How can a mobile operator reduce costs. How the online service for optimizing mobile communications costs works

Any company for the development of its business is forced to spend money on telephone connection. The only difference is that someone spends more money on it, and someone less. It all depends on the size and structure of the organization itself. But be that as it may, managers always seek to save on this item of expenditure. Recently, for such purposes, more and more often resort to the organization of IP-telephony. In a short time, this solution allows you to reduce communication costs by up to 90%.

Telephony expenses in the company's budget

Today, no enterprise, whether small or large, can exist without telephony and the Internet. According to the results of surveys by the research company Gartner Group, Russian enterprises spend on telecommunications services from 0.64 to 3.87% of their turnover. The highest costs are observed for organizations working in the field of finance and insurance, fuel and energy complex, telecommunications and metallurgy, transport and communications, government controlled and military security. At the same time, the expenses of enterprises on telecommunications tend to increase - this was stated by 63% of respondents.

Telephony is a significant part of the budget. This mainly concerns companies with call centers and an extensive network of offices. Small firms spend an average of 15 thousand rubles per month on telephone communications (subscription fee and calls). The costs of medium-sized companies reach 50-100 thousand rubles, and large enterprises - several hundred thousand rubles. In this regard, many organizations are thinking about switching to virtual telephony.

Ditch analog for IP telephony

According to the statistics of Russian providers providing IP-telephony services, most customers manage to reduce communication costs with their help. In percentage terms, it looks like this:

• 21.4% of companies noted cost reductions of more than 50%;
• 17.9% of organizations were able to reduce costs by 30-50%;
• 32.1% - reduced communication costs by 20-30%;
• 14.1% - reduced costs by 10-15%.

Let's highlight the main advantages of IP-telephony over analog and mobile communications.

Price. Long-distance and international calls within the framework of using IP-telephony services are charged at prices that are much more profitable than the rates of analog telephony or mobile operators. The cost of outgoing long-distance calls can be reduced by 3-5 times, and international - up to 30 times, depending on the direction. For example, on average, a minute of conversation with Germany will cost only 70 kopecks, with the USA - 90 kopecks, with Italy - 50 kopecks, with China - 1 ruble. At the same time, calls within the corporate network will always be free, regardless of the location of branches: in another region or another country.

The cost of IP equipment is slightly higher compared to traditional telephone equipment, but this price difference pays off very quickly: within 2-3 months. For example, if a Moscow company has a branch in Kazan, then one minute of conversation on an analog phone will cost about 4 rubles, and on an IP phone - only 1.5 rubles. If, on average, employees spend about 60 minutes a day on telephone conversations with a branch, then the monthly cost of a telephone with an analog connection will be about 6 thousand rubles, and when using Internet telephony - only 2 thousand with a little.

Scalability and mobility. Virtual telephony easily adapts to the needs of the business - the number of telephone lines can be increased or decreased independently, at any time, without calling a specialist. All this happens in a matter of minutes. You can connect Internet telephony services while maintaining the old number. And even if you move, it will stay with you. Any employee can easily set up call forwarding from their corporate phone to mobile in order to always be in touch.

Excellent communication quality and great business opportunities. The quality of communication when using Internet telephony does not depend on the distance, there are no problems or interruptions in communication. IP telephony is a high-tech solution that opens up a variety of opportunities for business owners:

• organization on the site of online receiving calls using a special service;
• thanks to multichannel numbers, the phone will never be busy for the client;
• wide possibilities of integration with any other software;
• the possibility of organizing a call-center at a very low price;
• tracking the effectiveness of any advertising campaigns;
• voice menu, auto attendant and smart forwarding;
• the possibility of organizing webinars, video and audio conferences;
• access to any statistical data within the framework of the use of telephone communication, full control for expenses.

Choose the best conditions

Today in Russia there are about 400 providers of telecommunications services, but very few can boast of providing the highest quality services and at the same time affordable prices. Among the reliable providers, it is worth noting the companies Interregional TransitTelecom (MTT), Rostelecom and TTK.

When choosing an Internet telephony operator, you need to consider as many different offers as possible, as well as compare the functionality provided. Perhaps a tender should be announced among telecom operators and the best conditions should be chosen. Negotiations will reduce communication costs by 40-50%. During the crisis, this is especially true, as operators strive to retain their customers and attract as many new ones as possible, reducing the cost of services.

Another way to optimize is to transfer all telecommunications services into the hands of one operator. Today, Internet telephony providers offer for corporate clients very profitable package solutions that not only reduce communication costs, but also simplify document flow and reporting.

Connect a virtual PBX and keep track of communication costs

Virtual PBX is a business service that allows you to replace an analog PBX and even organize a call center.

The introduction of a virtual PBX allows you to centralize the process of using communications. A billing report for a single corporate network will provide an opportunity to control calls made to corporate phones. This item will significantly reduce the number of out-of-office outgoing calls and reduce the cost of employee phones.

In order for all conversations to be recorded in a single billing report, it is necessary to set up forwarding of all calls from branches to the head office. Thus, all outgoing calls will only come from the central office. Only with this step, communication costs can be reduced by 10 times.

Choose the best rate

Oddly enough, one of the easiest ways to cut costs is to revise your billing plan. Indeed, many companies overpay for communication only because they are not interested in whether the existing tariff suits them. If you decide to change it, answer yourself the question: what options do you need and which ones you can refuse. For example, it is important to decide whether you will need to connect new participants to a multichannel network.

Another important aspect is the quota for off-duty and other calls from corporate numbers- for example, a ban on calls to telephone numbers that are not on a special list, or restricting access to long-distance and international communications for those who do not need it during work.

Some organizations, especially those that are in direct contact with the consumers of their products or services, may require a telephone recording service.

You can also connect a tariff for more profitable calls to different directions.

Use the services of outsourcing companies

In some cases, the best solution to reduce costs is to turn to outsourcing companies. For example, this applies to those organizations that require call-center services. Setting up your own call center is known to be expensive. Having resorted to the services of an outsourcing company, you will cut costs by half and at the same time be able to increase profits by 15-20%.

That is why the demand for this service is growing by 40% annually (according to CNews).

If you want to reduce communication costs, then you just need to switch to Internet telephony, with the help of which it is quite possible to achieve high savings rates. The main condition for this is to make the right choice in favor of a provider that has significant experience in work, has proven itself in the market, and also provides high-quality communications and service.

