One of our clients is a medium sized municipality with a mandate to reduce expenses. By partnering with Business Expense Advisors, the town government was able to take advantage of a full range of services and achieve that goal.
We began by meeting with the heads of all departments to review their contracts and budget line items. We gathered information on their current vendors, existing contracts, maintenance and service agreements. With these meetings Business Expense Advisors gained an understanding of the challenges facing the municipality as a whole and those unique to the individual departments.
What we discovered were several trusted relationships and long-standing contracts with service and maintenance vendors. However, many of these contracts had not been reviewed in several years. By doing what we do best, Business Expense Advisors was able to renegotiate contracts, lowering costs for the municipality and retaining those important relationships.
We also performed an audit of various services across departments. Because of our review processes, we were able to partner with the police department to take advantage of first responder programs and reduce costs on essential mobile communications platforms. With the IT department we were able to identify redundancies in landlines, reducing the number of lines, without impacting the public or the workings of the municipality. By gaining information from the Comptroller’s office we were able to review the town’s payroll services and, in this case, propose an alternate provider at a substantial saving. With our unique skill sets we identified and took advantage of special rebates and reductions to ongoing services such as cable and internet services.
To improve the day to day monitoring of services and billing, we assisted departments in taking advantage of online tools that many vendors offer. Many of these tools give customers the opportunity to monitor billing, initiate service requests, and track ongoing issues, making the staff more efficient at performing tasks.
Based on all the information we had gathered Business Expense Advisors also developed a database for continuous monitoring of costs. Important contract milestones, negotiated terms and vendor contacts are all organized to provide information for the ongoing process of cost reduction.
Business Expense Advisors was able to partner with the municipality, bringing our specialized knowledge and skills to reduce costs while allowing town employees to continue to focus on providing excellent services for residents.