Less wireless costs : optimizing firms aim to cut wireless service bills

The Calgary-based firm Alliance is offering optimized billing to oil companies, many of which spend more than $100,000 a month on wireless services for devices such as cellular telephones, pagers and Blackberries. In particular, Alliance is focusing on cutting the cost of wireless for corporate clients by analyzing client-usage patterns and choosing the most cost-efficient rate plans offered by the telecoms. Alliance suggests that do-it-yourself optimization is too complex for the average user, given the very large choice of rate plans. Using algorithms, Alliance software goes through all the wireless service contract options from the telecoms to choose the best plan for a company's needs. Optimizers claim their clients will see significant savings on wireless, in the order to 20 to 50 per cent. This article presented a brief case history of a successful optimization plan for Nabors Canada LP. Alliance allows its clients to view their billing information on their web-based server. Call records can be viewed by device or company division. 1 ref., 1 fig