‘We are not actively encouraging competition although generally speaking we do seek competitive tenders.’

‘We are actively pursuing putting services out to tender to gain a target of 35% savings, we aim to save £4m this financial year.’

‘On the technology side, we are under pressure to make savings so that the whole business can make profits. The company is always asking how much telecoms are going to cost. This is because there are two sides of the business – the business side which makes money and the technology side which is a cost and is under pressure to save money. There are the costs of trading in a heavily regulated environment which is expensive to users due to the cost of not having competitive supply – keeping prices high, and to the incumbent, being bound by discrimination licence conditions, charging higher tariffs for some services.’

‘Complaints and ordering procedures are improving as competition starts to bite.’

‘Mobile (GSM) services are not competitive (although the industry would have you think it is) and roaming charges are an anomaly – not based on costs and tariffing data is not made available to customers.’

‘Currently local loop and tail end leased lines are not competitive on routes outside major conurbations.’

‘I do not believe there is adequate choice and am interested in this topic specifically in the area of fixed (access) and mobile.’

‘We recognise that call centres are/will be a useful tool in our type of business. We are particularly looking for integrated supply from call centre suppliers – suppliers helping to set up and run a call centre in the early stages of development.’

‘Outsourcing is becoming common place but for some companies, quality of service and dealing directly with their customer base is paramount in protecting their brand. Telcos are offering call centre applications in their network, both internationally and at national level.’

‘We are currently using multiple network operators on a global basis, in the US and in other markets. Many of our routes are in support of critical businesses therefore we use multiple operators to supply routing diversity for disaster recovery.’

‘We have a number of large sites which can be treated independently. We select suppliers for each site and have pipes put into each site, and a person is there locally who can sort out problems for each site. We are keen for Oftel to address the lack of competition in infrastructure in some parts of the country. A second universal infrastructure is needed. …The telecoms budget is trivial in the overall costs of the business and therefore we will pay for security, copper wires etc. For large business, the savings that could be made do not merit the risk of telecoms problems.’

‘Our business would collapse without telecoms. On all routes, we have three carriers as we need 99.9% resilience, and all calls are routed separately. Resilience is crucial and written into the contract. We need customers to be able to get in. We use virtual private networks to cut down on the cost of calls from abroad. The company cannot afford to lose business, we cannot find suppliers who will be liable for all scenarios, for example the exchange going down, and the company has to bear responsibility. The penalties to the telco are quite trivial.’

‘We have a similar situation and use at least three links from different exchanges.’

‘We need to find out how the routing is done otherwise traffic could end up on the same exchanges.’

‘We specify use of different pipes, for example undersea cables, we ensure we have a back-up pipe.’

‘In terms of communications, our business is introverted with local and national traffic only. Resilience is important and we only use PSTN traffic from suppliers providing infrastructure. We use three or four and keep these totally separate. We need to know how a supplier delivers its own traffic. There is a huge lack of competition in infrastructure. For example, whilst at one site there is a lot of competition, at another there is none with only one carrier. We use only the suppliers’ infrastructure otherwise there is no resilience and therefore no back-up.’

‘We rely on experience. If the suppliers screw up, we use our two other existing ones. This is not possible where there is a lack of infrastructure competition.’

‘We currently pay circa £12m in fixed line rentals and feel that there is little choice.’

‘Some suppliers provide their own cable into buildings but this is very expensive and whilst possible in big cities like London and Birmingham is not viable elsewhere. Management overheads can wipe out savings from different vendors.’

‘There is a cost in using a number of suppliers – management overheads, billing etc - and therefore companies are trying to reduce the number of suppliers they use. We have offices all over the country. In the major sites, we can get other suppliers to provide pipes, elsewhere in smaller sites, there is no choice, no competition.’

‘There cannot be 100% confidence in resilience though it is more fear rather than actual problems that we have experienced.’

‘When there are faults and say indirect suppliers, no one is accountable for the faults.’

‘We are using 0870 numbers and abandoning local suppliers. We are not migrating business, but have moved from local rate with one supplier to national rate with another. The underlying pipe remained the same.’

‘Rather than switching suppliers, we put in multiple lines and switch calls.’

‘We do the same, not necessarily for commercial reasons but for resilience. Smaller suppliers do not have the resources for this.’

‘There is inertia from the cellphone/networks/service providers re number porting and migrating – it is still difficult to change suppliers but keep the number.’

‘The main obstacles to switching supplier are the technical and cost implications that would result from a large scale move of supplier/network. The spread of offices also restricts opportunities.’

‘On tendering, for example, we would not use [x supplier] as we have few sites up there and it would therefore not be economical.’

‘The requirements and expectations of customers are different so the only way of benchmarking is to speak to other customers. Otherwise it is difficult to get this information on a reliable basis.’

