Do you take care of cell phones at your work? 2

[acuratsx]

I'm curious if anyone has cell phone responsabilities at work and what it's like to be the cell phone person.

Pros & Cons, thank you.

 

[imeldesign]

Egads yes! I hate it. Mostly because every call to correct anything is a living hell...the latest. One of our guys did the change of financial responsibility to move his phone to its own account (he has to pay his own bill now). Instead of moving just him they moved ALL THE phones. That mess is waiting for me tomorrow.

 

[acewarlock]

The last place I worked they had 2 people doing it for about 1500 phones.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[acuratsx]

Ouch that bad? I may take a job where cell phones will be part of my duties. Any tips to make things a bit easier?

 

[SF0751]

I'm the Goddess of Telco at my place of work, and that includes 130 cell phones.

Tip 1: Have a good cell phone use policy in place. Make sure that it is understood by everyone. For example, limited personal calls, etc.

Tip 2: Define the roles/positions that require a cell phone. Not everyone gets one.

Tip 3: Keep good records, including the make/model of cell phones for each person, and the date that they received their current phone. We replace phones every 2 years.

Tip 4: Shop around for the best plan from the best vendor.

Tip 5: Stick to a few different models; avoid "phone envy" among your users.

Tip 6: Consider reimbursement instead of a company cell phone. Some of my 130 users are using their personal cell phone instead of a company issued phone. Their choice. They are eligable to receive $35 per month for reimbursement.

Tip 7: Monitor the cell phone bill on a regular basis to make sure that the phones are being used in accordence with the policy set forth in Tip 1.

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[acuratsx]

Thank you Susan Goddess of Telco!

 

[Craig0201]

I'd disagree somewhat with Tip 7.

What is it costing to do the monitoring? What is the cost of not monitoring? Only if the cost of monitoring is greater that the cost of not monitoring does it make sense to bother.

C

 

[jsisley]

I manage the billing for all of our telecom-related expenses, so I do watch the cell phone invoices. It is helpful to monitor cell phone billing when it comes to budget time, so you have an accurate record of what you're spending for these pesky devices. Monitoring the billing is also helpful when billing errors occur - and yes, they do happen. We ordered one phone that was supposed to be set up for area code 787 and when we rec'd the phone, it was set up for area code 703. We got it changed to area code 787, but they kept charging us for the 703 phone number - in addition to the 787 number. We've had users who think they are downloading a single ringtone, but on the bill it turns out they are subscribing to a service along with a monthly charge. We had one user who "inadvertently" subscribed to three services, costing $40/monthly. It is important to review the cell phone invoices - so you can see what your users are doing and adjust plans accordingly. We have since instituted a "Purchase Block" on the cell phones. We recently switched our users to a Shared plan or pooled minutes for the group and this should cut down on our cell phone expense.

The most important thing to do when managing cell phones is to develop a good relationship with the Sales Rep from the cellular provider you use. A good rep makes all the difference. We have cell phones from two of the larger providers and our rep (and historically, reps before him) from one of the providers doesn't do anything for us, other than to say, "Call Customer Care..." Consequently, we are moving phones from that provider to our other provider as quickly as we can. With our other provider, we have a much more responsive Sales Rep - answering any questions, placing the orders, providing usage analysis, etc.

I've created an Access database that contains info about every line/circuit/cell phone we have. I've found Access to be great for this. Excel is good, but Access is better because you can manipulate the data for reports, etc.

Hope this helps.
JoAnn

 

[kmcferrin]

Interesting. When my department was responsible for cell phones, we just had them locked down so that they couldn't subscribe to additional services or anything funny like that. They had a basic telephone that they could use for making voice calls. No SMS, no picture messaging, no fancy ringtones, and no cameras. There's just too many opportunities for abuse there.

________________________________________
CompTIA A+, Network+, Server+, Security+
MCSE:Security 2003
MCITP:Enterprise Administrator

 

[imeldesign]

Tip 7: Monitor the cell phone bill on a regular basis to make sure that the phones are being used in accordence with the policy set forth in Tip 1.

I totally agree with this one. I had one user who used an ungodly amount of minutes each month. At the time was on Verizon so mobile to mobile was free inside the network. I figured he spent 4+ hours a day talking..he was not in sales. I looked at WHO he was calling and figured out he was cheating on his wife.

 

[lespaul]

probably should ask this in the ethics forum, but...what did you do when you found out?

Leslie

Have you met Hardy Heron?

