From $109K to $5.6K per month: how we transformed their telco stack
Multi-brand food franchise group, 200+ staff across franchise locations and support offices
The Situation
Our client is a national multi-brand food franchise group with over 200 staff across multiple franchise locations and support offices. They had been with the same carrier for more than a decade. What started in the early 2010s as a simple phone and internet setup had evolved into a complex web of services spanning multiple billing accounts, legacy technologies, and overlapping contracts. By early 2023 the environment had grown so layered that no single person understood the full picture.
The March 2023 bill totalled ~$109,000. But the February bill had been even higher at ~$153,000 thanks to a ~$35,000 one-off debit charge on an account that had been running since the mid-2010s. Over half of the typical monthly spend, ~$60,000, sat on a single billing account that contained a ~$57,000 cloud charge the previous carrier was passing through with markup, plus ~$3,000 in cloud connectivity gateway rentals. A second account held ~$46,000 in managed services: mobile worker collaboration licences, managed routers with 24/7 proactive management, security services, fibre ethernet links, and 1300/1800 numbers. A third account with ~$3,300 in NBN and VOIP services had been left unmanaged on a different carrier’s platform. Nobody had a consolidated view. The IT team knew they were overpaying but lacked the visibility and relationships to do anything about it.
We had been working with this client for some time, handling their day-to-day telco governance. During a routine quarterly review we identified the blowout in cloud charges and the one-off debit adjustment. We cross-referenced their full service inventory and presented the CFO with a clear picture: ~$104,000 in potential monthly savings if we decommissioned the legacy stack, moved the client to direct cloud billing, and consolidated everything onto a single managed platform. The decision to proceed was immediate.
The Pain
A bloated legacy ecosystem with complex managed services, redundant hardware, and billing spread across three separate accounts that nobody understood.
Previous carrier marking up cloud costs by ~$60,000 per month
The single biggest line item was ~$57,000 in cloud charges the previous carrier was passing through with margin added. The same account included ~$3,000 for cloud connectivity gateway rentals. That ~$60,000 represented more than half the total monthly bill, all for services the client could bill directly and connect via standard fibre. In February 2023 a further ~$35,000 one-off debit charge hit the same account, a delayed billing adjustment on a long-running service that had never been questioned. Nobody caught it because it was buried deep inside a multi-page invoice with hundreds of line items.
Legacy collaboration stack and managed services adding ~$28,000
An IP Solutions contract included mobile worker collaboration licences (~$5,700/month), meeting room phone licences (~$260/month), handset rentals (~$350/month), reception console software (~$500-$1,500/month), and proactive management (~$90-$520/month). On top of that, managed routers with 24/7 proactive management cost ~$3,400 per month. A managed security services renewal added ~$9,900, and extra IP address licences cost ~$3,800. The ~$80/month call analytics add-on was another orphan service nobody had asked for. Many of these services had been layered on year after year since the mid-2010s.
Three billing centres with no consolidated view
Services were split across three separate billing accounts with different carriers. The ~$3,300 NBN and VOIP account had been set up and abandoned. The managed services account contained overlapping charges for features staff barely used. The cloud account was effectively a reseller markup. Fibre links that had been running since the mid-2010s, including slower CBD and metro connections, were still being billed at rates negotiated years earlier. No single person could see the full picture, so nobody could challenge the spend.
What We Did
A complete telco transformation: forensic audit across all billing accounts, removal of non-telco charges, and consolidation onto a single managed platform.
Forensic audit across all billing accounts
We collected multiple years of invoices from all three billing accounts and cross-matched hundreds of line items against an asset register built from site visits. The audit revealed ~$106,000 in monthly charges from the previous carrier’s managed services and cloud markups, plus ~$3,300 in an unmanaged account, bringing the total to ~$109,000 per month. We identified ~$104,000 in potential monthly savings. During the audit we also spotted a ~$35,000 one-off debit charge on a single February invoice, a delayed billing adjustment on a long-running account that the client’s internal team had never questioned. This level of forensic analysis requires specialized tooling and significant time investment. It is not something that can be completed with a quick spreadsheet review.
Removed cloud charges from the telco bill entirely
The ~$57,000 cloud charge and ~$3,000 cloud connectivity gateway rentals were not telecommunications services; they were cloud computing costs being passed through by the previous carrier with markup. We moved the client to direct cloud billing and replaced the gateway rentals with standard business fibre connectivity. This single change removed ~$60,000 from the monthly telco bill. We also disputed the ~$35,000 one-off debit charge, which was reversed.
Decommissioned the legacy collaboration stack
The ~$17,000 monthly IP Solutions contract was terminated. We replaced the mobile worker licences, reception console software, and meeting room phone licences with our SIP trunking, MS Teams Calling Enablement, and inbound number services. We ported existing numbers across to the new platform. The new voice stack costs ~$1,000 per month, a saving of ~$16,000 monthly. Call quality improved because the new SIP trunks run over our managed fibre network, not legacy infrastructure.
Replaced managed routers and consolidated connectivity
Managed routers with ~$3,400 monthly management fees were replaced with standard equipment included in our managed plans. Fibre ethernet links that had been running since the mid-2010s, costing ~$6,500 per month, were replaced with managed fibre ethernet and NBN Enterprise Ethernet. Managed security services (~$9,900) were moved to a specialist vendor outside the telco bill. The ~$3,300 unmanaged NBN and VOIP account was consolidated into the new managed structure. Over an extended transition we decommissioned hundreds of legacy services and provisioned new services across the franchise network.
Built ongoing governance to prevent bill creep
We implemented a monthly review process. All new services require approval. Usage is monitored against plans quarterly. Automatic alerts flag any bill variance over 5%. Mobile services were deliberately kept on the previous carrier for coverage reasons. The result: two years after migration, monthly spend has remained stable at ~$5,600 with no bill creep and no surprises.
The Outcome
A 95% reduction in monthly telco spend, simpler infrastructure, and a governance system that locks in savings permanently.
Before vs. After: Key Line Items
“We had been with the same carrier for over a decade. We knew our bills were high, but we never imagined more than half was cloud charges our carrier was marking up, or that a ~$35,000 one-off debit charge could sit unnoticed on a single invoice. Telco Management didn’t just find the waste – they separated what was actually telco from what wasn’t, ported our numbers across, replaced the voice and data stack over an extended transition, and gave us a system that prevents it from happening again.”
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