Case Study – International steel Supplier – Steel Technologies

The Situation

If you think managing your company's telecommunications bills and contracts is nothing short of a nightmare, talk to Scott Alsup, Chief Information Officer of Louisville's Steel Technologies.

"We have 15 locations in the US," he states. "Each location was getting local and long distance phone bills and then forwarding them to a clerical person at our corporate headquarters. That person was then gathering them together and sending them in for payment. We were constantly incurring late charges and it was next to impossible to get a feel for what our total spend was."

Steel Technologies processes flat-rolled steel products for a number of industries, including automotive and appliance manufacturers, HVAC companies, and others. The company has corporate offices in Louisville spread over three separate buildings, 15 processing plants in the US, seven additional plants in Canada and Mexico, and 1,100 employees, including sales teams spread across the country.

For a company whose products most of the nation's industries (and consumers) rely on, keeping their lines of communication open became awkward, confusing, and expensive. And when contract renewal time came up with their telecom providers, Alsup claimed they were just as lost.

"I had no idea what the marketplace was or what a competitive number was," Alsup admitted. "Each location was negotiating for itself individually. Everyone was just trying to get their numbers down."

The Solution

To help them wrangle this myriad of telecom bills -- and save money and time in the process -- Steel Technologies called upon the Integrated Telecom Management professionals at The Tellennium Group. Using their TIMS, Tellennium can dramatically improve the manageability of all of a company's telecom processes and expenses (including wireless).

The professionals at The Tellennium Group helped Alsup and Steel Technologies implement a simultaneous, two-phase attack on the problem: 1) get the bills organized and caught up and 2) consolidate their usage company-wide to enable them to re-negotiate their telecom contracts (whenever possible).

"It took about three months to have the TIMS solution implemented," Alsup said. "But, that was mostly on our side, trying to get our arms around who all of our vendors were. We had 14 vendors, each with multiple subaccounts. Getting the bill paying together was the first part of it. Once we got it all consolidated, we could negotiate with these vendors as one large entity, instead of as several individual and smaller entities." This solution from The Tellennium Group also extended to the company's cellular bills and contracts as well.

"At first, our outside sales group negotiated their cell phone deals independently," Alsup said. "Now, we have consolidated well over 400 users into a single corporate account. We can now see where the accounts are and consolidating all of our airtime minutes into a single corporate plan enabled us to get significant discounts and cost reductions.

What's Alsup's favorite aspect of TIMS?

"When we get into disputes with vendors, we have access to someone who knows the lingo and who knows who we can go to help solve our issues."

The Results

Beyond the obvious benefits of single entity billing, consolidated contract negotiations, and telecom problem solving, TIMS also enables Steel Technologies to save money and, perhaps just as importantly, save time.

"I now spend an hour-and-a-half each month reviewing bills," Alsup said. "Tellennium's detailed reports allow me to view the data any way I want. It's consolidated. It's all there. I ask a question, I get a quick answer back."

And, Steel Technologies now pays its bills through The Tellennium Group, with two wire transfers per month. For Steve Alsup and Steel Technologies, the cost and time savings, billing consolidation, and single entity negotiation benefits are just the "nuts and bolts" part of their relationship with The Tellennium Group. There's also a deeper human aspect as well. "We've been working with them for over six years now," Alsup stated. "They have a fantastic set of systems that allow me to analyze my business's telecom expenses and make decisions quickly. Their people are really the tremendous part. They are easy to work with. We've got a long-term rapport -- and a trust."

"They know the marketplace. They know the vendors. And, they are our advocate."

Contact Us

P.O. Box 724 13025 Highway 44 E Mt. Washington, KY 40047 877-679-7778 www.tellennium.com Email Us