‘We invite 6-10 suppliers to tender. Experience and word of mouth ties it down to a choice between 10. Usually we know through experience, the background on the companies and which have the best profile for deciding.’

‘Our comparing is unsophisticated and is based on suppliers’ infrastructure (with detailed information from them on reliance, routing etc). On the matter of quality of service, we treat them as innocent until proven guilty and then we will move traffic onto our other suppliers if they prove incompetent. We rely on word of mouth for suppliers’ reputations for billing. We just do not pay if the billing is wrong.’

‘We get information from forums like this, chatting with other telecom managers.’

‘The company asks its suppliers for customer references and then discusses choice, tariff etc (a user network). A confidentiality clause with vendors can make discussion between users difficult. We approach suppliers to contact existing customers for references on the supplier however, these may be biased as suppliers likely to put forward users with whom they have good relations.’

‘Quality of service is very difficult to benchmark. Tariffing is a major concern.’

‘Overall, tariffs are too complicated by distance, time of day, tariff fees making it very difficult to compare service offerings.’

‘CPIs are not at the right level for corporates. We need resilience and we need to have this specified in contracts.’

‘We might look at CPIs where substantial differences in the figures in the CPIs have arisen.’

‘CPIs have more value for SMEs and consumers.’

‘We contract for 100% resilience and therefore do not need to use CPIs, it is not good enough for it to say that it is resilient. Membership of users associations such as the CMA and TUA is helpful and networking is invaluable. We rely on word of mouth and experience.’

‘More information is required but I am concerned that currently the information is too general and lacks granularity.’

‘Ovum, a consultancy conducted reports among its user constituents, for example a report on the benefits of using VPN. However, Ovum no longer undertake this type of analysis for users. We would be interested in Oftel doing a benchmarking study to provide accurate information. An informal group of companies has been set up to discuss experience.’

‘CMA’s subjective annual survey is as useful as anything. It is usually conducted among medium and large corporates. Suppliers are usually ok if they are not written against.’

‘The CMA survey might influence who you tender. We do not go to very new suppliers as they have no track record.’

‘We require more information to compare suppliers on prices/services particularly for benchmarking purposes.’

‘The company want to buy global services not on a company by company basis, and therefore want benchmarking on an international basis. There was a useful Oftel International benchmarking report around four years ago.’

‘There is a need for international benchmarking, it is expensive with consultancies quoting £30-40,000 for this service.’

‘Companies come in promising better prices and service using 50 suppliers then they don’t have the resources to fulfil promises, and the company cannot manage and no-one knows what is going on.’

‘These companies, smaller access operators, do not have the systems to deal with this. Companies should have back-up services to cope even when staff are absent. As competition bites, companies have to cut back on staff. The right team in the right place is very hit and miss.’

‘PSTN is fine. The response time with ISDN, which we use for homeworking, is not good. We argue with our account manager but this does not produce results. The suppliers fail to fulfil promises on low-value lines. We would rather get good service than compensation. For example, our company lost contact with our lawyer for three weeks, this is costly to the company.’

‘We do not deal with small carriers because we need national coverage, however with large carriers, customer service is getting worse.’

‘Suppliers need to deliver what they say they are going to, especially in terms of account management which is now turning into a sales role. Once suppliers have sold their service there tends to be a lack of after-sales service.’

‘I have found that the company has delivered what it has promised.’

‘I work at home and when I had a problem I contacted our account manager though the company and the problem was solved. Service received is dependent on the individual account manager.’

‘We have monthly reports on service from suppliers however, account managers are not totally honest in these reports.’

Some suppliers seem more flexible in the way they work than others, initially working on service level agreements rather than contracts although they are going towards contracts now. We have review meetings, these are written into the contract, with suppliers not only on general business but also on new services they are offering as well as on prices.’

‘Because of the size of our network, two UK operators have been proactive and have installed fibre rings around and into our premises to connect the company to their global network. This illustrates their commitment to forming a partnership.’

‘Old telecom culture still exists in many of the UK and national players. Incumbents often practice a ‘follow me’ strategy of incumbents instead of thinking ‘outside the box’.’

‘As a result of the decreasing amount of business going to [x supplier] at large sites, it appears that the dross is being given to [x supplier] who then responds with less enthusiasm to service.’

‘Other suppliers appear to be more hungry. They fight back against losses.

‘You can tell the supplier how to win back your business, you tell individuals who then go back to the company who then do not fight back, blaming regulation. The structure of the company means that it cannot deliver.’

‘Individuals from other companies go back to senior management and sort out how to win back/gain business.’

