Bluewave’s Baseline Technology Assessment: Unveiling Hidden Savings and Maximizing ROI

In today’s market, clients often face challenges in managing their technology assets, leading to disjointed strategies. Common issues include unexpected costs from shadow IT, under-utilization, erroneous charges, and auto-renewals. Bluewave’s Baseline Technology Assessment, a comprehensive telecom audit and advisory service, tackles these problems by providing a clear view of all assets, enabling a cohesive and efficient technology strategy.

With 20 years of experience, we’ve encountered many clients starting network transformations only to discover that their contracts have automatically renewed, even when using their own telecom expense management platforms. This oversight leads to legal issues and demonstrates that many clients lack a full understanding of their current assets. Without an assessment, they make uninformed decisions that hurt their ROI and TCO.

Unlike a typical telecom audit that merely checks for accuracy, our comprehensive approach builds a detailed inventory and offers complete visibility into a client’s assets. This method enhances our discussions and provides significant benefits to our clients.

Why You Need Bluewave’s Baseline Technology Assessment

The Power of Visibility and Inventory Management

Traditional telecom audits focus on verifying the accuracy of records, but at Bluewave, we go a step further. Our Baseline Technology Assessment involves creating a thorough inventory of all services, contracts, and associated invoices a client holds. This holistic view allows us to identify savings opportunities, streamline operations, and ensure clients are fully aware of their current technological landscape. Over the past 20 years, our clients have enjoyed average savings of about 21%. This figure consistently delivers a measurable return on investment (ROI).

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The Cost of Incomplete Information

Inadequate information can significantly impact project implementations. The effectiveness of both the client and the carrier is limited by the quality and completeness of the information provided. A single overlooked service or detail can transform a project into a million-dollar error, causing delays of three to nine months. This uninformed approach inevitably leads to finger-pointing and misallocated blame.

Our Baseline Technology Assessment mitigates these risks by ensuring all stakeholders have a comprehensive and accurate understanding of the existing services and infrastructure. This holistic view streamlines project timelines and enhances the accuracy and reliability of the implementation process.

Regional Hospital System – Identified lack of contract information, renegotiated an unidentified auto-renewal, resulting in a 26% reduction in network costs.

Fixed Costs for Predictable Outcomes

One key differentiator of Bluewave’s Baseline Technology Assessment is the fixed cost structure, eliminating the risk of uncapped fees commonly associated with contingency-based audits. This predictability is appealing to CFOs and senior procurement leaders who prioritize stable and forecastable expenses. Our assessment provides a detailed and complete vision of all telecom service inventories, making it easier for clients to manage their telecom assets and plan for future technology migrations.

Historical average of 12.4% ROI on each assessment, putting tangible savings back into our clients’ pockets.

What to Expect from a Baseline Technology Assessment

Eliminating Assumptions and Reducing Waste

Many clients face challenges when migrating to new technologies due to a lack of clear understanding of their existing assets. This often leads to assumptions and unnecessary services being transferred from one carrier or service to another. Historically, about 12% of services moved in transitions, such as large UCaaS transformations, are redundant and unnecessary. By conducting a thorough inventory and usage analysis, we help clients avoid waste and optimize their technology investments.

Large Credit Union – Identified 23% savings; 46% from the removal of unused circuits and TDM lines.

Global Advertising Research Company – Identified 20% savings from unused 800#s, expired contracts, month-to-month fees, redundant IP backup connectivity, and recommendations for a more modern and less expensive UCaaS service.

Identifying Inefficiencies and Optimizing Contracts

Throughout the assessment, we identify unused services and outdated technologies. We verify contract compliance and benchmark them against industry standards. For instance, if a client wants to transition from MPLS to SD-WAN or SASE, we provide detailed cost projections and benchmarks for various options. This comprehensive analysis ensures clients understand their current contracts and potential savings.

Large Commercial Real Estate Insurance Company – Identified 35% savings in mobile spending across all locations through aggregation and easier management with one provider.

Avoiding Unpleasant Surprises and Cost Overruns

A common scenario involves clients in the Unified Communications as a Service (UCaaS) space. Providers often promise ROIs based on incomplete or inaccurate client-provided information. Consequently, these ROIs are frequently unvalidated, leading to cost overruns and frustrated CFOs questioning financial missteps post-implementation. This discrepancy stems from the clients’ lack of detailed visibility into their current technological landscape.

Large Business Process Outsourcing Company – Identified $1 million in annual savings and turned around two failed cloud projects with new available funds and resources.

Facilitating Informed Decision-Making and Transformation

Our assessment ensures all parties are on the same page, eliminating miscommunication and discrepancies. Clients can confidently answer questions like, “Is this what we have?” and “Is this where we want to go?” With a clear vision and a detailed roadmap, we and the client can make the necessary changes to reach business objectives. This shared understanding streamlines the process and fosters a more educated and collaborative environment.

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Bringing Order to Daily Chaos

Imagine managing your personal finances by addressing bills ad hoc as they arrive. This approach makes it difficult to establish a budget or stay on top of your expenses. Similarly, IT departments often feel overwhelmed, dealing with outages and trying to keep track of disparate services across multiple sites. Without a thorough inventory and assessment, IT management becomes a reactive, day-to-day struggle.

What You Will Get

• A Comprehensive Statement of Findings: Our detailed blueprint covers every service, document, invoice, contract, port, seat, and license we receive. We identify and eliminate unnecessary spending, and recommend changes for cost optimization, ease of management, and goal alignment.
• Research, Validation, and Negotiation: We thoroughly research, validate, and determine the optimal solutions for our clients. This includes obtaining competitive quotes and negotiating terms based on our extensive industry knowledge. By leveraging our expertise, we ensure that clients receive the best possible terms and prices for their services.
• A Detailed Roadmap: A key deliverable from our assessment is a roadmap for optimizing and modernizing for scalable growth. This isn’t just about expanding the network but also about integrating new technologies efficiently. As technology evolves rapidly, clients often struggle to keep up. Our roadmap provides a strategic plan to manage and incorporate these advancements.

Conclusion

Our Baseline Technology Assessment is designed to provide clients with a clear, comprehensive understanding of their IT and telecom environment. By offering detailed visibility and expert recommendations, we help clients optimize their spending, adopt new technologies, and achieve measurable financial savings.

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