AREVA, the French nuclear generation equipment supplier, is using the UK as the springboard for its global thrust into renewable energy. With 48,000 staff in more than 100 countries, it was keen to control and cut its telecoms costs, particularly mobile.

Roaming charges were already 30 per cent of the bill and growing dramatically, and as users adopted smartphones, data usage soon made up 26 per cent of costs.

AREVA needed to decrease spending quickly. It also wanted to respond quickly to future developments in mobility to minimise usage and expenditure. With the renewal of its existing mobile phone contract imminent, the company called in BT to help prepare its RFP: target – to cut 40 per cent off the mobile bill.

Consultants from BT Mobility used telco’s Mobile Telecom Expense Management (MTEM) Quick Start service to analyse AREVA’s mobile estate and provide an accurate baseline model of usage for the RFP. Jean-Baptiste Quelquejay, head of services and information systems for AREVA says: “We were looking for a proven packaged approach for analysing mobile usage and BT MTEM Quick Start met requirements.”

After working through the Christmas holidays, AREVA issued the RFP in January. Three operators responded. BT helped the firm analyse and respond quickly to the different proposals, and to appoint a new operator at highly favourable tariffs that helped AREVA cut its mobile bill by 45 per cent.

“By sharing its experience of negotiating mobile contracts for other organisations, BT strengthened AREVA’s credibility with suppliers and gave us greater leverage in negotiations. Because BT is not a mobile operator we knew its advice would be impartial and for our benefit,” says Quelquejay. “As a result we have gained new insight into our mobile fleet. For example, we discovered more users in more countries than we thought we had. And BT’s expertise has helped us to exceed our savings target.”

AREVA’s new corporate mobility policy also encourages more cost-sensitive end user behaviour by, for example, sending monthly bills to employees to increase their awareness of mobile expenditure.