How to Reduce Network and Mobility Costs by 30% with the Right Spend Management Tools

AppDirect and vCom are shaking up the way businesses think about IT lifecycle management. In December 2024, AppDirect took a significant step by acquiring vCom Solutions, a move that empowers technology advisors to offer their customers the world’s most comprehensive IT procurement and management platform.

AppDirect and vCom—A powerful duo

With the combined strengths of AppDirect and vCom, AppDirect advisors can offer their customers vManager, a powerful suite of network and mobility spend managed services. vManager handles everything from planning and procurement to operations and expense management on one streamlined platform.

During a recent AppDirect State of the Union webinar, Paul Connaker, vCom Solutions’ EVP of Revenue, sat down with advisors and walked them through the details of the vManager platform.

In this blog, we’ll cover those solutions, but before we dive in, let’s take a quick look at the challenges organizations face today in managing their network and mobility assets.

IT inefficiencies are costly—but they can be conquered

Approximately 30% of IT budgets are wasted on unused or redundant technology due to poor visibility into IT expenses—Flexera

Organizations today face numerous challenges in managing their network and mobility assets. Traditional approaches are no longer sufficient, leading to high costs and wasted resources. Here's a closer look at some of their major pain points:

Inefficiency and high costs—Many businesses still rely on manual processes and tools like spreadsheets to manage their IT assets, leading to inefficiency and increased costs, errors, lack of continuity, and difficulty in scaling operations

Resource drain—IT teams are constantly pressured to do more with fewer resources. Trying to manage technology without the right expertise and tools results in wasted time, money, and effort and low productivity and growth

Fragmented management—Managing technology across multiple providers is often fragmented and inefficient. This means sourcing, managing, and paying for their technology across disparate systems, leading to operational complexity and potential errors.

Lack of centralized control—Companies often struggle to manage diverse technology assets, from networks to mobile devices, cloud services, and hardware, across multiple vendors. This creates inefficiency, higher costs, and difficulties in achieving a unified approach to technology management.

Over the years, IT and finance teams have adopted manual approaches, mostly spreadsheets and one-time audits. However, today old habits and traditional approaches are not producing the best results and teams are exhausted, getting stuck in the status quo.—vCom

These challenges result in significant but avoidable costs. For example, approximately 30% of IT budgets are wasted on unused or redundant technology due to poor visibility into IT expenses. The average annual cost to replace lost mobile devices is estimated at $5.45 million. And research indicates that 45% of organizations overpay for technology and telecom expenses.

These challenges may appear monumental, but they can be overcome with a comprehensive approach to network and mobility lifecycle management.

Six ways to gain control over waste and inefficiency

vCom’s capabilities address these challenges and offer a comprehensive solution for IT lifecycle management:

Cost reduction—Implementing vCom’s technology lifecycle management helps organizations achieve up to 30% savings. Improved expense visibility and management reduce wasted IT budgets, allowing businesses to avoid overspending and optimize their IT budgets effectively.

Resource optimization—With vCom’s advanced software and managed services, IT teams can do more with less. Leveraging vCom’s tools and expertise saves time, money, and effort, enabling IT teams to focus on strategic initiatives instead of administrative tasks.

Streamlined management—vCom’s centralized platform for managing technology assets across multiple providers eliminates fragmentation and inefficiency. Businesses can seamlessly source, manage, and pay for their technology in one place, reducing operational complexity and errors.

Automation and efficiency—vCom’s platform automates workflows, real-time monitoring, and expense tracking. Organizations using managed services report a 40% increase in operational efficiency and reduced human error, which is responsible for 73% of unplanned downtime.

Centralized control—vCom’s comprehensive lifecycle solution establishes a centralized IT hub, streamlining operations, controlling costs, and ensuring consistency. This comprehensive approach to technology management keeps businesses aligned, proactive, and agile.

Real-time insights—vCom’s platform offers real-time insights and analytics, allowing businesses to make informed decisions and optimize their IT spend. This visibility into every dollar spent helps organizations create better procurement roadmaps and tailored solutions.