‘Our supplier is well organised to deal with work from our type of organisation than the other two we use who do not seem to have the resources. The difference seems to be the account team set-up. There is a team in place with years of experience which focuses entirely on customers from our type of organisation. Now that fewer and fewer of our type of organisation are buying directly from suppliers and therefore the existing teams have time to offer better service.’

‘The difference between our supplier and others manifests itself in different ways, in the account management set-up and in in-depth analysis of call traffic. It comes down to a trade between quality and price. There are lots of competitive suppliers. However, with 0800 numbers, only our supplier provides statistics on incoming calls.’

‘When we moved to other suppliers in the past, we had problems with billing details and statistics. Other companies talk about this but do not provide.’

‘[X supplier] is a large client of ours and internal politics means that it is difficult to move away from them.’

‘Billing is needed in the format required. Timeliness of billing is important, we have not been billed for July yet [monthly billing - now mid-Sept]. With accuracy of bills, we employ a full-time person to check bills to see whether discounts have been applied. Accuracy of billing depends on the service, for example, accuracy with voicecom is high, with mainstream services with discounts, we find errors of up to 20%.’

‘There is a reluctance to give timely credits whilst chasing for payments which cannot be passed without the credits. There is an apparent disregard for billing instructions. Very slow responses – and few apologies for errors.’

‘We have electronic validation of bills as we have 500 sites. The discounts need to be worked out electronically. Discounts are so complex now.’

‘Billing is too complex – amalgamation of tariffs required.’

‘Tariffing – there is a proliferation of complex charges. Our supplier provides unit call charges and discounts to three decimal places which is unnecessary and impossible for the customer to reconcile. All vendors should provide a simple standard tariff which can be easily understood by customers.’

‘We have problems with consolidation. The suppliers bolt on software to bill for new services which results in multiple bills. Carriers should be investing in new billing platforms.’

‘As many network operators do not have single billing platforms (operators bolt on new programmes for new services which can make billing a nightmare). MIS is poorly presented and should have the capability to be accessed on-line.’

‘Bills are sent to the customer which are not reconcilable, not detailed and unclear. Agreed standards are required on EDI, formatting and presentation of bills for all suppliers.’

‘We have a large website targeted to potential clients. A rapidly expanding Intranet which is a prime staff information tool. We use the Internet to a limited degree for ordering from suppliers, eg for mobiles.’

‘Our external site is aimed at the practice side of our firm, for example the site has career opportunities for newly qualified staff to move on. It also has information on the services the company offers. The site is very much a library of information.’

‘Everything is being offered, everything done is on the web/Intranet. We are moving away from Lotus Notes, everything goes on the Intranet. We have tens of thousands of employees that are all connected with Internet and Intranet access. We have details of jobs on line, expenses, stationery ordering for homeworkers on line and are heavily into e-commerce.’

‘We have a website, Intranet and Extranet. Using it for expenses on line is beginning to come on. We would like to use it for electronic ordering from telcos, for example ordering lines, voicemail, there needs to be a range of products which can be ordered. We are looking to develop an extranets at our sites, closed user groups among the businesses at our sites which we have talked about but not yet developed. Our public site has dynamic information and can also be used for ordering products and services [others comment that this is not well-known and say that they would definitely use this facility]. We have links to other sites and also own part of another well-known website which has a synergy with the rest of the business.’

‘We are planning to set up extranets. For example, these will be used for information for businesses around our sites, we currently use a dedicated network. We are planning that the Extranet will develop with use, eg special offers for staff, electronic trading facilities for example for catering companies hosted on the Extranet – they currently order individually. The extranets would be high security and specific to individual sites. We have a problem persuading our organisation that this would be worthwhile.’

‘We are using e-commerce as a marketing and sales medium in addition to our traditional sales methods. We are experiencing huge volume increases on an on-going basis. Our customer service on line includes on line statements, flight booking, paying on line. With this last feature, more people are now paying on line and therefore fewer are now needed at customer service centres. However, in some instances, customers will still always need to speak to a person.’

‘Multilingual information is important and we use 7 languages, we need to remember that it is a global service. There are two buttons on the main page, a privacy button which explains what the company does with the information and a feedback button.’

‘E-commerce provides opportunities for cost reduction at a business to business level and new routes to market for business to consumer which we have and will continue to exploit.’

‘The Intranet is very useful for items such as the internal telephone directory and publishing of policy documents for example disciplinary procedures – it reduces paper flow. However, usage is low as these are not the sort of thing which are very much used.’

‘It is ideal for a big structured database, such as we have. It is also useful for graphical, unstructured data for example about getting about our sites which is very popular with customers. Simple questions can now be answered by Internet and people are more prepared to ask simple questions which otherwise they would not feel like asking. However, we will always need people for some queries.’

‘We get telecoms quality of service information from other sites. Another example is that we get information on telecoms regulations in different countries for example we have used the Internet for information on telecoms regulations in Mauritius. I also receive notices about recent publications from Oftel.’

