Case Study

Establishing Visibility and Reducing Wireless and Telecom Spend by 29%

Executive Summary

  • Audit-led engagement establishing enterprise-wide visibility across a highly distributed retail environment
  • 29% reduction identified and realized across wireless, voice, SaaS, and infrastructure services
  • Device, application, and service inventories validated at scale
    Savings validated only after appearing on vendor invoices
  • Engagement established scalable governance across more than 1,000 locations


The Challenge

The organization supported a highly distributed retail environment with thousands of locations, frontline employees, and technology services spanning stores, regional offices, and corporate operations. Over time, store openings and closures, employee turnover, and rapid adoption of cloud and SaaS tools created significant sprawl across vendors, contracts, and billing accounts.

While leadership maintained visibility into overall technology spend, they lacked confidence in device and service inventory accuracy, billing compliance across multiple vendors, and alignment between active services and current store operations. Previous cost-reduction efforts focused narrowly on rate negotiations and failed to address underlying execution and governance issues. The organization required a defensible audit capable of identifying material savings across technology domains without disrupting store operations or customer experience.


The DBC Approach

Dev-Byrne & Company conducted an audit-led review across the organization’s full technology portfolio.

The engagement included: 

  • Validation of billed services against active inventory across voice, mobility, SaaS, and infrastructure
  • Line-level and service-level analysis of wireless devices, access circuits, and applications
    Identification of unused, duplicate, suspended, and legacy services tied to closed or transitioned locations
  • Review of contracts, rate structures, and applied discounts across vendors
 

All findings were supported by invoice-level and contract-level evidence and reviewed with Finance, IT, and Operations stakeholders. Recommendations were sequenced to reduce execution risk and allow remediation without impacting store-level operations.


The Outcome

  • 29% reduction in technology spend identified and validated
  • Material annual savings across mobility, voice, SaaS subscriptions, and infrastructure services
  • Sustained monthly cost reductions confirmed through invoice review
  • Improved visibility into device, application, and service lifecycle status
    Clear separation between identified, approved, and realized savings
 

Savings were only counted after appearing on vendor invoices, reinforcing confidence in reported results.


What Changed

Beyond cost reduction, the organization established stronger governance over its technology environment. Device and application inventories became accurate at scale, execution ownership was clarified, and billing validation became repeatable. This reduced recurring oversubscription, limited future sprawl, and lowered the ongoing effort required to maintain cost discipline across thousands of locations.


Why It Worked

  • Audit-informed methodology designed for high-volume, multi-location environments
  • Vendor-neutral execution focused on accuracy and operational continuity
  • Disciplined validation that prevented savings erosion
    Visibility and governance improvements that scaled across the franchise footprint

The organization moved from reactive cleanup to a controlled, repeatable approach to managing enterprise technology spend.

Client Snapshot

Industry: Retail

Organization Type: National franchise operator

Footprint: 1,000+ locations nationwide

Technology Environment: Voice, Mobility, SaaS platforms, Network infrastructure

Engagement Type: Technology Expense Audit

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Considering Your Approach

Organizations managing complex technology environments often benefit from a disciplined review of inventory accuracy, contract alignment, execution ownership, and sourcing decisions. A structured discussion can help determine whether audit, consulting, or sourcing support is appropriate for your environment. 

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