Simplified mobile services reduce costs

Uniting WA has cut its mobile costs by over 60%, after Macquarie Telecom simplified its services.

The organisation’s need to maintain a reliable mobility service is greater than most — many staff work with potentially high-risk members of the community through Uniting WA’s services.

These include support for mental health, disability, homelessness, housing, financial counselling, re-entry to society for prisoners and more.

Many staff use the Safe Haven app, which allows them to activate an SOS if in a dangerous situation.

Since switching to Macquarie Telecom, the organisation has seen improved support at a time when the organisation is more dependent on its mobile services and data.

Following years of poor service and erratic costs from two tier-one telcos, which rendered mobiles a heavy burden, Uniting WA realised it needed to reduce costs and find a new provider. Issues included spend growing at an unsustainable level, poor support, outdated services and unexpected billing spikes.

The not-for-profit switched its mobility services to Macquarie Telecom, which was able to reduce mobile spend by more than 60% by creating a shared data pool between staff to share data without bill spikes and providing real-time access to data and call usage to help Uniting WA more effectively manage resources.

“It became clear we had become just a number to our two former telco providers,” said Luke McNiece, Principal Practice Lead, Uniting WA.

“There was zero account management and no local support, and we didn’t have the resources in-house to manage our mobile services. With Macquarie that all changed — the NPS score was telling and it truly exceeded expectations and almost instantly slashed our mobile costs while improving reliability and management.

“Most organisations are more reliant than ever on their mobiles in the current climate, but for us they’re an essential part of how we keep our people safe, no matter what. Knowing that our mobile services are now in safe, reliable hands gives us great comfort.”

Uniting WA will also consider additional services such as network infrastructure, SD-WAN and cloud with Macquarie following the success of the mobile overhaul. The organisation has transitioned non-essential staff to working from home due to COVID-19 restrictions and is looking at implementing long-term work-from-home capabilities for those staff.

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