Oftel recently conducted a piece of qualitative research amongst UK large businesses who spending a minimum £5 million per year on telecom services. In -Depth depth interviews were conducted with a total of 40 senior decision-makers. Initial findings indicated that… 

• Input into decision-making is quite diverse but the final purchasing decision is generally made for all sites at a central level.
  
• Uniformity of supply and coverage across all sites appeared more important than cost savings in choice of supplier.
  
• There was a general reluctance to switch, largely due to insufficient cost savings and the effort involved.
• Many businesses stated the need for an additional national competitor to ensure there is effective competition and choice, while alsoat the same time giving BT pricing freedom.

Currently Oftel is setting up a ‘Large business panel’ which will quantify some of these findings.

The panel will consist of telecoms decision-makers from 250 UK businesses which have with over 250 employees. Interviews will be conducted and reported on a 6 monthly basis. The findings from the first wave of interviewing interviews will be published later this year.

Some of the issues to be examined during the first wave are:

• Use of fixed telecom suppliers;
• Switching behaviour;
• Satisfaction levels;
• Tendering and negotiation processes;
• Telecom spend across suppliers, sites and services.