Dealing with telecom carriers has long been a challenge for business and IT leaders. Ensuring the company’s telecom environment supports larger IT goals and investments takes time and expertise—two areas in which many companies find they are often lacking. An experienced independent carrier services agent can assist all the things on the telecom front that companies don’t have the time or experience to deal with, including solution procurement and design; interactions with the carrier; billing verification, and more.

There are dozens of reasons to work with a carrier services agent vs. engaging with a carrier directly. Our top five are below.

1. No turnover in carrier representatives. Turnover is high in sales departments. Your carrier representative could change frequently—sometimes as often as once per year. That means you’re constantly educating a new rep about your account. Independent carrier services agents generally are in their roles for a much longer period, meaning you’ll have the same contact next year as you do this year—someone who is familiar with your account details, which is critical when problems arise.
2. A single point of contact. Regardless of whether you maintain a single- or multi-carrier telecom environment, with an agent you still have a single point of contact for almost everything telecom-related. This saves an incredible amount of time and resources when you are starting out—and when it’s time for a change as your business grows. With an experienced, qualified independent agent, you can save hours of valuable time by simply scheduling a single appointment to determine the best course of action vs. scheduling several series of meetings with individual carriers to determine the best course forward.
3. A company insider. Once an independent carrier services agent knows your business needs, they become a natural extension of your company. Your agent will get to know your goals, how you make decisions, and what you’re looking for from a carrier solution to support your current IT environment. But they’ll also be looking to the future to assess what changes you may need to make for projects on your roadmap, such as cloud migration, and help you avoid roadblocks.
4. A candid viewpoint. Your carrier services agent has been around the block a few times, and has experience dealing with multiple carriers in your market and can tell you how they actually perform. They will truthfully and accurately answer important questions such as:
   • Which carrier has the most reliable network?
   • Which has billing problems?
   • Which may be having financial difficulties or other problems that may impact service?
   • Which can make the desired install date?
   • When you use an independent agent, you don’t have to listen to each carrier downplay weaknesses and deficiencies. You get to hear the truth.
5. Carrier agnosticism. Individual carriers obviously only sell businesses the solutions they have available—but the solutions they have might not always be the right fit for your business. Getting stuck with a carrier that can’t meet your present and future requirements can be crippling. For instance, some carriers enable failover to a different network, which improves disaster recovery and increases reliability over those that do not. An independent carrier services agent will honestly and reliably answer questions that your IT team has about capabilities about individual carriers’ capabilities as they relate to your business.

Gain back valuable time and resources to focus on driving innovation in your business. Learn more about how to simplify your telecom services.

A carrier services agent is a true partner, helping you cut costs, save time by taking over many of your carrier interactions; and ensuring your telecom environment support all your technology initiatives.

• carrier services, 
• carrier services agent, 
• telecom