Consolidating Technology Expense Management on a Single Software Platform: Rationale and Results
Technology Expense Management service providers like RadiusPoint agree on the benefits of bringing all TEM-UEM invoices into a single software platform. In our 30+ years of experience auditing, analyzing, and managing clients’ technology expense, we have observed that a major benefit of such move is the level of business intelligence we make available to management teams through real-time consolidated reporting.
This short case study shows the tangible results of integrating our client’s technology expenses on a single management software, our ExpenseLogic® SaaS platform.
Challenge
A Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) chain needed their telecom, IT and utility invoices reported location by location, in order to compare technology expense to monthly sales at a unit level. Their management team was battling with the absence of consolidated data sufficiently granular to make quick, well-informed business decisions. Considering the unit profit margin on a hamburger sale is very small, QSR chains must operate efficiently and remain as lean as possible. Our client has 240 locations spread among five major metro areas and various smaller cities across the United States.
Their management team had specific areas of concern:
- Inadequate ability to track energy expenses in unit terms (kWh, Therms)
- Inability to identify the monthly cost of telecom services
- Undetermined IT asset inventory at each location
- Too many monthly vendor invoices for an understaffed Accounts Payable department
Opportunity
The answer had to start with consolidating all technology invoices into one single management software —our ExpenseLogic SaaS platform— where bills would be analyzed, and data reports generated at a very granular level.
By consistently capturing all relevant invoice data each month, RadiusPoint would be able to (1) produce the type of business intelligence our client needed, and (2) identify cost savings opportunities generating an immediate tangible ROI from our TEM services.
RadiusPoint would provide both the automation & management software, and the dedicated team of TEM experts to take care of all input, error detection, and reporting tasks.
Solution
Working with RadiusPoint’s support team enabled our client’s Accounts Payable team to offload all technology expense management tasks, relieving them from unproductive pressure and enabling them to focus on other essential tasks.
As our team streamlined the invoice input and analysis process using ExpenseLogic, our software platform detected and flagged errors and discrepancies in vendor billing, as sell ascost savings opportunities in procurement and usage. On the output end of the process, the reporting capabilities of ExpenseLogic gave our client’s management team the localized cost-to-sales data they needed for further analysis.
RadiusPoint’s solution involved:
- Consolidating and automating all TEM-UEM input and reporting on 1 single software platform
- Eliminating the input and handling of monthly invoices by the AP team
- Eliminating labor-intensive research into electric and gas usage spikes
- Identifying areas of hardware improvement at the older QSR locations, with cost comparisons
- Managing vendor contracts, incl. contract digitalization, SLA details, and time-sensitive event notifications
- Managing technology billing for cost savings and uninterrupted service at all locations
Additional Results
As we implemented our Technology Expense Management process to consolidate vendor management and billing audits, and we automated reporting on one single SaaS platform, we were able to generate a very significant ROI for our client, just in hard cost savings. At multiple locations, the QSR chain was able to identify costly waste in the form of:
- Unnecessary DSL lines used for Wifi that could be cancelled
- Outdated HVAC equipment to be replaced to lower monthly energy costs
- Expensive POS-related phone lines to be replaced by more cost-efficient VOIP lines
RadiusPoint exceeded the ROI objectives set for the mission. Our TEM services also gave management the reporting tools needed to make quicker and better-informed business decisions at location level, keeping operations lean, and preserving margins.
ExpenseLogic, our SaaS platform, is currently in its version 9.0. It has been developed in iterations based on actual field experience and success, with a view to:
- Streamlining the Technology Expense Management process along the entire lifecycle of a vendor invoice;
- Giving client management teams real-time access to granular business intelligence such as usage and waste tracking;
- Helping multi-location organizations to operate more efficiently, from vendor procurement to vendor payment.
We welcome any request to analyze how our Technology Expense Management process will help your organization record an immediate positive impact on its bottom line.