By now your organization has likely settled into a new normal that involves some level of remote work. But that doesn’t mean you have to settle for high operating expenses (OPEX). As an IT or Finance professional, you can take steps now to measurably reduce these costs going forward. We’ve highlighted some key areas of opportunity to consider as well as some recent successes that we’ve helped our own customers and partners achieve in each of these areas. Case in point: Provision recently helped a large customer replace its on-premises PBX system with Microsoft Teams. In addition to providing enhanced performance, the new solution effectively eliminates the high annual maintenance costs of the customer’s legacy system. Total incremental cost for the Teams implementation ranges from $4 (typical user) to $12 (unlimited users) per seat for existing O365 users. Opportunity: Update Bandwidth/Connectivity – If you’re at or near the end of your current carrier contract, this may be an ideal time to take advantage of declining pricing while updating services to better align with your current bandwidth requirements. And, if you’ve been considering SD-WAN, use this opportunity to revisit potential options (note that we strongly urge SMB installations to utilize external help for this). Also, if you work directly with your carrier, you’ll want to independently verify pricing to ensure you’re getting the best rates possible, as some carriers may be reluctant to volunteer reduced pricing due to shrinking margins industrywide. Case in point: While a customer was in the midst of migrating from MPLS to SD-WAN, an unexpected reduction in workforce threatened the initiative. Provision was able to transform this unforeseen challenge into an opportunity for our customer to deploy an even better, “best of both worlds” solution by introducing them to a new carrier supplier that can take over the management of the forthcoming SD-WAN network while utilizing the hardware the customer has already procured. The result: a win-win for everyone! Opportunity: Optimize Wireless Services – If your organization has more than 100 corporate-liable mobile devices, you might be able to cut wireless services costs by 20% - 40% immediately. You don’t need to change carriers or contracts. Provision offers a solution that is simple and nondisruptive. It uses a patented, algorithm-driven software program to continually analyze usage patterns for each of your corporate devices, ensuring that each smartphone, tablet and IoT connected device is subscribed to the most cost-effective plan available at any given time. Case in point: Provision recently completed two installations of this solution for customers (4,300 and 1,300 devices respectively). Each resulted in average monthly savings of 25% in wireless services costs. That adds up to approximately $10,000 per month for every 1,000 devices. Opportunity: Upgrade and/or Migrate Contact Center Systems – Similar to the reduction in UC/PBX opportunity highlighted earlier, exploring opportunities to migrate your contact center platform to a cloud-based solution can mean big savings for your organization. That’s true whether you have a small service desk or a large full-service contact center. The reality is that premises-based installations are costly to maintain and can’t compete with the functionality, utility or price of today’s cloud-based omnichannel contact center platforms. Case in point: Provision just completed a contact center installation that upgraded the customer to the latest omnichannel UC/PBX capabilities. By helping them assess current “as-as-service” options and by working with their existing supplier to “do better,” we were able to provide our customer with a solution that has reduced per seat contact center cost by 25%, while dramatically improving the experience of agents and customers. Opportunity: Optimize Cloud Services – If you’re using cloud services, this may be a good time to assess whether your existing plan is the right fit for your current cloud usage patterns. Provision offers a comprehensive cloud management solution to help you manage and automate cost as well as security for your public cloud environments. In effect, it brings more clarity to cloud pricing, so you’re able to determine the very best plan based on your actual cloud usage needs. At Provision, our team is ready and available to help you identify and pursue these and other cost-saving opportunities. Our experts can help you assess current offerings, review contracts, and determine the right services and solutions to support your organization today and in the future. And with Provision, there’s no charge, no obligation, and no high-pressure selling--ever. Contact us today to learn more.