Alexey Ukolov talks about what tricks mobile operators use and how small businesses can save on phone calls

Cellular operators are constantly introducing new tariffs to the market. And it can be quite difficult to understand them. Using the Tarifer service, subscribers can compare their current tariff with other offers on the market and choose the best option for themselves. If for individuals the benefit from switching to another tariff can be several hundred rubles a month, then the savings for large companies can amount to hundreds of thousands of rubles. What tricks are there mobile operators and how to track communication costs in real time, Alexey Ukolov, the founder of the Tarifer service, told the site portal.

35 years old, entrepreneur from Samara, founder and CEO service "Tarifer"(selection of optimal tariff plans cellular communication). Education: International Market Institute (Faculty of Economics and Management). The Tarifer service was launched in 2007. In 2008, the service received the Best Soft award, in 2009 - the Microsoft Business Start award.

Looking for the best deal

The idea of ​​the Tarifer service came from Alexey Ukolov's brother, Dmitry, in 2007. At that time, he worked as a programmer in one of the Samara companies. By this time, Aleksey himself had experience in various projects in the field of trade - far from always successful. After discussing the idea, the brothers decided to make trial version a service that would analyze the details of calls and select the most suitable tariff for a particular person.

“The idea lay on the surface. Many people had problems choosing a fare. At that moment the market was quite wild. Then there was a real leapfrog with tariffs. There were both per-minute rates and per-second rates. Some tariffs included some packages. There was also a connection fee. In general, there were many nuances that had to be taken into account and which were difficult for many people to figure out,” says Alexey Ukolov.

In the new project, Dmitry took care of programming, and Alexey took care of all other issues. In 2008, another partner, Kirill Nasedkin, joined the project. He had his own web design studio and took over the development of the site.

Creating a test version of the service took several months. And we spent several months building the site. In 2008, a year and a half after the start of work on the project, the first version of Tarifer.ru was launched. And at the end of the same year, the site was redesigned, and came to a version similar to the current one.

In Russia, the company has competitors, but they are few. They manually or semi-manually help customers analyze their costs and choose a new tariff plan. “Our advantage over them is in manufacturability, in this respect we are much stronger,” says Alexey Ukolov.

We live on our own

The founding fathers launched and are developing their project exclusively at their own expense - they have never attracted borrowed money. About a million rubles were spent on the development of a prototype site. The service brought its first revenue in 2009, and in 2010 Tarifer reached a payback.

The growth of the project was facilitated by the victory in the competition for Russian startups Microsoft Business Start in 2009. For the victory, "Tarifer" received a grant of 1 million rubles. He allowed, among other things, to hire the first employees. A programmer and a technical support specialist came to the company to work with the base of tariff plans.

The appearance of new employees in the team accelerated the development of the service. At that time, the founders of the company decided to focus on the corporate market, as more promising for their type of activity. Towards the end of 2009, Tariffer got its first corporate clients.

It was not difficult to find them, since the company set a rather low price for its corporate product - several thousand rubles, regardless of the size of the client company and the number of "calculated" SIM cards. But it soon became clear to the founders of the project that with such a pricing policy it was simply unprofitable to work with large companies, and the price list was revised. Naturally, sales became more difficult, and in 2011 the company hired a sales manager. Previously, these functions were performed by Alexei Ukolov himself, and, as he himself admits, he did not always have enough time for this. With the arrival of a new manager, sales have grown significantly.

"Tariff" for individuals

Private customers can independently choose the most favorable mobile communication tariff for themselves. The client must enter his phone number and password from the personal account of the mobile operator. If a person does not know this password, the program will help him "enter the office" - you just need to follow the instructions. The service "unloads" call details for the month and analyzes it. Based on the analysis, the client is recommended the most favorable tariffs - both "own" and "foreign" operators.

The base of tariff plans is supplemented and updated daily. It includes both federal and all regional tariffs of the Big Four operators: Beeline, MTS, Megafon and Tele2.

“New tariffs from operators appear all the time. And we regularly make improvements to the calculation algorithm, we change something all the time. Now the main trend is connected with the transition to package tariffs. In addition to the actual telephone connection, they include the use of the Internet under certain conditions. And we have “sharpened” all our tools to work effectively with package tariffs,” says Alexey.

Corporate program

Corporate clients of "Tarifer" can choose one of two programs for using the service. The first is cost analysis. The program determines in which areas communication costs are higher than the average for the company. A company's telephone costs are broken down by employee, department, and cost source.

The second program is directly cost optimization, that is, the selection of the most favorable rates. The program analyzes all client numbers and selects the most advantageous offer for each number.

When working with companies "Tarifer" uses two schemes. The company can purchase from "Tarifer" the necessary software and then do it all on your own. An employee of the company working with this program will have to upload call details into it, build reports and select tariff plans. For example, this option is used if corporate security rules do not allow data to be transferred to the side.

But the most convenient variant of cooperation for corporate clients is to delegate all functions for the analysis of communication costs and the selection of tariffs to the Tarifer service. In this case, the client simply sends all bills for communication, and then the company's specialists work with them.

The program can also work with individual tariff plans, which many corporate clients have. These tariffs are “non-public”, that is, they are not presented on the websites of operators. The client provides a description of his tariff plan, and the terms of this tariff are added to the program of this particular client. The customer can see this option in his program and use it in the calculations.

One of the main difficulties when working with corporations is the need to download call details from the personal account of your telecom operator. Tarifer specialists are now working to collect all data from operators' personal accounts automatically. Then the client will only need to provide his login and password from his personal account on the operator's website.

Online monitoring

Until recently, tariff selection schemes were aimed at analyzing the communication costs that have already taken place over the past month. But in the near future "Tarifer" launches another technology for corporate clients - monitoring. It allows the client to track and adjust costs in real time.

The new technology allows you to see how much employees have spent on mobile communications and the Internet in the current month by this minute, and how much they spend in this moment. If the program "notices" that communication costs have increased dramatically, it sends an SMS notification to the client.

The service is needed primarily in order to prevent unplanned communication costs, especially in roaming. For example, a person forgot to turn off the Internet. In roaming, the subscriber may even practically not use the Internet or communication. But thanks to the rounding rules and certain tricks of the operator, at the end of the month he will receive unexpected big score. And since the company has a common balance for all numbers, this may show up late. And the communication bill will be an unpleasant surprise for the company.

It is not always possible to shift these costs to the employee for legal reasons. Therefore, companies often “get” hundreds of thousands of rubles due to the fact that someone forgot to turn off the Internet while roaming or used some services incorrectly.

