Most organisations need to deliver cost savings as they seek to weather challenging financial times, and for many as they brace for the increase in employer National Insurance contributions (ENICs) set for April 2025. 

It is therefore vital these organisations understand the proactive strategies they can take to mitigate these effects and deliver the cost savings their organisations require.  

As always, these challenges also represent opportunities for organisations not just to deliver cost savings, but to optimise or even transform their network, telecoms, and/or mobile services. 

Understanding the Impact 

The challenging financial times, combined with shocks such as the rise in ENICs means organisations may well have to either deliver the same services for less money, enhanced services for the same money, or even a combination of the two.  This will particularly be the case for organisations operating in industries or sectors with tighter margins, or less ability to pass higher costs onto customers. 

Whilst addressing this may cause initial concern, organisations should embrace the situation as an opportunity to refine their operations and improve cost efficiency. 

Proactive Strategies 

All organisations seeking cost savings should consider a range of proactive strategies.  As specialists in helping organisations achieve cost savings in network, telecoms, and mobile, The Network Collective (TNC) has identified the following key actions all organisations should take: 

1. Network Efficiency Improvements:

• Bandwidth Optimisation: By analysing and optimising bandwidth usage and implementing traffic management solutions to help prioritise essential data flow and minimise wastage, organisations can reduce unnecessary network costs. 
• Unified Communications: Consolidating communication platforms into a single, integrated solution can simplify operations, improve collaboration, and reduce costs associated with managing multiple vendors and systems.  

2. Telecoms Cost Reduction:

• Network & Telecoms Audits: Conducting regular audits of telecoms usage and contracts can identify areas for savings. On average, TNC identifies 12% of the value of the bills customers receive to be either redundant, incorrectly billed, or incorrect sized.

3. Contract Optimisation:

• Re-procuring or Renegotiating Contracts: Re-procuring or renegotiating network and telecoms contracts is another important step towards achieving better commercial outcomes. By evaluating current arrangements and exploring competitive offerings, organisations can secure more favourable terms, thus enhancing their financial position.  Most telecoms service providers are very open to these approaches at this time as they are also finding the market very challenging 

Embracing Innovation and Efficiency 

Beyond direct cost reductions, organisations should also focus on innovation and process efficiency. Encouraging a culture of continuous improvement and leveraging technology to streamline operations can enhance productivity and reduce overall expenditure. 

 Automation:  

• Organisations are increasingly adopting automation in routine processes to minimise manual effort and improve accuracy. Automation tools in areas such as customer service, data management, and workflow processes can free up resources for more strategic initiatives. 

 Artificial Intelligence:  

• Utilising AI in organisation operations can lead to significant cost savings and efficiency gains. AI can help improve decision-making processes, enhance customer experiences through personalised interactions, and optimise supply chains by predicting demand and managing inventory efficiently. 

Execution Strategies 

The actions set out above may sound easy, but many organisations find them very challenging to execute.  For example, many organisations find that they lack accurate inventories of current services, or haven’t audited their estates and billing for many years.  Other organisations find that it is hard to pin down who owns particular services.  Very commonly, we find organisations where there isn’t sufficient engagement between IT and the front line departments, meaning that it is hard to drive strategic change when the organisation doesn’t know what IT can do for it, and IT can’t bring innovation to the table. 

Furthermore, all organisations have limited resources and often far too many projects and initiatives already under way, so the prospect of launching even more initiatives may not be attractive.  In these cases, TNC would strongly advise two strategies:  

1. Most importantly, recognise that many major achievements come about through incremental improvements.  For example, organisations that lack accurate inventories of current services and contracts don’t need to audit every single solution to gain benefits – even auditing one big supplier will likely yield significant benefits, whilst creating a template for how to tackle other suppliers, all while showing the benefits that can be achieved, which could enable additional resources to be corralled
    
2. Engage external experts to augment your team.  Many of the initiatives TNC recommends don’t have to be executed solely with internal resources – external consultants and partners can augment your internal resources to enable you to tackle more of the challenges that face you.  We should of course say that TNC is very well placed to help you achieve the objectives set out in this article, having delivered exactly these results for over 300 of the UK’s largest and most demanding organisations  

Conclusion 

While the increase in employer National Insurance contributions presents a challenge, it can also serve as a catalyst for organisations to innovate and optimise. Proactive actions driven by IT departments can reduce the commercial exposure and position their organisations to weather the economic storm and be well-placed for sustainable growth.  

Organisations that effectively manage this transition will not only safeguard their financial health but also contribute positively to the broader economic landscape, setting a benchmark for resilience and adaptability in the years to come. 

How can TNC help?

TNC has 20 years’ experience in helping organisations secure significant cost savings on their network, telecoms, and mobile services, and has delivered over £100m of cost savings in the last 3 years alone.  We have the expertise, methodologies, tools, and specialist resources to augment your team, and drive cost savings quickly and effectively. 

Therefore, if you need to deliver cost savings, and network, telecoms, and/or mobile services are in your sights, you really should get in touch! 

TNC holds over 4.3m active market data points covering WAN, data networks, fixed voice and mobility

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