Global engineering firm realizes savings from SD-WAN & network optimization with the right team to deliver on the strategy and deployment.
Client Bio:
A large global engineering firm with over 50 locations and 1500 employees.
Challenge:
Client purchased a Versa SD-WAN solution from a trusted IT solution partner and needed to source dual network connectivity. The client was managing services on over 25 providers, with the bulk of their network services on a single legacy network company. The client had verbally requested that they go month to month when their contract ended with their legacy carrier network. However, that was never communicated internally due to turnover, and they were auto-renewed for 3 years.
Solution:
ARG, led by our branded Agents LAVA Technology Services, looked at multiple approaches to manage their sites with redundant bandwidth at each. Due to the volume of circuits and locations, vendor management would be a challenge, so bids from aggregators were solicited. ARG also priced out the best possible bandwidth options at each site with telecom expense management (TEM) solutions to assist with vendor management.
When looking at aggregators, ARG priced both global and national aggregators. Once all the pricing was in, they optimized across aggregators to create an option that provided the best price at each site. This would still limit the number of providers to be managed and it saved another 20%.
Finally, they took that pricing back to the aggregators to see if they would match that pricing to get the entire network. Only two providers opted to bid on this option. ARG coordinated introductions to the down-selected vendors and provided quarter over quarter saving projections based on when the current network services would come out of term and be eligible to migrate.
ARG/LAVA’s proposal showed savings of over $2.5M- over 50% off their spend. With that saving in the offing, the client wanted to explore options to get out of their auto-renewal. ARG introduced them to the top telecom attorney in the country to assist in their efforts.
ARG’s client experience team managed the rollout of sites to coordinate with contract expiration to maximize savings and protect against shortfall penalties and dual payment. They also provided ongoing support for all managed sites, giving the client a single number to call for any issues.
Bottom Line:
The client was able to easily cover the Versa purchase with the over $2.5M in savings and had a managed transition from MPLS to SD-WAN with simplified vendor management.