‘[X supplier] has their price list on the Internet, you have to pay for a hard copy.’

‘Information on the Internet has greatly improved efficiency generally.’

‘Our site turned over £400,000 in the last quarter though it has a low profile and has not really taken off, it is seen as a benefit for the future – it is not an efficient way of selling products etc. We are on the Internet because we have got to be there, service offered by our competitors so we need to offer it. People are looking rather than buying at the moment. It is an investment for the future and not a more efficient sales method yet for most of our services or products. We are losing a bit of money at the moment though not masses.’

‘Our competitors have sites so we need one too.’

‘We do not directly know what benefits the Internet has brought.’

‘All invoices and pay are dealt with centrally. People now have to contact Glasgow for pay queries so it does not add to efficiency.’

‘Technology is not the issue, psychology and business reorganisation is more important for the change towards the Internet.’

‘We are setting up e-procurement, for example billing is ongoing, it will be finished in 9-12 months. We are having problems with the number of people who can connect, with problems arranging who can make orders – this restructuring is more important than technology matters, there is a new culture of not getting authorisation.’

‘Our external site is very successful though our Intranet site is complicated. For internal communications, there are other things that are quicker and easier to use than the Intranet, the staff need to be trained in how to use it. We have not moved away from physical information, eg company brochures.’

‘With e-mail, we have been told to consider other communications to build relationships, we are told to consider which communication is efficient. Homeworkers can feel isolated and the phone helps.’

‘Encryption levels vary by country and therefore we need to comply with these. For example, UK encryption levels are higher than in some EU countries. There are also some countries where hardware and software, for example North Korea and Iraq, are illegal to import. We are speaking to ITU via ITUG to be involved in encryption.’*

‘Our Intranet is hosted internally to provide security and control of the level of service. We do not want external access to the Intranet. We have an external host for the website as the provider has greater resources and management.’

[advantage of hosting Intranet and website separately] –‘We can close the Intranet without shutting the website.’

‘We have a separate interactive group for Intranet/Internet for hardware and software. We have separate dealing for voice/fax/telephone and then Internet and contracts etc.’

‘Our voice and data people are only responsible for links not content.’

‘ISPs are chosen by different people than choice of telcos.’

‘The internal data network is absolutely vital, business stops when the system breaks down.’

‘We have had no break downs in the last three years. However, when the system is taken down overnight for maintenance, this affects calls from abroad.’

‘We do not have breakdowns often but breakdowns stop people’s work as they have become used to the system and have forgotten how to work without it.’

‘We host our e-mail system internally so problems are sorted quickly.’

‘The system is resilient although problems do cause major issues when they occur.’

‘Breakdowns do not last long as we have an internal helpdesk.’

‘It is very important for breakdowns to be sorted quickly.’

‘Broadband is too expensive for consumers, it is needed for them to access the company website. Our company has to expand their network, expand our use of leased lines. Leased lines are expensive and therefore we are interested in Oftel’s leased line study. All have an effect on how the Internet is developed.’

‘Companies are prepared to spend on greater bandwidth and resilience. Concerns are cost, accessibility, resilience and connectability.’

‘We currently use ISDN, DSL, LL, EDI, Fixed Wireless Access Services. WAP and other new services are currently in our strategic thinking and planning.’

‘We use ISDN - specialised homeworking solution but it has few users (+/- 200), CTI which we use in call centres and Teleware Virtual Office Systems.’

‘We use VPN, ISDN, leased lines, EDI, CTI and WAP phones. In time, we expect to make use of other advanced services (DSL, fixed wireless broadband services).’

‘[X suppliers’] networks cannot receive inbound PSTN calls which means that the customer has to provide addition channels (eg approximately 10,000 in our organisation) with subsequent additional capital and revenue expenditure.’

‘The area of advanced services disappoints and I think that more needs to be done to ensure the technologies are able to be exploited by consumers.’

‘We are in the middle of a project looking at convergence, for example VoIP.’

‘Convergence is limited by the cost of terminals.’

‘ITU’s rulings have to be considered internationally. Developing countries lose out. Should be able to pay for the level of service you need.’

‘The providers want some of the profits which will drive forward the service.’

‘Our infrastructure would not be able to cope at the moment. If the service is beneficial to the company then we will adapt.’

‘We are building new IP networks in order to integrate voice and data applications.’

‘Not to a large extent. The application of fixed and mobile are still being treated as different partly because of resilience and differences in tariffs.’

‘Yes, total spend on mobiles likely to exceed fixed.’

‘We are currently looking at mobile working – mobiles for business used in and out of the office. We are interested in developments in ‘virtual extension’.’

‘There is little evidence of a shift.’