The question you cannot answer quickly
A director asks a simple question: how many of our customers still have analogue or ISDN lines, and what is the plan for each? The answer takes a week. Finance has a list of line rental charges. Provisioning has a list from one supplier's portal. An account manager has a spreadsheet from the last time someone looked. None of them agree, and none of them say what each line is actually used for.
That last part matters. The line billed as 'second line' at a care home could be a fax machine nobody uses or the line the fire alarm panel dials out on. The ISDN at a solicitors' office might be carrying all their calls or might have been replaced by hosted phones years ago and never ceased.
You know the switch-off is coming. What you do not have is a list you can work from.
Why the list is so hard to build
- Legacy lines were sold over many years, under old product codes, sometimes by people who have left.
- They sit with more than one supplier, and some came across when you bought another reseller's base.
- The billing description does not say what the line is connected to.
- Customers themselves often do not know what is plugged into the line in the cupboard.
- Some lines were meant to be ceased after a hosted migration and never were.
Without knowing what each line does, you cannot quote the replacement or plan the visit, so the work stalls at the first step.
The cost of leaving it late
| If the list is wrong | What follows |
|---|---|
| Line with an alarm or lift not identified | Customer's equipment affected when the line changes |
| Customer not contacted | A competitor makes the migration offer first |
| Unused lines not spotted | Cost carried on lines that could just be ceased |
| Survey visits not planned | Engineers overloaded near the deadline |
| Migration not recorded | Old line keeps billing after the move |
There is also a sales cost. A legacy line customer is a natural conversation about hosted voice and connectivity, and a well-run migration is one of the best chances you have to strengthen the account.
The migration tracker we build
- We pull every line from your billing platform and supplier reports, and match them to customers, sites and supplier references. Lines that exist with a supplier but not in billing, or the other way round, are listed separately.
- Each line is classified by product (analogue, ISDN, line with broadband) and given a status: not yet reviewed, in discussion, survey booked, migrated, ceased.
- A short customer questionnaire, sent by email with a link, asks what is connected to each line: phones, fax, alarm panel, lift, door entry, card machine, franking machine, or unknown. Unknowns get flagged for a site survey.
- Lines connected to alarms, lifts or other equipment are marked so the customer and their equipment provider are involved in the plan. We do not advise on the equipment itself; the tracker makes sure the right people are asked.
- Each migration becomes a set of tasks: quote, order, survey, install, test, and cease the old line, with dates and owners.
- A dashboard shows progress by customer, account manager and supplier, and lists lines still unreviewed.
Working through the list
Account managers get a list of their own customers with legacy lines, what is known about each, and what to do next. Provisioning can plan survey and install visits over time instead of in a rush. The director's question has an answer that updates itself.
When a migration completes, the cease task follows automatically, so the old line does not quietly keep billing.
Does this describe you?
- You cannot produce a reliable list of customers on analogue or ISDN lines.
- Nobody knows what half the legacy lines are connected to.
- Some lines should have been ceased after earlier migrations.
- Account managers are working through the switch-off from their own spreadsheets.
- You bought a customer base and are not sure what legacy lines came with it.