Global Telecom and IT Cost Containment Services

Mid-Term Incumbent Contract (Re)negotiations) This is where Optelcon finds the largest % of savings for our clients.  Over 70% of the contracts we negotiate for our clients have more than 12-18 months left on the term. Pricing for telecom services has been in rapid decline since deregulation. If your company signs a 3 yr. contract with a carrier in a market that is seeing double-digit price decreases each year, there is money being left on the table. Optelcon allows our clients to capture previously unnoticed opportunity costs.  Optelcon’s negotiators come from the telecom industry.  They know what goes on behind the curtain.  They are experts that have negotiated billions of dollars in telecom and IT contracts and know-how to get vendors to the table early.  Our extensive playbook of negotiated contract terms allows our clients to not only avoid bad terms but get the best terms vendors to leave out unless you know what to ask for.  We save our clients an average of 42%, starting more than 12 months before the end of their current contract terms. The common contract improvements our negotiators secure include:

• Lower revenue commitments with fewer “teeth”
• Total Contract Term Commitments vs. Monthly or Annual Commitments.
• Lower rates with flexibility to scale
• Better SLAs with bigger “teeth”
• Benchmarking and mid-term, market-based rate reductions
• Business downturn and technology upgrade protection
• Reduced early termination penalties
• Increased product and annual credits and discounts
• More advantageous end of the term language

Some of the more common scenarios we encounter include:

• Mid Term Contract Negotiations
• No RFP, Incumbent Negotiations
• Multi-Company Contract Consolidation
• Commitment Shortfalls
• Early Term Negotiations
• End-of-Term “at the buzzer” Negotiations
• Complex international agreements
• Telecom and IT during M&A and Corporate Restructuring
• Revenue Commitments Restructuring
• Spend Consolidation
• Terms & Conditions and SLAs

Since we already know the playbook of pre-negotiated, best practices, and terms, we can get savings started sooner than going it alone.

For large complex agreements, we complete needs assessment, acquire competitive data, and renegotiation in an average of 2.5 months. (12-18 months before the carrier is obligated to lower their rates). Less complex agreements can be done in as little as a week.

Optelcon’s team has expert/guru-level experience technical experience. We are always looking to find creative ways to reduce our client’s costs.  In addition to contractual and pricing savings, Optelcon’s analysts also look for ways to improve costs through alternate means.  i.e. We think outside the box.

Optelcon provides our clients with detailed technical evaluations and extensive technical and pricing “what if” analysis including:

• Changes in Network Utilization and topography
• Changes in WAN technology
• Changes in Lease vs. Buy on equipment
• Changes in Vendors
• Changes in Bandwidth
• Changes by grooming multiple circuits
• Changes in Data Centers
• Other analysis as needed.

An example of the type of “what if” analysis we perform for our clients:

One of Optelcon’s networking specialists will review your current network and provide a “what if” analysis based on what goals you’re trying to accomplish.

Optelcon performs a historical audit as well as a monthly audit of our client’s invoices. Over 50% of the invoices we review have errors in them.  On average we find and recover an average of 8% in overcharges that previously had gone unnoticed.  Our auditors, come from the carrier billing departments and are experts at knowing what rocks to turn over to find the savings. It’s not uncommon for our clients to have disputes that have been open for over a year.  Optelcon knows how to collect disputes that have been “pending” for longer periods of time.  We regularly file complaints with the FCC on behalf of our clients due to carriers holding on to our client’s money.  Carriers have 30 days to resolve the issue or can be fined by the FCC. We get results.  In year one of an audit engagement, we recover an average of 8-12% of the prior year and 8-12% of the current year.

If you could reduce your annual telecom costs by 16-22% this year by doing nothing but getting Optelcon a copy of your contracts and access to your billing portal, would you do it?  This falls squarely into the “no brainer” category.

Optelcon has a network of TEM technology partners; each of which with its own strengths and weaknesses. Optelcon knows which platforms best fit the needs of our clients.  It’s not what information you have though, it’s how you use it that counts. TEM systems have great capabilities, but the amount of value derived is solely dependent on the skill of the people using them. Optelcon’s industry experts, analysts, and operations team know how to extract maximum value from the data a TEM system provides.  Optelcon provides a truly global view of telecom and mobile expenses in one platform.  This platform enables companies to view global spend data, initiate & track moves adds and changes, establish approval workflows, track and pay invoices, track and manage inventory, apply over 70 validation and audit rules to each invoice and automate other key business processes. Below is a screenshot of one of the many configurable dashboards.

In terms of experience and global reach of this platform, here are some statistics:

Some of the areas Optelcon’s technology network can improve costs include:

One of Optelcon’s consultants, will sit down with you and determine whether or not a TEM system will accomplish your goals. Optelcon also works with companies that already have TEM systems. In most cases, TEM systems are not required to save money. Since we can pick and choose from the best of breed in TEM technology partners, you are assured to get the right solution for your needs.

For audits, optimizations, and renegotiations of incumbent vendor services, Optelcon charges its clients a % of the savings.  If we are not successful, there is no fee.