Partnertel
Gareleck said the company is sticking with managed services—at least for now. Partnertel is expanding its services offering this year with a suit of e-mail backup and spam control services.
Cutting the fat out of customers’ telecom bills has helped Partnertel more than double its own size.
Partnertel, an Atlanta-based telecom service provider, invested $2.5 million to develop software tools that help midsize and enterprise customers benchmark carrier contracts, keep an eye on telecom inventory and audit monthly bills.
“We typically realize at least a 20 percent savings for our customers,” said Partnertel CEO Steven Gareleck. “On a $1 million spend, that is $200,000 per year or more.”
Partnertel helped LogistiCare, a medical transportation company in Atlanta, reduce its $2 million telecom bill.
Paul Berardis, director of OnLine Communications, a Partnertel agent that handled the deal, said LogistiCare has 26 call centers across the country and a number of vendors. “People didn’t have a good grasp on what they were spending,” he said.
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Partnertel services saved LogistiCare about 30 percent in the first year. “We are looking at a 40 [percent] to 50 percent savings in three years,” said Berardis, whose company is now being acquired by LogistiCare.
Partnertel charges customers a onetime setup fee and 2.5 percent to 3 percent of the total phone bill for the service. The recurring revenue more than makes up for commissions lost as telecom prices continue to drop, Gareleck said.
In fact, Partnertel added the service to its phone and data offerings nearly two years ago when Gareleck saw margins eroding from falling telecom prices. He said the managed service has led to company growth of 125 percent for the 12 months ended June 30, 2004, and he expects revenue to jump by 300 percent to 400 percent next year.
Though he originally planned to go to medical school, Gareleck ended up with an MBA and worked on Wall Street until he started up a computer reseller with Partnertel President Remington Reynolds. The pair moved into telecom when margins on hardware dropped. Partnertel sells direct to midsize and enterprise companies and maintains a roster of about 300 active agents to service smaller accounts.