Renewable Power CompanySaves 35% Monthly on Average Cost/Device

Industry Background

Companies who provide renewable power find themselves in remote locations and across international borders. Tracking assets and maintaining the right mix of international features to accommodate frequent international travel requires substantial effort and communication between traveling employees and telecom administrators. Companies with international operations find international charges for voice, data and text represent a disproportionate cost component of each monthly invoice.

Renewable Power Company

A Canadian-based Renewable Power company was struggling to control costs on their frequent international usage including both international long distance dialing and international roaming when traveling. Based in Canada with substantial operations in the U.S. meant they were incurring sizeable international charges each month. It was also difficult for them to keep track of assets and confirm if international features were correctly applied by the carrier when ordering new devices as well as when making plan and feature service changes.

The Problem

With the sizable presence of monthly international overage charges, this company experienced a constant reminder that they were not managing international features effectively. New service orders would come into the service desk via tickets, however, they lacked visibility to features that already existed on these service lines. Additionally, there wasn’t a way to easily confirm if the carrier correctly applied international features. When new device orders were placed, they were to have include certain international features which were not occurring. They could not see how the current capabilities of their ordering system would provide them mechanisms to be more proactive with the timely setting of international features prior to travel. Also, it was clear that they were paying for international features long after an employee had completed their travel. Expense control and streamlined provisioning were identified as important capabilities in their vendor search along with the ability to handle both US and Canadian carriers.

The MobilSense Solution

During the evaluation phase, MobilSense proposed an online provisioning interface that was interconnected with a database of current and past invoices, including current feature settings. In addition, MobilSense demonstrated an expertise in optimization capabilities across all US and Canadian wireless carriers. In setting up the MobilSentry™ Order Manager online portal it was configured to permit orders to indicate a start and end date for international travel thus minimizing instances of overage when features were added after the fact while reducing the risk of paying for unused international features that were not properly removed after travel was completed. Finally, the MobilSentry™ Enterprise Monitor provides monthly optimization savings recommendations and facilitates a streamlined process to generate necessary output files for carrier payment and AP cost allocations. Additional safeguards were implemented to confirm correct carrier actions regarding international feature changes including an audit trail to seek credits when carrier mistakes were made.

The Results

Once implemented there was an immediate reduction in carrier international costs. Along with monthly optimization recommendations and changes, the average cost-per-device dropped 25% in the first year. In bringing asset ownership data to a more current and accurate state, many unneeded devices were identified for termination. Prior to MobilSense, this represented a sizeable yet invisible monthly cost drain. With a continued focus to keep expenses at a minimum, now seven years later, the cost-per-device is 35% below the average cost before MobilSentry™ was deployed. Service desk representatives now have immediate access to a current employee’s plan and feature options and can use the scheduling capability to ensure accurate and timely processing of international feature changes. In addition, all international features, including those intended to be bundled by the carrier with new device orders are validated or credited if inadvertently omitted by the carrier.

The overall solution has brought needed controls and insights to monthly usage and charges. Accurate information matching employees and assets facilitates timely decisions and more powerful management reporting.

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