Harnessing the power of network and mobile lifecycle management

At the February AppDirect State of the Union webinar, vCom’s Paul Connaker presented the unique capabilities that vCom brings to the AppDirect ecosystem. "With vCom, we're not just adding another tool to our arsenal. We're integrating a solution that brings unparalleled visibility and control over IT spend," he explained. He also noted that vCom's award-winning AI-powered software platform, vManager and comprehensive IT spend managed services are game-changers for businesses looking to streamline their IT operations.

“There wasn’t a single place or a single platform to manage the entire lifecycle of this IT asset until right now, with the combination of vCom and AppDirect.” —Paul Connaker, EVP of Revenue, vCom Solutions

What does managing the entire lifecycle mean to you as the advisor, and to your end customers?

“Well, it's really simple,” said Paul. It's managing the design of the solution, the sourcing of the solution, the contracts associated with it, ensuring that it gets implemented and ordered correctly, that you have accurate inventory and asset management, that you can service and support it, that you can manage the invoices and billing, you can account for everything, and then, of course, the ability to run analytics on all of that entire lifecycle.”

vManager—One platform, end-to-end management

Find, buy, and manage network infrastructure and mobility device vendors, assets, and recurring expenses all through vManager.

vManager helps customers manage all nine stages of the network and mobility lifecycle, from planning and procurement to operations management and expense management. "The ability to manage the entire IT lifecycle from a centralized platform is a game-changer for our advisors and their clients," said Paul.

Here's a breakdown of what's included in the nine stages:

Planning and procurement

• Solution design—vCom helps businesses plan and design tailored IT solutions, ensuring they invest in the right technologies to meet their needs. This includes: infrastructure audit, vendor scorecard, RFP development, capacity planning, and subject matter expertise

• Sourcing—vManager includes live IT marketplace, proposal and quote management, a custom pricing catalog, and a vendor availability finder

• Contract management—Contract negotiations and review, document center, aggregated buying power

Operations management

• Order management—Streamlined order processing ensures accurate and timely delivery of technology assets, reducing the risk of delays and errors. This includes moves, adds, changes, disconnects (MACD), MACD project management, and order reporting

• Asset management—Comprehensive asset tracking allows businesses to monitor the location, status, and usage of their technology assets in real-time.

• Service and support—This includes a vendor ticketing portal, vendor escalation, troubleshooting and resolution, proactive network operations center monitoring, and traffic monitoring, and a vendor ticketing portal.

Expense management

• Invoice management—Centralized invoice processing simplifies the handling of invoices from multiple vendors, ensuring accurate payment and cost allocation.

• Accounting—Services include managed pay with payment tracking, automated general ledger coding and cost center allocations, batched accounts payable posting files

• Analytics—Real-time insights into IT spending patterns help businesses identify areas for cost optimization and make informed decisions.

vCom Network Lifecycle Management and Mobile Lifecycle Management

During the webinar, Paul noted that although advisors already sell cloud and SaaS and the lifecycle management associated with it via AppDirect, what vCom is bringing to advisors is the ability to add network lifecycle management and mobile lifecycle management to their offer.

Network Lifecycle Management—End-to-end management of network infrastructure—from planning and design to deployment, operations, optimization, and eventual decommissioning.

Mobile Lifecycle Management—End-to-end management of mobile devices, including vendors and expenses—from procurement and activation to usage, maintenance, and responsible disposal.

Citing a mobile example of the planning and procurement process, Paul took advisors through the vManager Marketplace.

“This is our digital marketplace, the vending machine for your customers to consume mobile and network products." —Paul Connaker, EVP of Revenue, vCom Solutions

“This is our digital marketplace, the vending machine for your customers to consume mobile and network products, said Paul. “Although we’re not a carrier, we offer a better way to source those carriers through wholesale buying power or aggregation, consolidation of all of the providers' invoices into a single place or a single platform, normalization of all of those services, and then, better integration into the platform so that you and your customers can manage that spend more easily.”