“The director of the company, which is currently being serviced by us under the monitoring program, has gone abroad. And there he used the Internet, after which a bill for 160,000 rubles came to this number. The company is not very large, and this amount is significant for them. Unfortunately, at that time the monitoring program was not connected to this client. And they did not understand where such a sum for communication came from. Now they can see in real time the reason for the increased costs and prevent them in time,” Alexey gives an example.

Data on sharply increased spending enters the Tarifera system 15 minutes after the client began to overspending. It takes about 10 more minutes to react to the situation and inform the client about it. The message about the costs can be sent both to the "squanderer" and his company. Thus, the client can see and stop unplanned communication costs within half an hour after they start.

The service started working in test mode two months ago. Now about 50 companies are served under this program at Tariffer, and the first reviews about the service are the most positive.

Clients

As corporate clients "Tarifer" considers companies from 30 people. If the company has no more than 15-20 numbers, then all calculations can be done manually in a few hours. With a quantity of 30 numbers or more, the amount of data is already quite serious. And the company already needs to make a decision: either it allocates a specialist to work with them, or attracts an outside contractor.

In total, Tarifer has about 400 corporate users. Each company has from 50 to 5000 people. Of the top 10 largest Russian companies, four use the services of Tarifer.

The number of private clients who have used the services of the service since its inception is about two hundred thousand people. Now the service website receives about 200-300 orders per day from individuals.

If we are talking about an average company of 100 people spending 500 rubles a month on one phone number, then its savings after the calculations of the "Tarifer" can be about 10-15 thousand rubles a month.

But the amount of savings largely depends on the structure and type of activity of the company. If this is a trading company whose representatives spend a lot of time in the regions and use roaming, then its communication costs are many times higher. And then she has savings from working with Tarifer solutions several times more than other companies.

Tarifer employees periodically call their customers to find out their opinions about the service. "I take from time to time random list clients, I call and ask them what can be improved and corrected in the work of the service. In particular, thanks to such communication, we have a “real-time monitoring” service, - says Alexey Ukolov.

Service prices

For individuals The service has been free for a long time. But now a fee has been introduced for the service - and anyone can calculate the optimal tariff for 140 rubles. The site has a tariff plan calculator into which you can drive in all the parameters of your communication use. The average savings for private clients after using the service and switching to a new tariff is 37%.

Payment occurs after all calculations and preparation of the report. However, if during the calculation it turns out that the current tariff of the client is the most profitable, Tarifer does not charge him and all the analytics is provided to the client as a bonus.

Users who themselves are well versed in a variety of tariff plans can choose a tariff for themselves for free. The site has a complete database of all current offers of the "Big Four" operators (including regional tariffs) in open access.

The cost of servicing companies depends on the number of their employees and the required functionality. The price varies from 10 to 20 rubles per month for each SIM card of the company, depending on the services included in the service (just cost analysis or analysis + selection of new tariff plans).

"Underwater rocks"

Any business built on working with the corporate sector faces the problem of approvals within client companies. In large structures, the decision-making system is usually multi-stage. It happens that negotiations with some large companies drag on for up to several years.

In addition, not all companies are in dire need of "tariff" savings. For many companies, communication costs are a small item of expenditure compared to the overall budget. And many executives simply do not want to spend time seriously studying the issue of corporate rates.

But even in those companies where the issue of reducing communication costs is acute, not everyone is happy with the proposals of Tarifer. The employee responsible for corporate mobile communications is not always interested in saving the company money. Therefore, the task of Tarifer's managers is, if possible, to contact the first persons of companies interested in saving.

Some existing Tarifer customers almost never use the tariff selection function. It is important for them that the data corporate communication were ordered. And the service helps them store information about all calls made from corporate numbers. There are many branches of Western corporations among such clients.

Operator tricks

"Tarifer" strives to make its customers pay less for communication. The task of cellular operators is just the opposite - to increase fees from customers. To do this, the "big four" has many tricks and tricks, one of the main ones is "archival tariff plans".

The meaning of the trick is quite simple. The client chooses a tariff plan, connects and uses it. After some time, the cellular company sends this plan to the “archive”. Moreover, the operator may still have the current tariff with exactly the same name. For example, three years ago, the client connected to the July tariff. Now the operator has a tariff with exactly the same name, but with different conditions. And the tariff, which the client has been using for 3 years, has long become archival, and now it is called "July-2013".

The benefit for the operator is that the "archive" tariff is usually made more expensive than the current tariff plan. In any subscription service agreement it is written that the operator has the right to change the terms of the tariff without informing the client about it. The subscriber can see among the offers of the operator company a tariff with the same name as his own. But in fact, this is no longer his tariff, and he is served on an archived version, which is most likely less profitable.

“We just recently dealt with such a case. The client said that we recommended him his own tariff, and at the same time promised savings. We began to understand, and it turned out that he was "sitting" on the archived version of the same tariff, which includes a much smaller package of services. Some services are missing there - and the client overpays decent money, because the tariff is actually not the same. So if a subscriber has been served at the same tariff for several years now, it makes sense for him to check if there is a more profitable option now,” recommends Aleksey.

When it enters the market new operator, it often attracts users with low prices. At the same time, other operators are forced to adapt, reduce prices, and thus the situation on the cellular market is changing. But, having gained a foothold in the market, beginners usually begin to gradually raise prices, and the general market situation returns to its original state.

Now the strategy for operators to enter new markets can be seen in the example of Tele2. Approximately at the moment when this operator began to conquer Moscow with low tariffs, prices in the regions began to rise.

“Another feature of Tele2 is that they actually have low “frontal” tariffs, that is, figures that the client pays attention to. But for all sorts of “additional services” (intercity, roaming, etc.), their prices are far from the most profitable, ”Aleksey reveals secrets.

Promotion

Since Tariffer has two different audiences - private and corporate, there are also two sites. Services for individuals are posted on it - a tariff calculator and an all-Russian tariff base. A is the main site of the project, which contains both corporate solutions and links to tarifer.net.

Over time, tarifer.ru will become a site for corporate users only, and tarifer.net for private users. Now the site tarifer.ru is under redesign. His new version scheduled to launch at the end of August.

The founders of Tarifer chose direct sales as the main way to promote their services. Managers contact potential clients through cold calling. The company has a "two-level" sales department. Managers of the "first level" work on the principle of a call center. Their task is to call and communicate with the client. If the client shows interest, then he is transferred to a more professional sales manager.

