Queensland's Heilbronn Group consolidates telco and saves

Company: Heilbronn Group

Web: www.heilbronn.com.au

Key business focus: Consulting group providing resource utilisation solutions for the communication, energy, environment, IT, agribusiness and finance industries across Australia

Key challenge: To reduce costs and boost efficiency by consolidating telecommunications services with a single provider

Macquarie products and services: Macquarie Telecom voice and mobile services, web-based mobile fleet management tool, FleetView

Key results:

• Achieved 20 per cent reduction in telecommunications costs
• Reduce monthly telecommunications bills from 6 to 1
• Simplified reporting process – reducing hidden administrative expenses
• Greater visibility and management of business related mobile call costs

Overview

Managing more than six different fixed voice and mobile telecommunications accounts was an unwieldy task for Queensland-based resource strategy consultancy, The Heilbronn Group.

With multiple suppliers and bills, it faced unnecessarily high call rates and was left with a time consuming aggregation process at the end of each month.

Keen to rein in its spending, simplify its telecoms infrastructure, and establish a manageable billing system, The Heilbronn Group (THG) began to search for a single service provider.

As a member of Queensland's peak business body, Commerce Queensland, THG was able to access Macquarie Telecom's services under a special membership package not normally available to small-to-medium sized businesses.

Now, with one single provider, THG has recorded savings of around 20 per cent and can manage its telecommunications service through one simplified billing process.

The Opportunity

The Heilbronn Group is one of Queensland's largest resource strategy consultancy firms. During the thirty years the company has been in operation, it has grown from a one person business to now employ more than 50 staff in three offices across Queensland.

As a consultancy firm, THG relies heavily on telephone services to communicate with its large and diverse client base across Australia. As the company has grown and evolved however, it has added to its telecommunications services as and when the need arose.

“As the business grew and our needs changed, we found ourselves adding different pieces of technology and different providers to service new and emerging call-related needs across our three office locations,” said Graham Heilbronn, founder and Chairman of the Board, The Heilbronn Group.

The management and maintenance of each supplier's infrastructure was tricky at the best of times with duplication of services across the three offices was common. THG also received a number of invoices each billing period, making the administrative process unwieldy and time consuming.

As a consultancy, THG also on-bills its clients for call costs incurred with each job. The complexity created by so many supplier invoices - most of which provided very little information – made this an extremely time consuming process.

“We knew we had unwanted and hidden business costs in terms of excessive administration time and this was having a flow on effect on our profitability and client servicing,” said Heilbronn.

THG was also concerned about any effect that a changeover in its technology would have on the day-to-day running of the business.

“We are a client focused small business – so downtime had to be absolutely minimal.”

The Solution

Commerce Queensland, the peak body for the State's business community, has formed a strategic partnership with Macquarie Telecom, a specialist supplier of Information and Communications Technology.

Under the agreement Macquarie Telecom provides Commerce Queensland members – which range from sole operator businesses to leading Queensland enterprises – with customized solutions to help them reduce the cost of their voice and data services.

Members can also access services such as consolidated billing to help them better manage their administration costs.

“We evaluated a number of suppliers. Macquarie Telecom delivered the most competitive rates, and they could manage the change over process which is typically time consuming and very frustrating,” he said.

“The association with Commerce Queensland was also attractive – it gave us security of supply not typically afforded to a smaller company,” he said.

As part of the deal, Macquarie Telecom worked closely with THG to provide a full assessment of its telecommunications needs. Based on this, Macquarie Telecom recommended THG consolidate its existing services into one manageable solution.

“We found Macquarie Telecom really understood our needs – and the single supplier approach has dramatically curbed our costs and simplified our administrative process,” said Heilbronn.

“We have superior service through personal account management and plan to eventually aggregate all our telecommunications services including mobiles, broadband, ISDN and VoiP.”

“It's one thing to deliver efficiency in billings, it's another to receive personalised service. Macquarie Telecom's systems are more adaptable and their staff more responsive – both of these things contribute to our bottom line,” he said.

The Results

The consolidation has provided THG with real transparency in its telecommunications costs, helping the organisation to better manage its spend.

As a result, THG has generated savings of around 20 per cent on its telecommunications costs with reduced administration and better client service.

“Macquarie Telecom delivered a seamless change over, competitive rates and a simplified billing system,” said Heilbronn.

“With FleetView we have a centralised management tool to help us analyse spending patterns, allocate costs to relevant centres, and control blow outs.”