A national executive recruiting firms’ contract with their largest telecom carrier had expired for its northeast locations. Having faced service and billing issues in the past, the firm’s CEO and executive team requested a validation of all carrier billing before signing. In addition, the client asked for a review of the carrier’s contract renewal proposal compared to other Tier 1 competitive market rates.
Result: The historical audit of all carrier invoices revealed over-billing in the areas of Ethernet transport, voice usage, and disaster recovery service. In addition, duplicate billing charges were identified which had resulted from previous carrier circuit upgrades and migrations. Working with the carrier account management team and its Vice President, all over-billing issues were resolved. On a parallel track, a sourcing initiative was conducted to obtain competitive market rates for the client’s existing network. A total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis was completed in order to uncover hidden installation costs. In addition, a new carrier contract was negotiated yielding a first year savings of nearly 30 percent over the previous contract. Favorable contract terms were also negotiated which addressed carrier back-billing policies and client restrictions.
