$1.25M Annual Savings
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.”
Related Services
TEM, Managed Supply, and Ongoing Governance
Telecommunications Expense Management
Full forensic audit, carrier consolidation, and ongoing governance delivering $1.25M annual savings for this client.
Fibre & Connectivity
Symmetric fibre, NBN enterprise, and 4G backup – supplied and managed under our TEM framework.
SIP & Voice Migration
Legacy collaboration stack replaced with our SIP trunks and inbound numbers. Better call quality, 90% cost reduction.
The Activation Trap: How a Telstra Partner Turned One Farm’s Fleet Into a $20K/Month Waste Machine
Your partner only gets paid when you buy more. So who is watching what you already have? Book a Meeting and we will show you what your current partner is not.
The Switch
Eighteen months ago, an Australian agricultural business with over 1,250 connected devices moved their telco management to a Telstra partner. The pitch was familiar: better rates, dedicated account management, and a single point of contact for everything.
What the client did not fully understand was the partner’s commercial model: they only get paid on new service activations.
That detail changes everything.
What We Found
Telco Management still reviews this client’s billing data. Not because they pay us to, but because it is how we identify re-engagement opportunities and demonstrate what happens when governance disappears. Their latest invoice tells a brutal story:
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Devices with zero data usage in last 3 months | 518 |
| Monthly cost of those unused devices | ~$20,000 |
| New activations (recent period) | 84 |
| Deactivations (same period) | 19 |
| Activation-to-deactivation ratio | 4.4 : 1 |
The Numbers in Context
The fleet’s top ten device manufacturers alone represent a monthly spend exceeding $55,000. Of that, devices reporting absolutely no data usage still appear on the invoice — month after month — to the tune of roughly $20,000.
That is not a rounding error. That is 36 percent of the visible device spend going to hardware that is not being used.
The Device Breakdown (No Usage, Last 3 Months)
| Make | Devices with Zero Usage | Monthly Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Apple | 171 | $7,727 |
| Samsung | 155 | $6,720 |
| Unknown | 49 | $593 |
| ZTE | 36 | $1,155 |
| Telit | 33 | $1,330 |
| Quectel | 30 | $1,065 |
| Sierra Wireless | 17 | $577 |
| Huawei | 13 | $182 |
| 3FeetSolutions | 12 | $668 |
| Netgear | 12 | $201 |
The most damning figure is the ratio of 84 activations to 19 deactivations. For every device removed from the fleet, four new ones were added. This is not organic growth. This is what happens when your partner’s paycheck depends on selling more — not on governing what you already own.
Why This Happens: The Incentive Gap
This is not a story about a negligent client or a bad partner. It is a story about misaligned incentives.
A partner who only earns commission on activations has a clear commercial imperative: sell more services. There is no financial reason for them to:
– Audit your existing fleet for unused lines
– Cancel orphan devices that are still billing
– Flag zero-usage hardware that should be decommissioned
– Reconcile your invoice against your actual workforce
– Dispute billing errors that cost you money
Why would they? None of those activities generate revenue for them.
Carriers and their partners are not incentivised to save you money. Their job is to provide service, send invoices, and grow account value. Governance is not their business model. Governance is yours.
When the agricultural business moved to this partner, they gained a salesperson. What they lost was a governor.
The Drift
Telecommunications environments are living things. Staff turnover, seasonal hiring, equipment upgrades, and site changes all add and remove services constantly. Without a monthly reconciliation process — someone checking every active line against a current employee or asset register — the default state is drift.
But drift accelerates when your partner is actively adding services and has no reason to remove them. The 4.4:1 activation ratio is not an accident. It is a predictable outcome of a commission-only model. Every new connection is a win for the partner. Every dead line left billing is silently paid by you.
Consider what $20,000 per month in avoidable waste becomes over time:
– 3 months: $60,000
– 6 months: $120,000
– 12 months: $240,000
– 18 months (current): $360,000
That is the cost of assuming your partner is managing your spend. They are managing their revenue. Those are not the same thing.
Who is watching your bill if your partner only gets paid when it grows? Book a Meeting and we will audit your latest invoice — with whoever you currently use.
What a TEM Engagement Would Have Prevented
An active TEM engagement — one that is not tied to service sales but to spend governance — would have caught every one of these signals:
1. Monthly zero-usage flagging. Any device with no data consumption for 60 days triggers an automatic review. Is it seasonal? Faulty? Orphaned? Someone asks the question.
2. Activation-to-deactivation monitoring. A 4.4:1 ratio would have raised an immediate alert. The partner may not care. TEM does.
3. Fleet profiling by manufacturer and function. A spike in “unknown” or mismatched device types indicates ad-hoc procurement outside policy — often driven by a partner who benefits from every activation.
4. Quarterly business reviews. A structured check-in with finance and operations to reconcile headcount, site count, and service count. The partner does not get invited because they are a vendor. TEM is the independent check.
None of this requires switching carriers. None of it requires firing your partner. It requires someone whose incentive is aligned with your savings, not your spending.
The Lesson: Carrier-Agnostic, Incentive-Aligned
Telco Management is carrier-agnostic not because we do not supply services — we do. But because our core engagement is TEM, and TEM only works if the governance is independent of the sales.
A partner who sells connectivity and also audits your bill has a conflict of interest. We do not. We audit what you have, with whoever you use, and we get paid to find savings — not to sell you more.
The agricultural business thought they were getting a better deal with a dedicated partner. What they actually got was a sales channel with no brake pedal. The result is on their invoice every month.
Could This Be You?
Ask yourself these questions about your current partner or carrier account manager:
– Do they make more money when your bill goes up or when it goes down?
– Have they ever proactively identified unused services on your invoice?
– When was the last time they initiated a decommissioning — not a sale?
– Can they show you a monthly report that flags zero-usage devices?
– Is your activation-to-deactivation ratio balanced, or does your fleet keep growing without explanation?
If your partner’s commercial model rewards growth, they are not your governance layer. They are your vendor. Governance has to come from somewhere else.
Find the waste your partner is not looking for. Book a Meeting and we will audit your latest bill — no switching, no disruption, no obligation.
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Related Reading
– Why Your Last Telecommunications Audit Failed
– The Hidden Costs Killing Your Telco Budget
– Save on Telco Without Switching Providers: A TEM Guide
– What Is Telecommunications Expense Management?
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Telco Management helps Australian businesses audit, optimise, and govern their telco spend. We work with your existing providers — including your current partner. Our incentive is your savings, not your activations.. .