Team

In total, the company "Tarifer" employs about 30 people. The "head" office and developers are located in Samara, and the company has a sales office in Moscow. 10 people make up the sales department, the rest are developers, administrative staff and technical support staff.

Technical support takes calls and requests from customers. In addition, she has a large scope of work related to updating data. This is support and replenishment of the base of tariff plans, support of the base of telephone numbers and recognition of all formats of billing details that are only possible with operators.

Despite the impressive work experience, the project has not yet acquired its own mobile application. It is planned to be made in two versions: for individuals and for corporate clients.

The most urgent plan for the coming months is the further development of the monitoring service (tracking and adjusting expenses in real time). While it can be used in a test version, its “commercial” launch will start in the fall.

“We are planning a serious development of this service so that it also tracks the balance of current service packages. Gradually, we will reduce all our services to one interface, everything will be built on the basis of monitoring,” sums up Alexey Ukolov.

In connection with the deterioration of the financial and economic situation at enterprises, aggravated due to the manifestation of the effects of the negative trends of the global financial crisis, which has already passed into the category of an economic crisis, many companies are starting to panic reduce their costs. The management of companies sees one of the main recipes for survival in times of crisis in reducing costs. Therefore, in the pursuit of savings, even entire cost items began to be “cut off” indiscriminately. Decisions, of course, need to be made in such situations very quickly, practically, instantly. And decisions regarding costs and expenses are some of the easiest decisions that management will have to make, as they relate to what the company actually owns, cash, as opposed to making, for example, strategic, marketing, innovative decisions, making which, due to the growth of uncertainty, has become even more complex. Therefore, it is clear that the easiest way is to “tighten the belts” and “tighten the nuts”. However, an ill-considered reduction in spending, "tightening the belts" can lead to negative strategic consequences and tactical losses. In making hasty decisions to reduce costs, the categories of “good” or highly productive costs that bring a company a huge multiplier economic effect are also often overlooked. Therefore, the application of folk wisdom is fair here: “Measure seven times and cut once”!

This article does not pretend to review all solutions for optimizing costs and expenses of all kinds, but only aims to draw the attention of company management to the fact that expenses should be treated in a balanced, wise manner, and not “indiscriminately”, deleting entire articles.

It is necessary to fight for reducing not all, but only unproductive, inefficient, irrational costs. You need to ask yourself the following questions:

• How can you intensify, increase the return and efficiency of costs that the company is going to reduce.
• How will the reduction of this or that item of expenditure affect the enterprise in a year, two, three, five and ten years?
• What risks are associated with certain costs, how will cost reduction affect the likelihood of these risks?
• Does the volume of a certain cost item have a “critical weight”, what are the tasks and functions assigned to these costs?
• What are the alternative solutions? How can cost reductions be compensated?

Reducing the cost of training at seminars, courses, trainings, attending conferences and forums

Attendance by employees and managers of training programs (seminars, trainings, courses, internships), business and professional events (conferences, forums, round tables, symposia), with the correct organization of the work of an organization representative, gives the company a huge direct and indirect effect, many times overlapping the costs incurred.

• New technological, business, industry, professional knowledge important for the development of the enterprise.
• There is an exchange of information and experience with colleagues from other enterprises and industries.
• The participant receives a strong energy impulse, allowing him to significantly increase his productivity, efficiency and initiative.

• Try to reduce the cost of participation in the event. When properly approached by the course or conference organizers, 9 out of 10 times the business will be presented with a substantial discount or given the opportunity to attend the event for two employees with only one participant registering.
• Take an active and proactive position during the event, trying to get the maximum benefit for the enterprise from attending a seminar or forum.
• Take a voice recorder with you to the event to be able to listen to the most valuable moments again, and then share useful information with other employees.
• Based on the results of attending each event, oblige each employee to present all the applied points discussed at the conference or seminar in the form of clear proposals for implementation in the enterprise. At the same time, the employee should not limit himself only to the work of his unit.

These are just examples of some of the recommendations for increasing the effectiveness of attending business and professional forums. And one cannot but agree that training programs and business events are an effective source of ideas, knowledge, experience, connections, innovative aspirations that are so necessary to overcome crisis situations.

Reducing communication and Internet costs

Many large industrial enterprises are reducing the limits on long-distance and international telephone calls. On the one hand, this may be correct in relation to cost overruns in departments whose competence does not include external communications. But with regard to the limits of telephone conversations for marketing, sales, supply departments, the effectiveness of which largely depends on the intensity of international communications, the situation should be exactly the opposite. But in this case, in order to increase efficiency and return on these costs, the enterprise should develop a standard or regulation on international telephone conversations that provides employees with a clear and practical tool for effective work.

Reducing the cost of the Internet, to reduce the bandwidth of the Internet connection is also not entirely reasonable. When restoring infrastructure destroyed by natural disasters in New Orleans and other affected regions of the United States, the authorities first restored high-speed wireless Internet. And the internet is free. This contributes to the growth and development of the economy. The most progressive countries have long understood that the Internet is as necessary an infrastructure as roads or broadcasting and as effective a catalyst for development as business incubators or high-tech parks. In our country, unfortunately, the cost of Internet services is one of the most expensive in the world, despite the technological simplicity of providing these services. And by the way, the World Wide Web is today an indispensable source of information resources, a provider of interactive services that allow solving many business issues, developing business processes, which is especially important during a crisis.

• It is a source of commercial, marketing, technical information, contact, management data.
• It is an effective means of communication (e-mail, ICQ, Skype, forums, blogs, networks, chats, and so on), which is an effective alternative to all traditional means of communication.
• This is a strong promotion channel (distribution of commercial and business offers, negotiations on the Internet, placement of information about the company on numerous Internet media, promotion of the company's website).

Another point is again the increase in the efficiency of using Internet traffic in order to develop the enterprise. Here we can absolutely safely say the following: our domestic manufacturing enterprises practically do not use the numerous opportunities provided today by the global information space. The intensity of use is out of the question, our companies still need to master the Internet in extensive ways, to try at least half of those Internet tools, carriers of unlimited possibilities that are provided to us today. Once again, the learning factor is on the agenda. Companies and employees are often simply not aware of the unlimited possibilities of working on the Internet, not to mention the fact that enterprises do not have systems, for example, Internet marketing.

