Large branch network leveraged multiple providers for both circuit diversity and balance of trade considerations. Prior benchmarks indicated Best in Class status, but Strongbow identified and captured $35M+ savings in 4 months.
Client Situation:
- Fortune 50 Global Bank with 5,800+ locations including a 5,000 retail bank / branch network
- Prior benchmarks indicated pricing for network services was ‘best-in-class’
- Legacy Cisco routers were nearing end-of-life; client’s refresh strategy centered around a SD-WAN deployment, so maintaining commercial flexibility was critically important
Strongbow Approach:
- Established a detailed baseline of current cost drivers
- Strongbow reviewed utilization data, but also dug deeper to understand how applications affected workload placement decisions
- Quantified the impact of re-sizing, reserving, and turning off instances, as well as longer-term savings from shut-down and new services (e.g. serverless)
- Provided recommendations and key points for commercial negotiations
Result:
- Prepare detailed rate guidance for all incumbent providers at site / location level
- Orchestrated supplier communications and escalation strategy, ensuring key bank executives and the line of business were informed and aligned with the negotiation plan
- Conducted forensic audit for legacy voice and data services