 

[SF0751]

What I've done when I find a user abusing their cell phone privilages (excessive talk time, text messages, etc), is bring a copy of the appropriate bill page(s) to their immediate supervisor. I'll state that their usage does not match their assigned cell phone plan and ask if I need to update their plan based upon their phone use. There have been times where someone's job duties did change and they need expanded cell phone capabilities, but in most cases a private chat is held between the employee and the manager and the problem goes away. Never caught anyone cheating on their spouse, however......

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[stussy]

Oooh lots of other peeps suffering the same as me! I look after 65, so I bow down to the goddess of Telco

I agree with all she said: my other addition would be making sure people know they need to contact you the MOMENT they lose their phone, especially if they thinkm it may have been stolen rather than lost. The last person that didn't want to tell me ('I thought I would get in trouble') left it a day in the hope they would find it first. They didn't, and by the time I was told and blocked the number, the thieves had signed up for $500+ of premium rate texts and chat lines. THEN the user got in trouble! It only costs us a max of $40 to replace a phone, and that's assuming we don't have a spare upgrade floating around to do it for free.

I've found a quiet word in the ear of anyone abusing (unless really taking the p*ss) soon stops personal calls, without the need for involving HR at that point.

Happy Friday night everyone (well in the UK anyway

 

[jsisley]

I've been waiting for a post like this for a long time. I think I posted a question similar to the OP a few years ago (when I was living my previous life, described below), but didn't really get much of a response.

Most of our users are IT or Exec-level - so they feel entitled to text messaging, Verizon Wireless downloads, etc. What really bugs me is the person who "accidently" damages his Blackberry in an effort to get upgraded to the latest and greatest model. So far, he's gotten three replacements of the one he has - instead of being upgraded, much to his chagrin. tee-hee...

We have about 130 users on either a cell phone or a Blackberry device. Currently, I just deal with the billing, but in a previous life, I managed the whole program for about 150 cell phones/BB users. It was easier then, because you couldn't do as much with a cell phone as you can now. In my previous life, when I took the program over, the company was spending about $10,000 yearly on overage charges. After I made plan adjustments, I got that amount down to less than $2,000/year. Still sounds like a lot, but we had 150 users so it was an achievement. It's a drag, but watching the billing really does pay off.

Would prefer that we not get camera phones for anyone, but our users require a higher-end phone to be able to do their job, and those come with cameras.

In the state where I live, our Public Utilities Commission is going to bat against the cell companies about the early termination fees. They are proposing a pro-rated amount, so if you are 18 months into a 24 month contract, you would pay only a prorated amount of the early term fee. Sounds good to me.

JoAnn

 

[SF0751]

Hee hee hee - I keep a pretty pink phone for those individuals who need to use a phone while their "lost" phone is being replaced. It looks like this:

I've haven't had to replace a phone yet.....

Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893

 

[imeldesign]

Well, I did report him to his boss. First, I brought up the number of minutes he was using and told him it averaged 4+ hours a day.
He asked who was he calling?
I told him they were personal calls to a woman other than his wife and gave him a copy of the bill.
He asked me to pull all the bills and find out when it started.
Oh, did I mention he was a pastor?
He was confronted and left the church soon after.

 

[wahnula]

Oh, did I mention he was a pastor?
He was confronted and left the church soon after.

Well told! Saving the best nugget for last, the key to a good story...

Tony

Users helping Users...

 

[Dollie]

We've had a discombobulated way of dealing with cell phones. Thanks to the Goddess of Telco (SF0751) for the great list and the pink phone idea!

 

[georgiw]

Hey SF0751:

I was wondering how long you've been in Teleco?

I've been asked to give some personal goals that would benefit the org that I am currently working at. I've been here since late 2007 and I am not sure what I want to say exactly.

I've been in teleco myself for over 15 years. I am a Teleco manager and although a personal goal would be to make more money, I dont think this would benefit the org.

I am racking my brain for some ideals like a PDA rollout to all upper management/staff with instant intranet email by 2010 and email/voicemail thru outlook in 2011, but I want to be alittle more creative.

What's your wish list?

Thanks.

G

 

[SF0751]

I've been in telcom since 1998 and it's been my primary responsibility since 2002. Most of my time is spent on MAC requests (Moves Adds Changes) and configuration/routing changes for our Call Centers (using Avaya vectoring). I also handle our video conferencing between our branch offices and headquarters.

Items on my wish list include:
- bilingual call routing
- speech recognition
- a queue call-back solution
- integrating our video-conferencing into our PBX
- integrating voicemail with email


Susan
"When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers." - Oscar Wilde, An Ideal husband, 1893