The same applies to the costs of developing and creating an enterprise website. A company simply cannot do without a website. Today there is an axiom: "No on the Internet - no business"! But it is possible to develop a web resource of the same efficiency for 5000-7000 and 500-700 conventional units. Hosting is a whole order of magnitude cheaper if you order it abroad and pay with an international card or electronic money. So you have an extra ruble freed up to invest it in development and promotion. And such an order of numbers is present in the economy at every step today, the only task is to be aware and look for new solutions!

Reducing the cost of long-distance and foreign business trips

Any commercial director will confirm that it is possible to write many letters for a long time, corresponding with potential partners, spend hours on the phone, and in just a few minutes resolve the issue face-to-face in person. Negotiations during business trips are one of the most effective tools for promoting the company's products and establishing business relationships with partners. Therefore, especially in the event of a crisis, the company is recommended to intensify work with business trips, send more managers to distant lands and for a longer time. As the author's experience has shown, issues related to the sale of products can be effectively solved on business trips not only by managers of marketing and sales departments, but also by heads of financial, economic and production services, thus strengthening the company's marketing vector. Therefore, it is necessary not to reduce the cost of business trips for managers, as many enterprises are doing now, but to boldly increase the number of "forays" to foreign markets of our marketing landing force. And speaking about the effectiveness of these events, I would like to draw an analogy with the military theme. Who are they throwing behind enemy lines? That's right, the most trained, trained and experienced commandos. The seconded managers should also become such "aces", who must fulfill special tasks, on which the fate of many people today depends.

• Employees who can effectively organize their work should be sent on expensive business trips (visiting the maximum number of companies per day with the achievement of set goals during negotiations).
• The stage of serious preparation for the trip is important (calling, planning visits, preliminary, but flexible appointment of meetings).
• There should be full and clear reporting on the results of all meetings, business negotiations, stimulating the rational use of the employee's time and enterprise funds during a business trip.
• Significantly helps employees in preparing for a business trip, the internal standard or regulations of the enterprise on this issue.
• Be sure to try to quickly put into practice all the developments, the results of business trips upon their completion. It often happens that a seconded manager has to recover and rest after a long trip. At this time, no one deals with topical issues, and a week later, completely different tasks are set.

Reducing the cost of attracting external consultants and independent experts

Looking at the problem from the outside always allows you to get much more objective, independent information needed to solve this problem. The involvement of consultants and independent experts always gives a huge external impetus to business development. This is especially true at critical moments when it is necessary to act both quickly and smartly.

Is the enterprise ready to independently develop a development program. Quickly assess the situation, weigh all the strengths and weak sides, threats and opportunities, develop a strategy, develop a plan of effective measures? It is clear that not every company is able to do this. And those companies that can do this will never interfere with the “infusion” of new ideas, fresh thoughts, and intersectoral progressive experience. Thinking leaders pay a lot of money for this and are sure that these costs pay off many times over. As Chinese strategist Sunn Zi said, a leader who does not seek to buy information, a leader who is indecisive will never succeed. However, for all the advantages of the company's work with external consultants, the question of the effectiveness of this work again arises. Consulting companies promptly, the very first prepared their anti-crisis proposals, and each of them offers its own anti-crisis product. Of all the variety of anti-crisis proposals, it is even more difficult to choose than before the crisis. It is clear that each consultant will at the same time maximize, actualize the importance for the enterprise of the problem in which he specializes, that is, he has the greatest professional competence. Therefore, in the proposals of consultants, you should try not to miss those moments that sometimes they try to impose on the company in order to sell their services. And if an enterprise has been working for a long time with an independent expert who takes an unbiased position, does not lobby the enterprise for other types of additional costs in which he himself may be directly or indirectly interested, which accompanies the activities and development of this company, then the costs of this work cannot be reduced. in no case. Good consultants are now becoming worth their weight in gold, and many Moscow consulting companies, instead of reducing staff, which is common today everywhere, are not coping with the work, on the contrary, they are expanding their staff. Therefore, having a company with a time-tested, open-minded external consultant with systems thinking and progressive business development tools is a great advantage, especially during a crisis. And in no case should such an advantage be lost in difficult moments for the enterprise.

If before the beginning of the crisis the company did not have time to decide on consultants, you need to do it now and quickly. Efficiency on the example of legal consulting: the cost of a comprehensive audit of the legal system of an enterprise will cost 500-1000 dollars, but what kind of costs can it help to avoid in the future.

Reducing inventory costs

The reduction of this item of expenditure increases the logistical and production risks, which in times of crisis increase by themselves. This period is associated with the suspension of work and even the closure of many manufacturing companies. If such problems are also found in the suppliers of the enterprise, failures may also occur in carriers.

Advertising expenses

Reducing advertising costs will not lead to tactical and strategic losses only if the company finds other, cheaper and shareware methods of advertising, promotion, informing buyers, consumers, partners about their business proposals. These can be methods of "guerrilla marketing", "advertising without advertising" and so on. The lack of financial resources must necessarily be replaced by ingenuity, non-standard creative solutions, serious creative work of the entire team of the enterprise. In no case should you refuse to spend on advertising that “works well”, on those proven channels of communication with consumers that have proven to be effective. Advertising and marketing expenses, in this case, need to be redistributed in favor of these effective tools.

Reducing the cost of maintenance, repairs

Reducing this item of expenditure also increases production risks, calling into question the production processes themselves over time. How much a business can lose from line downtime or more costly equipment repairs, saving little in terms of maintenance costs. You can save a penny and lose a ruble! In addition, equipment operating without repairs and “wearing out” during a crisis may turn out to be at the beginning of an economic recovery, which will certainly sooner or later replace the crisis period, already inoperable. When the economy begins to grow, the company will not be able to take advantage and opportunities of economic growth.

Reduced quality control costs

From some experts, such recommendations and advice were made: reduce the cost of products by reducing quality. And how high is the quality of goods produced at domestic enterprises? Is there a way to lower it? Is it possible to compete effectively with such quality in the world markets? Or will these products go to the domestic market protected from foreign competitors? There is nowhere to reduce the quality, it only needs to be increased or not to “translate” natural resources. Primitivization is not allowed!

Reducing staffing costs

Personnel costs should be reduced primarily in those sectors in which, during the economic boom preceding the crisis, there was an unreasonable hyper-growth of wages, not supported by an increase in labor productivity and an increase in production efficiency. The decrease in these costs is primarily due to a decrease in bonuses and allowances. However, if other alternatives are not provided in material incentives, a sharp drop in already low labor productivity may occur: employees will only “go to work”. Alternatives to salaries that incentivize key employees could be ownership of the company, rewards for innovations, bonuses for special achievements, intangible measures, and so on.

