British Heart Foundation makes savings with Segmentation

BHF's vision is a world in which people do not die prematurely of heart disease. The British Heart Foundation was founded in 1961 and since that time there have been vital major advances in the treatment and prevention of heart disease. With offices in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, BHF invests in pioneering research, prevention activity and quality support and care for heart patients.

Earlier this year, the BHF Shops Division asked Segmentation for help and advice with their mobile communications prior to their current contract expiring. Not only did BHF have concerns about service levels, they also wanted to ensure they would be receiving high quality equipment, the best tariffs available and the most effective account management support. The first step was for Segmentation to issue a 'Request for Proposals' to the various mobile network suppliers on BHF's behalf. From this a detailed analysis of the many different options was conducted.

Steve Biddle, BHF's Financial Controller, says "Due to resource and knowledge restrictions, we considered it vital to have a specialist company working with us to carry out the necessary research and examine the different bids, including modelling the various usage patterns and helping us through the confusion and complexity surrounding the many handset and connection credits."

A new supplier was selected with projected ongoing savings of 47% per annum across the Foundation as a whole (40% for the Shops Division and 57% for Head Office), as well as improved management and customer service facilities.

Segmentation was retained by the Shops Division to project-manage the porting from the old network to the new as Steve explains, "Although we have reasonable control of our mobile estate, it made sense to bring in an outside resource with the expertise for this specific project. Segmentation applied a structured approach to manage the migration process with a formal project plan, regular contact and updates and weekly conference calls to monitor progress; and they gave us valuable support when a number of issues arose on the network side during the migration."

Denise Kopitko, who manages the front line support to BHF's Shops operation, says "In a retail environment, effective management of communication from the centre to our regional/area offices and branches is critical. We quickly built up a good working relationship with the Segmentation staff and their diligence and management skills made the overall task much less painful than it might have been."

Following the success of the mobile project, BHF has recently retained Segmentation to carry out a full financial and systems audit of their UK fixed telecoms, to include over 530 retail shops as well as the Foundation's Head Office with regional operations throughout the UK.

For more information, contact John Turner
Tel: 0161 330 4422
John.turner@segmentation.eu.com

Posted 06 Sept 07

News & Case Studies