The Background

This U.S.-based publicly traded financial services technology provider serves banks and other financial institutions by driving innovation in payments, electronic banking services, risk and compliance and customer service.

The Challenges

IT leadership suspected that their legacy Telecom Expense Management (TEM) operation was not delivering the value and services expected. Decentralized provisioning completed outside the TEM program was derailing the rest of the TEM functions by creating an incomplete service inventory. Contracts maintained manually outside of TEM were unavailable for audits or tracking. The inaccurate inventory led to ineffective reporting and vendor management.

IT leadership suspected inefficiencies in the TEM operations around invoice management, audits, inventory, mobility management and contracts management. A third party assessment was needed.


The Solution

The TEM Assessment and Audit identified over $3.5 million in annual savings for the client. The remediation plan included centralized provisioning within the TEM system, building and maintaining the network inventory, implementing a contract database within the system and upgrading the audit processes. These changes enable high-value visibility into the connectivity environment and enhanced reporting to the company’s IT leadership. The Assessment recommended investment and upgrades to the current program by outsourcing the TEM program to a value-added service provider.

Transforming your TEM challenges into a cost savings advantage.

This company was struggling with poor processes and a lack of visibility that led to missed savings and inefficiencies. Contracts archived outside the TEM system were not available for audits or provisioning. End-to-end expense management through centralized provisioning, fully implemented contracts and improved auditing practices are expected to result in major savings and efficiencies.

Even though we had low expectations for the legacy TEM Program, we were under-achieving. The TEM Assessment gave us a realistic health check and a path forward to reduce costs by $3.5 million per year.


The Result


  • The Assessment project generated over $3.5 million in cost savings in the first year through audit recoveries, optimizations and improved vendor management.

  • Net savings of $6 million over three years is projected through Advocate’s Technology Lifecycle Service Management.

  • Advocate’s Technology Lifecycle Service Management will provide enhanced visibility, improved vendor management and lower costs.


We were surprised at how much cost savings we were missing out on; now we see where the TEM Program was broken.