The Apella Group works across many industries on very diverse projects. A sampling of results is highlighted below.
Strategy - Full Sourcing Project + Telecom Expense Management
Project Area - Telecommunications
Annual Spend - $7,500,000
Savings Achieved - $1,850,000
Strategy - Full Sourcing Project
Client had multiple call center sites operating on a single MPLS network and had other voice and data contracts with seven different telecommunication vendors. Engaged Apella to (1) inventory existing circuits, services, and key contract details, (2) define an overall telecom strategy including what services were actually needed, and (3) source or renegotiate services and contracts for additional savings:
- Collected current contracts and detailed pertinent commitments, services provided, and pricing
- Collected and analyzed all invoices to define accounts, total costs, and to create an inventory of circuits and services
- Developed a network map to understand the total and type of bandwidth at each site and which vendors were providing it
- Requested and analyzed usage information to determine which services were needed and which could be removed
- Sourced and negotiated all contracts based on new requirements
- Sourced and negotiated dual MPLS networks to provide redundancy and additional flexibility for client's operations
- Managed implementation of new MPLS networks
- Through our Telecom Expense Management platform, continue to monitor client invoices and inventory
- Caught multiple billing errors and worked with vendors to recover costs and fix vendors' billing systems
- Update client on total telecom costs monthly (including wireless) including constant reviews of additional savings opportunities
Strategy - Operational Analysis
Project Area - Fuel
Annual Spend - $16,000,000
Savings Opportunity - $1,000,000
Client has eight plants running on two separate fuel sources. Engaged Apella to create bidding strategies for individual fuels and to develop optimal fuel program for the future:
- Developed usage and cost models for current fuels
- Evaluated market place to determine pricing benchmarks, and to investigate alternate supply options
- Created sourcing and negotiations plan to contract for both fuel options
- Recommended investment in multiple plants to enable burning of both fuels to allow for hedging opportunity
- Created operational model for client to utilize to determine which fuel source should be used (based on market prices) and to track savings
Strategy - Vendor Renegotiation
Project Area - Copiers & Printers
Annual Spend - $740,000
Savings Achieved - $129,000
Client is in an industry where long term vendor relationships are very important to their business. Apella was approached to perform analysis on their existing Copier & Printer contracts, reviewing current pricing mechanisms and developing new negotiation tactics. Apella completed the following:
- Inventoried and cost all current devices based on current contracted rates
- Benchmarked internal best practices (pricing, device functions and uses) and external options
- Created cost model for existing environment factoring in total costs (usage + lease + other ancillary fees) vs. optimal opportunity
- Developed set of recommendations around negotiating strategies, operational improvements (replacing, consolidating, or eliminating current assets)
- Trained client for negotiation sessions with vendors