With regard to downsizing, the economists of the future would be more likely to react to such a decision as modern physicians today regard the "bleeding" practiced "successfully" by doctors of the Middle Ages. Here we will not touch on the macroeconomic consequences of mass layoffs, unemployment, falling consumer demand and the processes leading to an aggravation of the crisis. Today there are numerous examples of big cuts, for example, in the IT business. How much money did it take to find and hire even the most ordinary programmer? How much money is invested in his education? How much effort and money is directed by the company for team building, motivation, development of corporate culture, professional development? And now, together with the employees, investments in human personnel are leaving the company, know-how is leaving, information is leaving. And all this with the advent of the era of information technology becomes the main factor of competitiveness, a source of innovation. There is a second point here: what happens to the employees who remain in the company? People understand that they may be next, they cease to trust management, the level of loyalty rushes to zero. Will they believe at the next corporate meeting the fiery speeches of top management about a friendly and cohesive team? And what then are statements about the social responsibility of business worth?

Similar to "bleeding" during staff cuts, firstly, the company loses valuable resources, and secondly, the enterprise "weakens its body." E. W. Deming, the author of the Japanese miracle, proved that the efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness of both the entire business and the individual employee depend only on the management, the management system built in the company, and not on the employees themselves. Any employee, the most lagging behind, can be “put” in such a system where he will demonstrate the highest results. Staff needs to be trained! And as the proverb says: "There are no bad students, there are bad teachers"! Of course, all this is not easy. To preserve the team, you need to think in intensive, fundamental, deep, systemic categories and principles, and during the period of the economic boom that preceded the crisis, we got used to only superficial, extensive thinking. And to think, and take the initiative, and look for ways out of the crisis, it is necessary not only for management, but also for the staff themselves. It must be taken into account that many people have forgotten how to think, strain their brains, fight for efficiency, and work hard in the Stakhanov way. In many industries, people are accustomed to quick, easy, big money, without measuring their own contribution to getting this money, creating real value for the client and for society. In the near future, many workers will have to come down to earth again in terms of their financial and material needs and work much more and for much less money than before.

One of the most effective recommendations: to maximize and intensively use the (often) dormant intellectual and creative potential of the staff, to stimulate entrepreneurship, rationalization, and innovation at all levels of the organization.

It should also be remembered that the cost of maintaining personnel is not limited to the payment of wages and related social and tax payments. Calculate, for example, how much it costs to rent a workspace and the lost profits from renting out that space. There is good decision: the transfer of at least part of the office staff to "virtual" or "home", which has already found wide application in the West, and which many have already managed to use. Thanks to the development of modern information technologies, it is possible to organize the work of knowledge workers in such a way that all staff work at home, and management and communications are carried out using the Internet. This type of work organization has a lot of advantages, both for employees and for the company. Among the obvious shortcomings: discipline. However, if the employee is not disciplined and not organized, does he work efficiently in the company's office itself?

Costs to be reduced

"Universal" expenses that can be safely reduced without any significant losses in the long and short term.

• Elimination of losses in production: saving fuel, electricity, raw materials, materials. The introduction of “lean manufacturing” technologies is a very loud word for many enterprises with our still Soviet culture. However, we need to strive for this, the crisis is pushing us towards this.
• Reducing the cost of "maintaining high status." It could also be moving to a less prestigious and less expensive office. "Consolidation" of services, divisions, personnel in the occupied premises, the rejection of excess space and their leasing, subleasing, and so on. It can also be a reduction in the cost of company vehicles, if it is equipped with expensive and wasteful business class cars (fuel consumption, maintenance costs), due to the transition to "small cars", a reduction in company vehicles
• Refusal to pay dividends to founders and shareholders in favor of strengthening financial positions, creating a stabilization fund for the enterprise, for the company's survival in a crisis period. This also includes the rejection of "indiscriminate" payments of bonuses and allowances. However, the funds saved through these measures should be invested in development, and not “squandered”.
• A whole section of so-called "hidden or implicit costs" that everyone forgets about. This is the cost of lost or lost profits. These costs are not reflected in any reports, so no one fights with them. At the same time, if we go to any large industrial enterprise, will we see that every square meter of space and every machine is used efficiently and rationally? And if you rent out the unnecessary or organize production groups, cooperatives, brigades from the “extra” people at the enterprise and help them master new areas of work, then you can not only save money, but also earn money.
• Stationery, office expenses - the article is not big, but, as they say: "A penny saves a ruble"! Our people are used to saving paper by printing on drafts, saving cartridges by switching printers to economical printing modes, which everyone did 10 years ago. This also includes elementary frugality in relation to electricity, water, heat, and so on.
• Expenses for purchased components, materials. The generally accepted mechanism throughout the civilized world is considered to be a gradual systematic decrease in the cost of the mechanisms of nodes, and components of long-produced samples. All Japanese companies agree with their suppliers on price reduction schedules and quality improvement plans for purchased products. Therefore, our enterprises can also conclude with suppliers not only contracts and supply agreements, but also long-term agreements on the quality of supplied goods (control and development) and schedules for a gradual reduction in the purchase cost of components.
• Of course, this also includes spending on areas that appeared on the wave of the previous economic boom and hyper-growth of the B2B sector industry. Today, probably, not a single director will have a question: “Should I pay tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars to a creative agency for a logo and slogan? subsidiary Or work on this task on your own?

Expenses that the company will have to increase

The costs that it is more expedient for the company to incur in order to minimize risks and reduce the costs that the company otherwise may incur in the future.

