Managing the Cost Impact of IT Network Changes

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1 Managing the Cost Impact of IT Network Changes More than 100 IT network professionals at large US enterprises recently participated in this Cass study. See the results and learn more about how change impacts your network operating costs.

2 S U R V E Y R E S U LT S 2017 Cass IT Network Management Study Network Projects & Changes Moves, Adds, Changes and Deletes (MACDs) are the most prevalent change. In 2017, more organizations are planning SD WAN deployments than last year. We asked IT network professionals at large enterprises what projects they are working on in 2017 or had completed in Add Locations Close/Move Locations Deploy MPLS Deploy SIP Trunking Launch/Expand BYOD Deploy SD WAN 39% 23% 31% 27% 23% 21% 10% 25% 64% 61% 58% 51% Completed in Planned in

3 S U R V E Y R E S U LT S Networks are dynamic. Most enterprises manage location changes every year, in addition to major technology upgrades. Moves, Adds, Changes & Deletes are Most Common Network Change 73% 61% Agree their organization adds, deletes or moves three or more locations per year, on average. Plan to add physical branches/locations in % Plan to close or move physical branches/ locations in 2017.

4 Network Cost Implications INVOICE Telecom invoices are prone to errors. When network changes require the cancelation of services, it s not enough to communicate with your carriers. You must also audit subsequent invoices to ensure your instructions made it through the carrier s processes, and the invoice is error-free. Likewise, when adding new services/facilities, you must ensure you are getting all allowable discounts per your contract.

5 S U R V E Y R E S U LT S How well do you manage changes that affect your costs/ invoices? Are you doing an OK job? Better than OK? Or less than OK? Doing an OK job? 52% Just OK or don t know 20% Better than OK 28% Less than OK

6 Cost Impacts of Technology Changes SIP Trunking Moving from analog lines to SIP trunks will typically cause you to disconnect POTS or PRI lines, so you must audit your post-deployment invoices to ensure you re no longer billed for the disconnected lines. MPLS WAN Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) uses short path labels rather than long network addresses to route data. If you re adding more branch locations, you may need to expand your WAN by adding more MPLS circuits. Anytime you add circuits, you want to audit your invoice to ensure you are being charged the accurate rate, getting full advantage of any allowable discounts. SD WAN Moving to a software-defined WAN offers the capability to use multiple types of data circuits, internet and MPLS for instance, to load balance traffic and provide redundancy/ failover in the event that one of the paths goes down. An SD WAN deployment may require you to procure additional broadband connections. If so, you should check to be sure these adds are being billed at the right rate.

7 Who is Accountable for What? Is someone proactively verifying the billing impacts of every MACD event? Accountability Checklist Who is accountable for? Identify who on your internal team or TEM provider is responsible for each of these actions. Provisioning at current established rates? Sourcing & negotiating new rates with carriers? Communicating changes to your carriers and/or to your telecom expense management (TEM) service provider? Documenting changes & updating your inventory/service catalogue/ CMDB Auditing the post technology deployment invoices against CSRs? It sounds simple enough: Network changes create requirements to provision and/or disconnect services with carriers. Many such changes result in billing changes. Invoice changes must be verified and audited against change orders aka customer service records (CSRs). Who is Accountable? Managing change sounds simple, however, making sure someone is accountable for each step is often overlooked. Responsibilities must be clear, particularly if you re working across teams and with an outside telecom expense management (TEM) service provider. If you re making significant network changes this year, now is the time to do a quick process audit to determine that everyone understands his/her role in managing the changes. If you re using Cass as your telecom expense management (TEM) provider, you can rely on us.

8 Survey Methodology Cass conducted the survey in 2017 via SurveyMonkey. Data for the study was collected from 100+ IT professionals based in North America who said they had a role in managing network operating expenses including telecom for their organization. Companies represented in the study: Organizational Revenue Industry More than $20 billion Less than $1 billion Software Other Business Services Energy/Utilities/Oil & Gas $5-$20 billion $1-$5 billion Retail/ Distribution Financial Services Healthcare # Employees in Organization Manufacturing Logistics/ Transportation More than 50,000 Less than 5,000 10,000-50,000 5,000-10,000

9 TELECOM EXPENSE MANAGEMENT (TEM) Cass We are the Accountability People in TEM We take accountability to manage your costs despite constant change. The migration from our previous TEM provider to Cass was swift. Clorox has been able to reduce late fees to an unprecedented.004% I can t imagine why every organization doesn t outsource this. Cass furnishes us the resources to know that our process isn t slipping. Cass manages in excess of $40 billion in client spend annually we have the people, processes and tools to deliver results. Publicly traded (Nasdaq: CASS), Cass has consistently achieved profitability and steady growth you can depend on Cass to stay the course. Cass helps organizations like yours manage expenses for telecom, freight, utilities and waste removal. Our telecom expense management clients include: Advocate Healthcare, Kohls, Lowe s, Michelin, Nationwide Insurance, Quest Diagnostics, Target and many others. We allow your internal IT, network and accounts payable professionals to achieve more. Your team can focus on big projects, strategy and change, while we handle process issues, expense reporting, plan optimization, GL allocations, invoice audits and carrier communications that include recovery for overcharges. We make sure you are paying the right amount. Do you need a TEM service provider that can say all that?