed connection and a computer. These items were not provided by the company. Each candidate needed a designated location in their home that would allow for a quiet background free of children and pet sounds. The phones are operated by a main switchboard and extensions are seamless to anyone in or out of the office. Outbound calls also appear as they are coming from the main office not remote locations.

U.S. mail is time and date stamped, scanned and sent to designated staff member for sorting. Previous client paper files are being maintained but all new client information is fully electronic. Printer and postage costs have gone down considerably, along with all advertising on paper.

Offering teleworking options has improved recruitment efforts. A large percentage of the work force is looking for businesses that offer solutions to the environment conditions and various flexible working options. Teleworking is a differentiation for a company over traditional firms.

The biggest issue for the staff is the lack of face time with each another. 75% of the staff is now full time teleworking, but they make time on occasional mornings to phone conference with their groups just to catch up on their personal life. Turnover for the company has been reduced by 22%.

Teleworking improves business continuity, there is no such thing as a snow day, traffic disasters, blackouts, or protests. The business is always open because outside of the area, people don’t really want to hear about the local issues, they just want to do business when they contact you. The business has actually seen an increase in productivity. The staff is more willing to respond to client issues during off hours or weekends because they don’t have to deal with a commute, which saves them hours of wasted time in their vehicles each week.

This company was able to relocate to smaller offices after the transformation. They moved from 12,000 sq ft to 4,200 sq ft which includes several visitor workstation spaces. This change has resulted in the organization saving $400,000 a year.

Everyone loves to complain about the gasoline prices but very little is said about our constant demand. Converting 75% of the workers has resulted in a decrease of 14,865 vehicle trips over 2 years.

Overall Benefits to the Environment

• Decreased air pollutants – “If 10% of the nation’s workforce telecommuted one day per week this would avoid the frustration of driving 24.4 million miles, we’d breathe air with 12,963 tons less air pollution, and we’d conserve more that 1.2 million gallons of fuel each week.” – Carol Browner, former administrator of the EPA.
• Reduced traffic congestion – reduced need for roadway construction repair.
• Safer roads – 350 lives were saved per year through reduced highway deaths as a result of telecommuting – Reason Public Policy Institute, January 2000
• Fewer latch-key kids and safer neighborhoods.
• Reduced consumption of fossil fuels

Overall Benefits to the Employer

• Reduced real estate cost
• Increased productivity – 10% - 26%
• Reduced absenteeism
• Increased moral and employee satisfaction – 10% over that of non-teleworkers
• Reduced turnover and retention costs
• Increased competitiveness – extended customer service hours, flexible recruitment tolls, global hiring pool, decreased overhead, improved technology and communication
• Improved customer service – employee morale has been shown to directly impact customer satisfaction, which in turn drives revenue
• Greater potential employee market – teleworking provides a greater opportunity to seek employees in a wide geographic area, not to mention making it easier to meet ADA requirements by employing disable and home-bound individuals
• Improved public relations and regulatory compliance – reduction in air pollution and employment opportunities for disabled applicants can create a “good neighbor” image that enhances business

Overall Benefits to the Employee

• Increased quality of life – Work/life balance, improved family relations
• Reduced stress levels
• Increased flexibility
• Reduced personal costs – commuting expense, wardrobe, meals and snacks
• Increased job satisfaction – according to an April 2001 Mitel network survey, 30% of respondents would consider changing jobs and 25% would take a cut in salary, in order to telework.

Check with your local and state government for telework programs. The state of Virginia offers a $35,000 grant to implement telework programs. The state of Maryland offers consulting services called TPE, to assist with formulating a telework program. Individual counties, such as Montgomery County in Maryland offers additional tax breaks for businesses that offer teleworking programs.

Going Green in every aspect of your life will make a difference in our pollution levels.

Telecom Expense Management
The Stanford Court Hotel
San Francisco, CA
June 2 - 3, 2008

Our blog is available for your thoughts and messages. We are posting messages as news becomes available during each month. You can find our blog from the Leadership page on the left side. Or the direct link is http://www.telebright.blogspot.com.