Situation #1
A large South Jersey non-profit was using Verizon for local service and paying Sprint for their long distance service. We met with the business manager and discussed marketing their communication cost. I told them all we needed was a copy of last months’ bill. They pointed to the file cabinet across the room and said, “I have no idea what we are paying, you can start pulling the invoices from the file cabinet and tell me.”
Action
We spent 4-5 hours pulling and matching up Verizon and Sprint invoices. We took the bills back to our office and put together a spreadsheet listing all the Billing telephone numbers (BTN) by location. This was the first time the client had a full accounting of all the lines for which they were paying. The client was spending over $40,000 a month on local and long distance services. We took this information and as an independent consultanting firm, we took this information out to multiple markets and received several proposals on the account. We were able to save the client over $14,000 a month by switching their account to an independent 3rd party provider. We also set up a service procedure between the client and the provider that streamlined the response to any service issues.
Situation #2
A prominent multi-state organization contacted HBS to analyze their existing telephone system. The customer had 9 locations in 4 states, each with a different phone system serviced by different providers.
Action
We met with the client and asked them for a copy of their most recent bill from each location. We then held a brain storming session to determine which services of their existing systems they liked and what they hoped to achieve by implementing a new system. This enabled HBS to identify which providers would be best able to meet their needs.
As a result of our meeting, we were able to approach 5 providers offering a Hosted Solution designed to tie all 9 locations together. The customer is interested in staging this installation over a 12 month period and we currently have 4 locations up and running. The organization is very happy with their new Hosted service and the commitment HBS applied to the transition to get the Hosted Solution implemented.
Oh, I forgot to mention…they were really excited about the savings our Hosted Solution added to their bottom line.
