The client is a leading enterprise mobility-services provider that delivers a full lifecycle solution to global customers, including Global 500 organizations. It excels at fulfillment: rather than having devices shipped by wireless carriers, it activates, configures, tests and personalizes mobile devices in its own advanced fulfillment center so that end users and their IT departments get a plug-and-play experience. The provider now handles more than 2,000 orders a month and has over 100,000 lines under management with Sakon.

When the provider set out to deliver a complete mobility lifecycle solution to global customers, it needed a technology partner with three things: broad and deep mobile domain expertise, a flexible platform configurable to any business environment, and a way to find savings across thousands of lines under management around the world.

The immediate need was on the front end. The provider's fulfillment operation ran smoothly, but placing an order, and changing it over time, had to be just as fast, familiar and hassle-free, and it had to connect seamlessly to the back-end fulfillment system. Approval workflows that depended on chasing signatures slowed orders, and the paper trail behind each order risked living in spreadsheets and filing cabinets rather than in a system of record.

The larger challenge was what happens after fulfillment. Keeping track of every device, every added or deleted line and every carrier agreement connected to them is where most enterprises fall down and where dollars are lost. Charges for employees who have left the company, misapplied rates and service fees on invoices, and differing carrier preferences across business units all erode value. The provider's customers needed a complete, up-to-date view of global device inventory and the costs attached to it.

Sakon delivered a front-end portal that connects to the provider's back-end fulfillment system. The portal presents mobile product and service information in an easy-to-navigate way and makes it simple to transact: Sakon automates the approval workflow so end users buy with the push of a button instead of chasing signatures. Every order, now more than 2,000 a month, is automatically captured in the system with its paper trail intact.

Behind the portal, Sakon's Synkronize processing engine continuously gathers, unifies and synchronizes data from carrier contracts, monthly invoices, HR personnel files and other sources. It gives the provider's customer-service managers and their customers a single system of record for every piece of inventory in the mobile environment and every piece of information that qualifies it, so decision-makers work from one version of the truth.

Configurability was a notable design choice. Business units keep their own preferences and workflows; for example, one unit of a Global 500 customer can use AT&T while another uses Verizon, and those preferences are embedded in the system and reflected across every touchpoint.

With the data in one place, Sakon audits the environment continuously, uncovering charges for departed employees and misapplied rates and fees, and optimizing wherever possible. The Mobility application also supports a real-time inventory of the mobile portfolio, improved employee self-service tools and an automated mobility helpdesk.

• More than $9 million in savings generated for the provider's customers
• Per-device spend driven down by 22%, an average of $18 per line per month
• Partnership has grown to more than 100,000 lines under management
• Over 2,000 orders a month flow through the automated approval workflow
• Single system of record replaces spreadsheets and filing cabinets for order and inventory data
• The provider's owner adopted Sakon as its own mobility management solution