President’s Message

Price changes are a fact of business life, but, as loyal TEL Dealers have known for years, TEL has announced several price changes and virtually all have been PRICE DECREASES!!  After selling our ever-improving products for 30 years, TEL continues to reduce product costs and decrease prices!  AND, here we go again!!  

TEL has sold software products for about 6 years, and now that development costs have been fully amortized, TEL will substantially reduce software product prices starting January 2, 2009.  These new prices allow general and lodging businesses to purchase software at much lower prices from the leader in call accounting, TEL electronics, inc.  

We all know about cost escalation, and yet TEL is decreasing prices once again -  and we assure you that TEL will continue to do our best to provide the best products at the best prices to the best dealers and the best customers in the world!    

Some product prices will be the same, but increases in production costs require modest increases in a few products - despite clear economies of scale that would otherwise allow us to decrease prices here, too.  Maybe we can get these down next year!

We're hoping. like all of you, that this challenging economic slowdown will pass soon so we can all get back to better times and doing more business, and we hope our decreased prices (TEL’s “2009 stimulus plan”) will help you make more money and do it faster in 2009.

New Price Lists will be sent to TEL Dealers in the next few weeks, in keeping with our agreement to provide 30 days advanced notice of any price changes.  

Also, call your TEL Account Manager RIGHT AWAY to learn about great product sales just starting now, so you can make more money this year, too (TEL’s “2008 rescue plan”)!!

John L. Gunter Sr.
President

Tech’s Corner

Remote Tariff Updates

One of the great and often overlooked advantages of the INN-FORM XL 18.2 , is its ability to download tariff rate upgrades. Downloading these upgrades is easy, economical and green.

Easy: Simply call your TEL salesperson and explain that you would like an upgrade, plug in a telephone line into the XL modem, call the TEL server and the rest is automatic.

Economical: No shipping costs to worry about and the service technician doesn’t have to spend a lot of time opening the XL and plugging in a new chip.

Green: The planet benefits since no fossil fuels are used in shipping, no packaging materials are used, and you use the same chip that’s already in the unit.

Simple, saves money, and good for the environment – what could be better?

Industry-Specific Solutions

While call accounting, in general, serves a basic function for most organizations, each industry has its own specific wants and needs.  For example, the hospitality industry uses call accounting in a much different way than a sales organization would.  Hotels and resorts need a call accounting system that automatically posts calls to their property management system, tracks and bills for guest phone usage, and generates extra revenue through the resale of phone calls.  However, different from the hospitality industry, a sales organization is more likely to use a call accounting system to track employee phone performance, allocate departmental expenses, and bill clients for consultation and services done over the phone.   Each industry is looking for something a little bit different and that is why TEL is constantly working on ways to better solve industry-specific problems.

In hopes to better serve its clients, TEL has developed online tools for both dealers and end-users.  One of these tools can be found on the menu bar of the company’s home page.  Listed across the top is a menu called Industry Solutions.  By scrolling over this menu, end-users and dealers alike can learn how TEL products solve industry-specific needs.  The following eight industries are covered in detail: businesses & corporations, call centers, government, health care, hotels & resorts, law firms, universities & schools, and sales organizations.

Along with the web pages that describe the industry needs in detail, dealers can also order custom brochures that target their specific clients’ needs.  For example, if a dealer is giving a bid to a major law firm and wants to pitch call accounting then the dealer can login to TEL’s website and place an order, free of charge, for a custom brochure targeted at that specific customer.  The brochure will include the dealer’s name, logo, and contact information. 

Product Tip: Using Reports to Track Phone Abuse

The WIN-SENSE 32 was built to be a dynamic and easy-to-use call accounting system.  Designed with phone intensive organizations in mind, the WIN-SENSE 32 can help businesses improve employee productivity, allocate telecom expenses, decrease phone abuse, and optimize phone system performance.

One of the powerful features of the WIN-SENSE 32 is its ability to produce dynamic reports.  Businesses can create custom reports based on specific call types, call durations, or phone charges.  These reports can help businesses identify phone abuse and as a result lower telecommunication costs.  Some the reports that would help businesses identify abuse are call type reports based on 900 numbers, operator-assisted calls, local numbers, and international calls.  Businesses can also identify abuse by looking at high cost calls, long duration calls, and frequently dialed numbers.

By decreasing phone abuse, businesses can substantially cut telecommunication costs and as a result retain more of the revenue its salespeople work so hard to bring in.  For more information, please review the WIN-SENSE manual at www.tel-electronics.com.     

Websites, Search Engines, and Call Accounting

Wikipedia defines search engine optimization as the “process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" search results for targeted keywords.”  In other words, search engine optimization, or SEO, means designing your website in such a way that your site will show up near the top of search engine results without paying money. 

As with any product, call accounting is no different when it comes to marketing and selling on the internet.  Your website needs to include the right key words, phrases, titles, and should be optimized for best performance.  Here are few tips:

• Talk to your website designer and have him update your site to include call accounting images, literature, and links to www.tel-electronics.com.
  • Copy the HTML code from www.tel-electronics.com/linkexchange.php
  • Link your site to TEL’s site.
• On each webpage, make sure your html code includes the following META tags between the <head> and </head> tags:
  • <meta name = “title” content = “this is the title of your webpage”>
  • <meta name = “description” content = “describe your company here”>
  • <meta name = “keywords” content = “list all of your key words separated by commas”>
• Submit your site to search engines, directories, and other websites
• For a list of good keywords, descriptions, or for help optimizing your site call Jessie Warner at 800-748-5022 x3331 or email at jessie@tel-electronics.com