• Costs associated with the economic security of the enterprise. It is necessary to carry out a set of preventive measures to eliminate many risks, the likelihood of which increases during periods of crisis. It is recommended to strengthen the enterprise's risk management system, legal system, security system, anti-crisis PR system, and so on. Carry out due diligence procedures for all aspects of the company's activities. Conduct an anti-crisis audit of the information security system.
• Spending or investing in human resources. These are costs primarily for maintaining morale (corporate ideology, internal anti-crisis PR), since no matter how much an enterprise cuts costs, the crisis cannot be overcome without support and brilliance in the eyes of employees. And the crisis provides excellent opportunities for team building. This also includes the costs of retraining and retraining of personnel, which is also indispensable. Many European companies that sent their employees on unpaid vacations for 1-2 months organized corporate staff training programs for this period, retraining, retraining and retraining for other areas and areas of activity to prepare people to perform other work, solve other problems.
• Marketing expenses, marketing and scientific research, for the development of new products, the design and introduction of new types of products into production, the costs of forming our own commodity distribution network independent of external credit injections. All this is critically necessary for companies intending to work both during and after the crisis, and not to wind down business in the near future.
• Expenses for the development of the enterprise in the form of remuneration and payments for rationalization proposals, for the introduction of new less resource-intensive and resource-saving technologies, for the optimization of business processes that allow increasing the efficiency of production and the company's business.
• The costs required for the reorganization and renewal of the business, the introduction of innovations and the development of enterprises. The economy and business after the crisis will not remain the same as they were before the “collapse”. The business world will change dramatically, as it always does, there will again be a redistribution of resources: financial, industrial, intellectual, there will be changes in the alignment of forces in the market and in politics. Almost all business analysts and top managers of large companies are trying to find a new way and even a new business paradigm. Therefore, each enterprise will have to go through its own path of changes in the organizational structure, corporate culture, building relationships in many areas, and this, in turn, will require investments.
• Expenses for business integration, organization and financing of business and industry unions, associations, clubs. Even large and very strong companies will find themselves in a difficult situation in the near future, in which it is easier to solve many issues in cooperation with their former competitors, coordinating the entire industry. Many things can now be solved much more effectively if we act together, together, thinking about the effect for the entire sectoral, regional and general economic system. Coordination of actions, common interests, joint solution of complex issues in government bodies, association for joint purchases of raw materials and materials, supply, production, marketing cooperation and economies of scale will give companies a number of additional benefits. However, this is not possible without a full and active work apparatus, the coordinating body of such a union or association, which needs an appropriate budget.

Cost management at an enterprise during a crisis should not be budgetary or automatic, when articles are allocated and limits are brought, but “manual”, when the feasibility of each payment is studied, the effectiveness of all costs separately. Cost management must balance tactical needs and strategic objectives, finding a happy medium between them.

The crisis, the reduction of expenses at the enterprise give employees and managers of departments a good opportunity to explain their omissions and not achieve their goals. To prevent this from happening, you can use the approach practiced in many Japanese enterprises in management: this is work with pairs of opposites. When setting goals, dual, sometimes even mutually exclusive goals should be set: reduce cost and improve quality, reduce weight and increase sustainability, and so on. This will not give people the opportunity to write off all their shortcomings as cost reduction. And, besides, it also helps the Japanese to find fundamentally new solutions that lie outside of these pairs of opposites that limit the mental field.

It is important to find wise solutions, characterized as a "golden mean". As Henry Ford said 100 years ago, spending management should be neither greedy nor extravagant. Both of these extremes lead to cost overruns, causing new problems immediately or after some time and even greater costs to solve them.

I would also like to warn managers and warn that “tightening the screws” and “tightening the belts” is not enough for the company to get out of the crisis. This is just one of the directions in which we should move today. For the survival of the enterprise, a whole system of measures is needed:

• Reducing costs, reducing wasteful costs, that is, in fact, "tightening the screws".
• Increasing economic efficiency and return on all costs, resources and investments.
• Increasing the profitable component of the business, intensifying marketing activities.
• Search for alternative solutions to replace cost-intensive solutions with "cost-free" and "low-cost" options.
• Development of business systems (production, marketing, logistics, HR, R&D, etc.), rationalization activities, optimization of business processes.
• Search and adoption of fundamentally new fundamental decisions of organization and management economic activity to the point of changing the business paradigm.

Currently, at the global, national, regional, sectoral, corporate levels, attempts are being made to neutralize the negative consequences of the global financial crisis. However, at all these levels, measures are used and decisions are taken that are the causes of the current situation, that is, which gradually led to the crisis. And if the emphasis on supporting the banking system and stimulating consumption can give a positive result in the short term (for individual elements of the system, and not for the entire system), then this is not for long. As Albert Einstein said: “It is impossible to solve a problem at the same level at which it arose. You need to rise above this problem by rising to the next level.” And if fundamentally new solutions are not found that will radically change the economic model and economic management systems, then the crisis will grow from the category of the world economic into the category of the global crisis of civilization. In addition, crises of this magnitude and depth always lead to the discovery of new technical solutions, new technologies, new energy sources, new labor organization systems, to renewal in many areas, sectors and sectors of the economy. And even if we do not come up with fundamentally new approaches to work ourselves, then at least we should not miss a change in the business paradigm and not again be beyond the boundaries of opportunities and prospects.

The period we have entered is not easy, but as a result, imagine how we will learn to manage the costs and efficiency of our companies! How many progressive solutions will be found during this time, which we would not even be looking for if not for the crisis! And we will look at the past periods as a time of inefficient business and missed opportunities and ask ourselves why we thought so little about efficiency and development before.

What questions will you find answered in this article:

What are the results of negotiations with a communication service provider.

How billing report data can help you reduce costs.

What is the best way to organize communication in companies with branches.

Does it make sense to change the tariff or telecom operator.

How much can you save using IP-telephony.

Communication costs can be optimized using both organizational and technical solutions. Before considering both of them in more detail, I will make a reservation. Many terms in this article - such as IP telephony, traffic termination, billing report - may be unfamiliar to you. But nowadays it is useful for any leader to at least roughly understand what they mean. So don't be afraid - you can learn everything. In fact, now every day we calmly use what our grandparents think is unthinkably complicated: a computer, a mobile phone ... However, many grandparents have also completely mastered a mobile phone - they even learned how to dial text messages. Let us, without being afraid of tricky words, move on to our topic.

Negotiate with a communication service provider

This is the first and most important step. Such negotiations should be held with all operators: wireline, mobile network, Internet provider, provider of other telecommunications services. Your goal is to remain their client, while achieving a reduction in the cost of the service. To achieve this goal, announce a tender for the supply of communication services. This way you can achieve a 40-50% cost reduction without changing anything - neither the operator, nor engineering communications. This method is especially good right now, because during the crisis all providers have become much more flexible and accommodating, and telecom operators in the market as a whole have reduced their offers by almost 50%.

