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About CRA Telecom
About Us
Business Evolution
CRA Inc. began its business at 362 Dwight Street in Holyoke, Massachusetts in 1999. Five years later they out grew that space and purchased a 6000 square foot facility at 15 Main Street in Holyoke. CRA Vice President Bob Varady had the vision and expertise to transform the space from its former role as a banquet hall to accommodate the growing needs of CRA’s business. Before and after photos are shown to the right and below.
CRA Inc., formally known as Cost Recovery Associates Inc., began with the intent to provide the single function of auditing telecommunication invoices. Our mission was to eliminate often hefty invoice overcharges for the SMB customer by finding billing errors, recommending plan changes and securing credits. Even though the need for invoice auditing was great, we quickly realized that this service was just the tip of the iceberg, and the needs of the customer were far greater than we had anticipated. Chasing refunds or credit from carriers after the fact for months or even years of errors proved inadequate in many cases. We realized that pro-active monthly auditing, which would keep our customers' money in their own hands, not the carriers’, was a far more effective tactic , and became part of CRA’s new business model.
Monthly pro-active auditing, still a cornerstone of the services provided today, are now part of a full helpdesk model offering repair resolution, MACS facilitation, technical and product consulting, wireless optimization, managing solicitation calls, and provisioning. The support is carrier agnostic and is available to any small or mid-sized business throughout the United States.
In 2010 CRA expanded its offering to include packaging the service for sale by other Agents, enabling them to white label the helpdesk support and turn a cost center into a profit center. Instead of the Agent providing free support to their customers, CRA's model insists on charging for quality support. Our helpdesk model requires no upfront investment whatsoever, and eliminates the payroll and overhead expenses of in-house customer service; moreover, outsourcing helpdesk support frees up the Agent’s time to find new clients. This has proven to be a winning strategy for all.
People
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Principles Laura Bernstein and Robert Varady have more than 40 years combined commercial telecom network experience. Both have worked for numerous local and long-distance companies, a tremendous training ground for understanding the inner workings of telecom companies and the needs of today’s business customer. Laura Bernstein, a B.S. graduate in Psychology from Springfield College, has spent the last decade fine tuning operations at CRA and was recently elected to serve on the 2010-2011 Channel Partner's Advisory Board. Robert Varady has numerous successful entrepreneurial ventures and was a police officer for over twenty years.. The CRA staff has interfaced thousands of times with Carriers and their customer service departments. With solid systems in place, and on-going staff training, CRA has the foundation and expertise to support the SMB customer today and into the future.
Testimonials
"I didn't want to hire my own staff and deal with the headaches of management, HR, training, etc. After an exhaustive search, CRA was the clear winner for my business. I'm actually even seeing more benefit than I expected to the point that this has become a major initiative in my business for growth and scalability"
“G.H. BERLIN hired CRA Inc. to move their business from West Service Road in Hartford to Rumsey Road in East Hartford. Even through CRA Inc. placed the correct orders timely, the Carrier had not followed through. G.H. Berlin was told by the Carrier that they would need to pay expedite charges to make their deadlines. CRA Inc. contacted the Carrier’s Vice President directly. All expedite charges were waved and additional Carrier resources were directed to support the project. POTS lines, dedicated voice and Internet were moved successfully, on time.”
“In the 6 years we have been a client, CRA has put our firm completely at ease. Not only were their recommendations appropriate for our needs, they were cost effective and within our budget as well. We have been so impressed that we now refer our own clients to CRA. Thank you again.”
--Gerald N. Aubrey CPA/ Partner, Aubrey, Dixen and Turgon.