These days, many employees and salespeople would consider use of wireless devices more of a necessity rather than a privilege or convenience. Problems arise, however, with sheer volume of wireless users, accounts and bills that even a relatively small company can accumulate over time.

Whereas 50 land lines may be shared within a company of hundreds of workers, cell phones are rarely shared or passed between employees. In comparison, 300 wireless users results in potentially 300 separate accounts and phones to control, track and audit.

The good news is that wireless portion of your telecom department is ripe with potential savings opportunities. Even small accounts can reveal plenty of areas for considerable cost-reduction.

What is "Over provisioning"?

Deregulation of telecommunications industry has resulted in a dizzying array of options and plans for wireless users. Over provisioning occurs when optional telecom features or plans are included or added to an account that do not enhance end users' job performance. This can also include phones that are not in use but still being billed and paid for. Inefficiency results in unnecessary overspending.

When auditing your company's wireless services, be sure to check following 4 key areas for instances of over provisioning.

Are You Overspending in these 4 Areas?

1. Paying for unused or unnecessary features or functionality.

Items and features such as voice mail boxes, 3-way calling, call-waiting, call-forwarding, group talk, etc. can add excessive monthly charges to a wireless account.

Each wireless account should be reviewed for any and all features that carry an additional monthly fee. If feature does not enhance job performance or is rarely used, eliminate it.

My experience working in global companies in which effective cross-cultural functioning was critical, involved devotion of considerable time and energies to ensuring that cultural training needs were identified and accommodated as necessary.

This commitment to bridging cultural gaps represents a perceptible shift in attitudes amongst British company global thinking. This is a shift from prevalent subconscious (and sometimes not so subconscious) driver, which existed in previous years. Thinking typically held that way in which West did business was norm to which to strive and that non-western citizens should assimilate into our own particular mode of cultural thinking as opposed to vice versa.

Little effort was truly made to understand cultural differences between countries. This thinking was gradually moulded and changed by realities of failure of such thinking – including ineffective team functioning, lack of productivity and general dissatisfaction amongst cross culturally functioning staff. It also become apparent that financial costs of failed cross-cultural initiatives could be readily assessed and had a tangible impact on financial bottom line.

It is also interesting to note that view that cultural awareness is unnecessary within other western groups has also changed.