Analyze billing report

Arrange with the operator to provide a billing report - a document that records all incoming and outgoing calls. Almost all providers offer this service free of charge. In addition to the report, you can also request an analysis of it, which will show which of the employees calls the most and whose negotiations are especially costly. If your company has an outdated mini-PBX, there is a problem with the definition of outgoing calls: you will not see who called. In this case, I recommend replacing it (a modern PBX costs between $2,000 and $4,000). After that, you will be able to track from which workplace and where you called, as well as how long each conversation lasted. The information received will allow you to take the necessary measures - for example, restrict access to long-distance and international communications to those whose work will not be affected. At the same time, it makes sense to review the lists of employees once a quarter limited access according to changes in the functional responsibilities of specialists. Also find out when your employees really need a phone. Transfer all other communications to the Internet. Order the company to use to communicate with colleagues, partners, and in some cases with customers such means as Email, Internet messengers (ICQ, etc.), Skype. (See what options Skype gives). These communication channels are much cheaper - costs will be reduced by 20-25 times.

What opportunities does Skype give

Skype is a free program that you can install on a regular desktop computer or laptop. All it takes

Additionally, it is a microphone and headphones. You can download the program at www.skype.com.

Skype allows:

• make free calls via the Internet to other users of the program (audio and video communications are supported, video conferences are possible), as well as correspond with them (you can send messages to one or several recipients at once);
• call landline numbers for money mobile networks(in this case, the company still saves, since Skype's rates are lower than those of telephone operators).

Today, many companies have switched to Skype. There are even competitions for best use this program. According to the participants of such competitions, Skype allows enterprises to save from 30 to 80% of the cost of telephone communications. Special mention should be made of the Skype for Business control panel. This free web application provides a detailed report on the calls of corporate users of the program, greatly simplifying not only the control of communication costs, but also, for example, managing the intensity of the work of the sales department and other departments whose activities involve constant telephone conversations.

Based on the book by Gleb Arkhangelsky “Work 2.0. Breakthrough to free time

(M.: Mann, Ivanov i Ferber, 2010)

Consider changing rates

If your company pays for mobile communications at a tariff with a subscription fee, it is possible that it is better to change it to a tariff with a time-based payment. In some cases, this allows you to optimize costs, and many enterprises have already used this opportunity. However, opting out of a subscription plan is not always beneficial, so before you decide to take this step, make sure that it really gives the desired result. There is another way to save money: try to negotiate subscription fee, equal to the average monthly expenses of the enterprise for cellular communications (or even slightly less). I note, however, that this method is suitable only for those companies that have more than 25 phones connected under the contract: with a smaller number of numbers, the operator is unlikely to agree to offer you any special conditions. In addition, it is useful to study the tariffs of another operator: perhaps they will be more profitable. For example, I saved on communication precisely due to the change of operator. Also figure out which of your employees actually needs mobile phone and who can do without it. For example, office workers, whose duties do not include traveling, may not be paid for a mobile phone. If you need to keep all employees always in touch - even when moving around the office - buy them portable devices (they are called DECT phones).

Forward all calls to head office

This will be useful for companies with branches. Redirection is performed by means of IP-telephony: the telephone exchange of the branch is connected via the Internet to the exchange of the head office so that outgoing calls via traditional wired communication go only from the central office. After that, all negotiations of the company are serviced by one operator, and with such solid traffic, the company can count on a discount. In addition, calls from branches themselves become cheaper, as the rates for international and long-distance calls in large cities (where head offices are usually located) are lower. Finally, the use of such a scheme makes it easier for you to control calls - all negotiations are now recorded in a single billing report. I'll tell you about a large enterprise with a head office in St. Petersburg and production sites in the Leningrad region and other regions of Russia. An analysis of communication costs showed management that constant negotiations between the office and production are especially costly. After that, local telephone exchanges were connected to the station in St. Petersburg with the introduction of single internal numbers throughout the enterprise, which made it possible to reduce costs by almost 10 times.

Use IP Phones

To do this, you will have to equip your telephone exchange (or purchase a new one). Calls from IP phones go over the Internet and then land* with a local operator and reach the landline subscriber. This scheme provides savings of 4-10 times. Wired phones cost $20 to $50, IP phones $100 to $400; telephone exchanges compatible with IP telephones are one and a half to two times more expensive than conventional ones. But this investment will pay off quickly. Let's say now your company pays 100 thousand rubles a month for telephone communications. Then, after the transition to IP-phones, the costs will amount to a maximum of 10 thousand rubles. per month (basically it will be a fee for landing traffic). Thus, a monthly gain of 90 thousand rubles. will pay back the cost of equipment for the year. In addition, you can save on the amount of outgoing traffic: IP telephone exchanges allow you to program any restrictions - for example, block calls from employees to all numbers that are not included in a pre-compiled list. Such measures usually cause dissatisfaction among employees, but if the company wants to reduce communication costs, you should not take this into account - after all, everyone has a personal mobile phone that can be used to resolve any non-work issues.

* Landing - transferring a call going through the Internet into a format that is perceived by a wired communication device.

Implement an electronic information exchange system

This is a more complicated method, which involves developing a special program tailored to the needs of your company and either installing it on the computers of your counterparties or providing them with access to your Internet resource. In one of the companies where I worked, such an electronic system made it possible to achieve a 30% reduction in communication costs, saving more than 100 thousand rubles. per month, so that the cost of creating a software product paid off in six months. At that enterprise, 80 sales managers were constantly on the phone, either offering goods or taking orders. There were about 4000 product names; calls went all over Russia. The company did not want to buy expensive IP phones, and the cheaper ones did not pass the test: they did not provide uninterrupted communication, but they slowed down the work of computers. When the new system was introduced, the work began to be structured as follows: all data (by name, product availability, etc.) was constantly updated; customers themselves put a tick in front of the goods they need and entered the required quantity; the order was automatically processed, after which a confirmation request was automatically sent; customers confirmed the order by pressing one button; finally, the order got to the sales manager, who no longer had any need to contact the client by phone (except in exceptional cases). Thus, we not only reduced communication costs, but also significantly reduced the resource costs for ordering, which allowed us to increase labor productivity and reduce personnel costs.

Beware of rash decisions

I want to warn you against abrupt and thoughtless decisions. Not always, in order to save money, you need to cut something. Look for options, compare. Nowadays, the most accessible and reliable communication is an indispensable condition for doing business. It is just as necessary for your employees as ligaments for our joints. Inadequate cost cutting can slow down the growth of your business and hinder its success.

Belousov Maxim, managing director. KIT Finance Bank, President of the St. Petersburg Club of IT Directors, Chairman of the IT Committee at the St. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry.