Irish construction group Siac has managed to save €90,000 over two years on its mobile bills following an analysis of the company's usage and a competitive tendering process.

O2, the successful bidder for the Siac contract, has also provided a €100,000 "technology fund" which the building firm can use for the purchase of Blackberrys or other new mobile technolgies.

The review of Siac's mobile telephone costs was conducted by independent telecoms broker MinuteBuyer. One of MinuteBuyer's directors, Shaun Hayden, says that because "mobile costs have rocketed in the last few years", significant savings can be made by doing a structured review of spending and then asking the networks to bid for the business.

MinuteBuyer estimates that 60 per cent of a firm's annual telecoms costs are spent on mobile phones and a saving of 20-25 per cent can be achieved through an audit and procurement process. He says large corporate accounts are run as distinct profit and loss accounts by the operators and so large customers have plenty of room to negotiate pricing with their account managers.

"Analysing mobile bills is time consuming and is not a core activity for businesses," says Mr Hayden. "But more competition in the market has put pressure on rates and combined with all the coverage of roaming charges, this is now a director level issue."

Despite attention about the issue, Irish firms don't seem to be taking action. The level of inertia in the telecoms market was underlined again this week with the release of an e-business survey carried out for Chambers Ireland and ComReg.

Of the 611 firms interviewed, 68 per cent said they had never switched the provider of their landlines and of those that did switch, 52 per cent went back to the original supplier. Satisfaction with the service and the price of it were cited as the main reasons for not moving. The figures are broadly similar for mobile, with 67 per cent of firms never having switched and almost one-third of switchers returning to their original supplier. Mr Hayden admits that due to the range of tariffs offered by the networks, it can be difficult for firms to compare the different suppliers. He cautions corporate customers against opting for "bundles" of minutes which are sold for a set monthly price.

"Corporates should go for a lower rate per call rather than bundles," he says. "Bundles are inefficient if you are not going exactly to the bundle level. If you are are going over the amount of bundled minutes, you will be overpaying, but if you are using under the bundle, you are also overpaying."

In addition to carrying out an analysis of current usage and brokering a better deal from the networks, MinuteBuyer also monitors customer bills to ensure that everything that was agreed is delivered. A major part of that process is ensuring that the operator delivers the bill in a format that can be easily analysed rather than just the standard format.

"There's no point in negotiating a new deal if you don't make sure everything agreed is delivered," concludes Mr Hayden.