ISI Delivers Real Cost Savings with their Telecom Audit
November 21, 2012
By Susan J. Campbell
TMCnet Contributing Editor
In today’s market, it’s easy for telephony costs to get out of hand. With companies growing and acquiring others, creating a centralized approach toward communication decisions becomes difficult. Without proper procedures in place, these companies easily pay more for services, incur errors on their bills, and even miss out on bundled savings opportunities.
One nationwide U.S. oncology physician network was facing a similar challenge before turning to ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert), Inc., a telecom management provider, for assistance. As captured in this case study, the network was experiencing growth issues with vendor billing and decentralized decision-making.
On top of that, the organization was planning an enterprise-wide conversion to IP telephony. Attempts to tackle challenges in-house had proved unsuccessful, rendering a need for ISI’s telecom audit service, Telecom Profit Optimizer™.
When ISI began its telecom audit process, annual voice and data expenses were totaling $500,000. By the time the project was complete, the company realized savings of 35 percent, including a one-time credit/refund of $25,000, and another $150,000 in annual savings. In a collaborative process, ISI was able to identify and record charges in error that had gone back several years in time, while also recommending changes to improve efficiency in the present.
Errors found in pricing included account and line item charges. These charges included services payable by other firms, as well as services that were never disconnected properly. More than 50 percent of the ongoing savings found in the process were the result of the elimination of data or voice services that were no longer in use. ISI also negotiated custom contracts with vendors to ensure the most efficient use of allocated services.
In taking a turnkey approach to telephony savings for this physician network, the organization was able to minimize time and resources invested, relying totally on ISI to implement approved recommendations, while also maximizing benefits and savings.
In similar fashion, ISI was also called upon to help a surgical medical group that had experienced significant growth in recent years. The organization had also gone through a “rightsizing” process that reduced their location coverage from four states to just two. There was no telecom knowledge among staff members, and the former CIO did nothing more than a cursory review of the bills. Just after ISI started its project, the CIO left, and at the time of the case study, had not been replaced.
Through its Telecom Profit Optimizer™, ISI found $66,000 in annual savings, and $5,700 in credits. Key areas of reduction identified included: removing lines or circuits that had been active on closed sites, eliminating unused lines and circuits at existing locations, reducing conferencing rates, and avoiding long distance charges incurred off contract.
For both of these organizations, ISI brought a strategic approach to auditing telecom usage by implementing a streamlined process that identified optimal savings while eliminating wasteful spending.
ISI Telemanagement Solutions (News - Alert) Inc. is committed to providing solutions designed to increase organizations' efficiency, productivity and profitability, by providing reporting and recording tools for enhanced telecom management. We understand that each company's needs are unique and, therefore, we provide a robust set of tools to address every situation.
ISI's Solutions portfolio brings together time-proven technologies to report and record on your voice and video communications, including real-wireless and landline Call Accounting & Reporting, Telecom Audit & Optimization, Voice & Video Call Recording, Invoice & Inventory Management, and Wireless Management. ISI's facilities, processes, and data security comply with ISO 9001:2008,SAS (News - Alert) (News - Alert) 70, HIPAA, Safe Harbor and other important standards.
Edited by Rich Steeves