Throughout the national lockdown, businesses have been adapting to the changing landscape and over the past 16 months, communicating with your staff/customers has never been so important. As you may be aware, we work with thousands of businesses throughout the UK, and help our clients with both their telecoms and utility arrangements on a performance basis, but wanted to make you aware of some common themes, that your own business may be able to take advantage of.
ISDN & PSTN Turn-Off & Super Deductions:
As previously mentioned, in light of the pending ISDN and PSTN switch off (scheduled to happen in 2025), many businesses have been taking advantage of the Government’s recently announced “Super Deduction” scheme, to purchase new telephony equipment. Many small businesses are looking at making their communication process “future proof” and have consequently been updating their services to VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). This allows businesses to have a more flexible telecommunication system and help with things such as remote home working. With the inevitable ISDN/PSTN turn-off happening over the next few years, many businesses are taking advantage of the Super Deduction scheme now, whereby they can deduct 130% of capital allowances, against the purchase costs of the new solution. There are a number of stipulations with Super Deduction, such as lease options not being applicable for this scheme and you have to be a limited company and pay corporation tax, for example.
In addition, we have recently been notified through our various suppliers that certain geographical British Telecom (BT) exchanges will be turning lines off first. For more information about this, please contact us and we will let you know the situation in your area. Similarly, if you’re looking at moving site/opening up a new site/s, we can help on this matter.
Technological Advancements:
Technological advancements with “Single Order Generic Ethernet Access” (SOGEA) are becoming more and more commonplace, particularly with the increase of FTTC (Fibre To The Cabinet) across the UK, which the Government continues to push through. Openreach are now delivering a single order version of Fibre Broadband that means you do not have to install a traditional copper phone line to compliment the service (SOGEA includes an underlying version of a phone line). This is ultimately a significant part of the closing of Digital and Analogue lines, mentioned above. These changes will bring countless opportunities, including cheaper costs, a single provider, quicker fault fix times and also enables easier home working solutions. At present, not all areas will have this capability, due to FTTC not being available in the area, but this is rapidly changing day-by-day.
We can also provide advice about setting up “failovers” as a back-up, should the primary internet connection go down for your calls and broadband, which would be tailored to suit your own business.
Energy Sustainability:
Telecoms and utility costs are important for any business, and often businesses are disadvantaged by not having the buying power of larger competitors. However, due to our large client base, our clients have access to very competitive arrangements and expertise in these areas. As you may be aware, there is a massive push at the moment for “Green” solutions by the Government, and “Green Contracts” are a lot more competitive than they previously were. We suspect this trend will only continue with all of the Government initiatives circulating, and a number of businesses have been advertising that they use Green Suppliers for PR purposes. Energy efficiency/sustainability is becoming an important area for all businesses.
If you would like to discuss any of the abovementioned topics, please do not hesitate to contact us on 01565 755600 or e-mail mail@beaconplus.co.uk, for more information.
