Fed Up With Wireless Management

The Client: Swinerton Builders provides commercial construction services throughout the Western United States, delivering innovative construction solutions and outstanding customer service to a diverse range of business clients that demand high quality construction. Established in 1888, Engineering News-Record magazine consistently ranks Swinerton among the Top 25 General Contractors in the nation and in the Top 10 within the categories of Commercial Office, Retail, Multi-family Residential, Hospitality, Healthcare, Education and Entertainment. Today, Swinerton offices are located throughout California, in Colorado, Hawaii, Texas, New Mexico and Washington.

The Results:

Frustrated by the variable monthly charges, confusing and lengthy invoices, and poor carrier customer service, John Knott, Controller – Swinerton Builders scheduled a meeting with an eMOBUS consultant. After an initial consultation, Swinerton decided to rollout eMOBUS Electronic Mobility Management system. Knott states, “We’re in the business of construction, cellular is just a tool. Our employees need cellular devices to conduct business, but the costs were bleeding each project's bottom line.” Besides the out of hand billing costs, John noticed the day-to-day administrative tasks were taking a toll on the business. “Cellular is a nightmare that was just dumped into IT and Accounting's plate. It’s a big enough cost to do something about, but hiring a full-time person was not justifiable," explains John. “Prior to eMOBUS, I estimated that we were spending over 50 hours a month on cellular related issues. Now we hardly spend any time on cellular at all. The most attractive part of the service, is that the fees are incorporated into the savings. Within the first 60 days, eMOBUS reduced my direct Sprint and Verizon billing costs by 33%.”

The Challenges:

Monthly cellular invoices are among the most menacing line items that cross a controller’s desk. Lengthy documents with poor account visibility make managing corporate cellular accounts a challenge. “How does one determine additional charges when they are all grouped into one lump sum, let alone take action on them?” asked John. Instead of just charging a flat rate for usage, carriers create confusing bundles of minutes, data, and text messaging plans, forcing users to play a complex game of management where, more often than not, the carriers win. Companies that can’t keep up are forced to overpay for service, and literally throw away money each month. For companies that do contend with the carriers, it becomes resource-intensive internally, costing inordinate amounts of time and salary dollars.

The Solution:

Electronic Mobility Management offers a rare combination of service and technology to find the most cost effective way to meet Swinerton’s daily cellular needs. eMOBUS provides control over account management, procurement, inventory tracking, and detailed visibility. Overages and underages, also known as cellular breakage, is how the carriers profit from account mistakes. If an organization uses too few minutes on its plan, it loses money on the unused and wasted minutes. Conversely, if an organization uses more minutes than its plan provides, it pays a premium for going over the allocated minutes. When multiplied by the tens, hundreds or even thousands of users an organization employs, breakage adds up. Other prime breakage areas include text messaging, data usage, and international plans. “eMOBUS realizes I have more important things to do than worry about the granular details of cellular,” exclaims John. “The online ticketing system saves my team time, while giving me visibility into out of company policy usage.”