F100 Insurance firm reduces maintenance cost by 30% through forensic audit
Client Situation:
- Customer had recently signed a multi-year agreement with Cisco through a VAR
- Inventory was not properly validated prior to execution and significant network refresh was not accounted for in the new maintenance agreement
- Maintenance service levels were without standardization in place (e.g. different service levels were purchased within the unique locations)
Strongbow Approach:
- Collected inventory information from network monitoring tool, lists of recently decommissioned equipment and closed site lists and mapped assets against Cisco invoices
- Reviewed maintenance agreements; conducted stakeholder interviews to identify savings opportunities from removing maintenance on decommissioned equipment and adjusting service levels; audited contract compliance
- Analyzed software entitlements and related maintenance charges to ensure that licensing was right sized for current and future requirements
Result:
- Identified ~30% in savings opportunities (from $15M annual spend) by:
- Removing non-existent assets from maintenance
- Enforcing contract compliance and removing maintenance on excluded items
- Rationalizing and standardizing maintenance service levels across all locations
- Managed negotiation process with Cisco to remove assets from maintenance and maximize 2019 financial impact