As providers reduce customer support, more time than ever is needed to manage technology services. Whether waiting on hold or trying to set up and navigate a different web portal for each carrier, most organizations wish they could just send a message to one place for all their technology service concerns and be confident that the issue will be resolved quickly. Sherwood 1 can help.
Also, did you know that on average, between 5-30% of technology costs are being overpaid to carriers? Whether the savings comes from circuits or devices never disconnected, items out of contract, or services that can be consolidated or upgraded for less money, Sherwood 1 will work through our relationships with over 100 different technology carriers to not only obtain best pricing, but to ensure that your overall future technology plans have a clear path to move forward.
Sherwood 1 focuses on how your company uses technology and guides your organization into the future. We will help you manage carrier and cloud services, so your staff are free to pursue other projects. Dynamic inventory of services and costs, along with U.S.-based customer service for any adds, moves or changes (regardless of the carrier) are our focus.
For Sherwood 1, beginning a new relationship with a client starts with a conversation. What are your current and future technology plans? Is your company growing or reducing in size in the next few years? After this we almost always recommend Sherwood 1’s Technology Expense Management (TEM) service.
Technology Expense Management (TEM) is a comprehensive approach that examines all your company’s ongoing technology expenses including Internet, Mobility, Subscriptions, Voice services, maintenance plans, monitoring, Internet security, data storage etc. Companies are familiar with the bills they receive but are often at a loss to know if what they are paying is correct, or if there are better options available. One of Sherwood 1’s advisors will help you gather invoices and will then assemble detailed information regarding your technology expenses. We will then give you a plan to help reduce costs, working with your existing providers, or if needed looking at one of the 100+ carriers we partner with to give you other options that better meet your company’s needs. If you approve, we will execute our plan and manage the process.
Of course! Although we highly recommend beginning with TEM for every new client, we are here to help for many other tasks:
*Talk to one of our technology-specific engineers to get advice on a new project.
*Utilize our vetted partnership of over 100 Technology Providers to help you convert your old PBX to VoIP.
*Re-design a restricting and dated MPLS or WAN to a more robust and less costly SD-WAN environment.
*Manage your mobile devices and provide end-users with 24/7 support
*Help your company utilize cloud services more effectively.
*Investigate IoT to solve real business problems
Most traditional TEM services require a minimum technology spend of over $500k/year.
Sherwood 1 realizes that most SMBs are not at this level, so we are here to help. If your organization has 10 employees or 10,000, we can help create a package that will optimize your telecom expenses with either a manual or software-based inventory depending on the number of invoices you receive each month.
Every company is different so we will create a customized solution for each client. In general, Sherwood 1 will review all your communications services with this process:
*Create a complete inventory which includes addresses, services, phone numbers, circuit IDs, devices, users (where applicable), contract expiration dates, features, and repair/customer service numbers.
*Review contracts, monthly costs, taxes, tariffs, usage rates and surcharges to find not only ongoing reductions but amounts that should have never been charged to you.
*Work with your carriers to either obtain credits, place disconnection orders, renegotiate agreements with the goal of reducing your total telecom spend, or to help you upgrade to a newer technology.
Our goal is to help organizations manage their technology services with a single contact regardless of the carrier. How we typically begin our relationship is to do a full analysis of all your telecom services, create an inventory, find cost savings, and then work with your carriers to ensure credits are applied. Our fee for this work is to split the savings we find 50/50 for a period. Since we are only paid if we can find savings for your organization, we are consultants that pay for ourselves. Once this initial time has expired there are several options to continue accessing our services.
In the beginning we will have a conversation about your business which will help us understand how to clear a path for your future IT plans. Once we come to an agreement to work together, we will gather invoices and contracts from all your telecom, mobility, cloud, and communications carriers. Many of these we can obtain from carrier portals while others will need to be shared with us electronically or from paper copies. We will also obtain a signed LOA (Letter of Authorization) to allow us to discuss your telecom services with the various carriers and we will then create an inventory of all your services. We will ask more questions and make recommendations on how to reduce costs or solve other technology issues and will implement these changes with your carriers. Your time will involve answering questions and giving us access to your bills – we do all the heavy lifting.
Once finished with the initial analysis and while we work on getting credits for your organization, we will act as your Technology Advisor. If something is technology related, we can help with any changes that need to be made or provide access to one of our engineers who can help answer questions and solve problems. If you need to upgrade, add, disconnect, or move services we are here to help. If you have a new technology project, we will leverage our relationships with over 100 providers to make sure you have the best-of-class services to ensure its success and help you manage the project. As long as we’re working together, we’re here for you.