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Advocate Networks Brings Hidden Savings into Focus
In 2003, Kirk Walsh wasn’t looking for a telecom management service when he agreed to meet with Advocate Network’s co-founder and co-president Tim Wise. In fact, the director of telecommunications for WellStar Health System had recently ended a relationship with a company that had pledged – insincerely as it turned out – to cut his voice and data costs.
“We hired them on a contingency basis to take the load off us, but it didn't work out,” Walsh says. “We found ourselves auditing the reports they were producing and discovering all kinds of billing errors and overcharges.”
Fee-based Approach Limits Risk
“Kirk’s experience is all too common,” Wise says. “It is one reason that Advocate Networks favors using an hourly fee on these types of projects. With the hourly fee approach, customer cost is set before work even begins.”
After much discussion of WellStar’s $3.3 million telecom and data budget, the two executives worked out a plan for a pilot engagement at a single hospital location. The plan included a predetermined fee for services, a defined scope of work, and specific lists of deliverables.
“It was a much better agreement than what we had with the other vendor,” Walsh says. “It included specific tasks and benefits, like analyzing our network and providing benchmarks we could use to negotiate future savings with our telecom providers. That was the promise, but I was waiting to see what they actually would deliver.”
Pilot Project Yields Thousands in Savings
With a green light to proceed, Advocate Networks quickly got to work auditing and analyzing the location’s expenses and assessing the facility’s infrastructure through a process of physical inspection.
Walsh was pleasantly surprised by what they uncovered. Through the audit of existing charges, Advocate Networks obtained credits of more than $100,000 on billing errors and cut $55,000 from monthly charges by renegotiating long-distance and ISDN rates. The firm also saved an additional $23,000 by securing better terms for the hospital’s paging service.
“I honestly thought we were doing a good job controlling costs,” Walsh says. “Tim showed me we could do better.”
System-wide Relationship Uncovers Millions More
That single pilot study led to a system-wide assessment of WellStar’s entire telecom and data infrastructure. Advocate Networks has also used its expertise in telecom, data, and network issues to advise Walsh on a range of procurement issues. Over the last four years, he estimates those services have saved WellStar well over $4 million in one-time and recurring costs.
“We’ve used Advocate Networks on several occasions to develop RFPs, benchmark bids, and identify the best submittal,” Walsh notes. “On one proposal for WAN services, they saved us $300,000 in procurement costs.”
Those savings have been implemented without any reduction in service quality, which is a critical consideration for an organization that wants to reduce expenses without affecting worker productivity, service delivery, or system availability.
“I’ve been amazed by the opportunities to save money on billing, credits, and contract renegotiation,” Walsh adds. “I was skeptical to begin with, thinking Advocate Networks was one more vendor trying to get into our organization. But I was wrong. They produced results, and it’s turned out to be a great relationship.”