PORTFOLIO
Large NSW Government Department
Learn how a Government Department saved millions of dollars, thanks to the expert telecom expense management of TeleResult.
Background
This Large Government Department entered an agreement with Telstra for telco services on a three-plus-two-year arrangement. The agreement included several incentives for the Department, including lower rates and monthly rebates of 7 percent.
Two years later, the Department engaged TeleResult, we started with a six-month review of billing data. As part of the review TeleResult looked at:
- billing disputes
- optimisations
- no use reports
Challenges
The review included more than 8000 individual services, including managed & hosted voice IP services, managed data networks and WAN services, across multiple locations. This meant thousands of rows of data had to be reviewed in Telstra bills. This would have been almost impossible without the TeleControl software.
Our in-depth understanding of the contract structure, how discounts and rebates are applied, and typical pitfalls allowed us to carry out an effective and efficient review. TeleResult brought it’s experience to the table, validating the information so that Telstra could see the dispute was valid.
Some types of Hosted Voice services were difficult to validate as the rental billing didn’t relate to the actual phone number using the service and all rental charges were against a single Data Service number. But our skills and software made it possible and a more than worthwhile exercise.
Process
The original review involved
Importing all carrier data into our TEM platform TeleControl
Reviewing all carrier contracts and assigned rates to billed costs
Reviewing all other special conditions and pricing from contracts to make sure they were applied to bills
Identifying missing discounts and incorrect rates
Working with Telstra to reach a settlement once we had our findings
Reaching a final settlement figure.
Outcomes
The initial review resulted in a $10 million credit being paid back to the Department by Telstra just for billing errors, this didn’t include mobile phones. This is the largest one-off audit credit seen in the industry.
From billing information analysed, it was apparent the agreed contract rates between Telstra and the Department were never implemented correctly. While it’s not unusual for errors like this to occur, the scale of the error and length of time it was occurring is what was significant.
Information regarding the potential errors was forwarded to Telstra for review and a meeting was held with them to discuss the issues found. Telstra subsequently agreed that significant errors were in place and a full review of all the Departments bills was completed.
The Department then signed an ongoing contract with us, which meant the savings kept coming. $7 million of errors were identified in the 2019 to 2020 financial year, $3 million in the 2020 to 2021 financial year and $833,000 in the 2021 to 2022 financial year.