A key differentiator for advisors

"What does that mean for you?", Paul asked the audience. “A single place to shop, buy and consume network and mobile spend via a platform, higher commission rates than you're making today by sourcing those services directly with the end carriers, and of course, a better end product for your customers.”

The ability to manage your entire customer’s spend, regardless of how they've procured it, provides visibility and insight to you as their advisor. “You have the ability to manage the contracts and services that they already have, the ability to manage the contracts and services that you have brokered for them, and the ability to manage the contracts and services that they have procured via our wholesale platform,” he said.

Over the course of the webinar, Paul provided an in-depth look into vManager with more examples of the value advisors can bring to their customers, so be sure to view the webinar for all the details.

QuantumShift

Layered on top of vManager, businesses can opt for QuantumShift, a buyers’ club that offers aggregate buying power, or group purchasing to lower costs, for network and mobile, all on a single bill. It offers:

• One invoice, one support team

• Pre-negotiated discounts & enterprise-level pricing

• Service bill normalization and full integration with vManager

Real-world success—A mid-market mobile customer case study

During the webinar, Paul shared a compelling case study that highlights the tangible benefits of vCom solutions for a mid-market mobile customer.

The customer’s challenges

“They had multiple devices across numerous locations that were no longer being used. The employees had left, but they hadn't stopped the plans.”

The customer faced numerous challenges, including fragmented IT management that relied on various systems and providers, leading to inefficiencies, higher costs, and a lack of cohesion in their IT strategy. They also struggled with overspending on technology and telecom expenses due to poor visibility and were bogged down by manual administrative tasks—like moves, adds, changes (MACDs)—associated with their mobile environment.

“They had multiple devices across numerous locations that were no longer being used. The employees had left, but they hadn't stopped the plans," Paul explained.

The solution

vCom and AppDirect addressed these challenges with vManager—providing a central hub for managing all their technology assets across multiple providers, streamlining IT operations, and reducing fragmentation. Enhanced expense visibility and control allowed the customer to identify and eliminate unnecessary costs, while resource optimization freed up their IT and finance teams to focus on strategic initiatives. The platform's comprehensive asset management capabilities and strategic sourcing through vCom’s Buyers’ Club, QuantumShift, further reduced costs and improved efficiency.

Results—a win-win for everyone involved

The customer achieved a 30% reduction in IT spend, a 40% increase in operational efficiency, and significant improvements in productivity and overall performance.

“As of today, this customer’s advisor is making eight thousand dollars a month in recurring commissions off of this customer on a bucket of spend that they had never monetized before, that they had never engaged with in mobile.”

The customer achieved a 30% reduction in IT spend, a 40% increase in operational efficiency, and significant improvements in productivity and overall performance. 

• Real-time insights and analytics empowered them to make data-driven decisions and optimize their IT budget. 
• Automation and real-time monitoring minimized human error, significantly reducing downtime and improving IT infrastructure reliability. 

This customer example underscores the power of the comprehensive vCom and AppDirect lifecycle management solutions in driving efficiency and delivering significant value to businesses.

For a more in-depth look at this customer use case, access the webinar.

Looking ahead: the future of IT management

In the final part of the webinar, Paul discussed future plans for vCom and AppDirect. He emphasized the focus on innovation, growth, and enhanced customer value over the next 5 to 10 years. "Our goal is to stay ahead of the curve, leveraging AI and other emerging technologies to deliver even greater value to our advisors and their clients,” he concluded.

Bringing AppDirect and vCom together represents a significant step forward in IT lifecycle management. Combining their respective strengths positions both companies to address the critical challenges faced by businesses today. It also empowers technology advisors to step into new territory, bring more value to their customers, and expand their share of wallet.

Access our Network and Mobility Lifecycle Management Customer Marketing Toolkit for resources you can use to discuss vCom solutions with customers.

Get started

To get started, book a strategy call with us today.