An enterprise mobile device optimization case study: how BAZ Group inventoried 6,200+ devices, disconnected 1,750 that were unnecessary, redesigned the procurement and support processes, and built an ongoing program that identifies 500+ unneeded devices every year — generating $0.9M in immediate savings and $350K in recurring annual savings.
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Quick Answer A major US department store chain was paying monthly service fees on 6,200+ mobile devices — phones, tablets, and internet devices — with no reliable record of which were actively needed. Mobile costs were rising and nobody could explain why. BAZ Group applied its proven device identification process to inventory every device, integrated carrier data with the client’s records and end-user input, and identified 1,750 devices that could be immediately disconnected. BAZ then led workshops to redesign the procurement and support processes from the ground up. The result: a 35% cost reduction ($0.9M immediate), $350K in recurring annual savings, a consolidated procurement function, and a continuously operating program that identifies 500+ unneeded devices every year. |
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35% $0.9M immediate cost reduction |
$350K Average recurring annual savings |
1,750 Devices disconnected in initial audit |
500+ Unneeded devices identified every year |
This engagement involved a major US department store chain operating hundreds of locations nationwide. Like many large retailers, the company relied on a substantial fleet of mobile devices — phones for store associates and managers, tablets for inventory and customer service functions, and internet devices for point-of-sale and back-office systems. At 6,200+ devices across a national footprint, mobile services represented a significant and growing line item in the technology budget.
The scale of the fleet also meant that mobile device management — procurement, provisioning, support, and decommissioning — was a meaningful operational function. When that function lacks clear processes and reliable records, the cost and user experience consequences compound quickly.
The symptoms were clear before the cause was understood. Mobile service costs were rising, but nobody in the organization could explain the increase. Monthly fees were being paid on over 6,200 devices — phones, tablets, and internet devices — but there was no reliable record of which devices were actively assigned to users, which were sitting in a drawer somewhere, which had been issued to employees who had since left the company, and which were simply unnecessary for any current business function.
The lack of visibility had two distinct cost consequences. The first was obvious: the organization was paying for devices it didn’t need. The second was subtler but equally significant: without reliable data, the organization couldn’t optimize its mobile plans, couldn’t pool data and talk time efficiently across users, and couldn’t make informed decisions about carrier relationships or device procurement strategies.
The user experience problem compounded the cost problem. End users were waiting weeks to receive new devices because the procurement process was broken — unclear ownership, inconsistent procedures, and no streamlined path from request to delivery. The same process failures that were generating wasted spend were also generating staff frustration. BAZ Group was engaged to fix both.
"BAZ is so much better than other groups we have worked with. You push us to get better at the things we should be better at and support us with custom processes when we are not able to make these changes as quickly as we would like."
Senior Director of Mobility — Major US Department Store Chain
BAZ Group’s engagement combined three workstreams: a systematic device identification audit to establish what existed and what was needed, a collaborative process redesign to fix the procurement and support workflows, and the implementation of an ongoing program to continuously identify and eliminate waste as the fleet evolved.
The foundation of the engagement was BAZ Group’s proven device identification process — a methodology that integrates three distinct data sources to build an accurate, actionable picture of a mobile device fleet: wireless carrier records (what is active and being billed), the client’s internal mobile device management records (what is officially assigned), and direct end-user input (what is actually being used and why).
In most enterprise mobile environments, these three data sources don’t agree with each other. Carrier billing includes devices that internal records show as decommissioned. Internal records show devices assigned to employees who have left. End users have devices that neither carrier nor internal records accurately reflect. The BAZ process works through these discrepancies systematically, resolving conflicts and building a verified inventory that accurately represents the fleet’s actual state.
For this client, the process identified 1,750 devices that were active on carrier billing but served no current business need — representing a significant portion of the unexplained cost increase. These were devices tied to former employees, obsolete functions, and organizational structures that had changed without anyone updating the mobile records. They were disconnected immediately upon verification.
Disconnecting unused devices addressed the immediate cost problem. Fixing the processes that had allowed them to accumulate addressed the structural problem. BAZ led a series of workshops with the client’s team responsible for mobile device procurement and support — the people who owned the function day-to-day and who understood where the friction and inefficiency actually lived.
The workshops were designed to surface three things: process gaps (steps that should exist but didn’t, such as a formal off-boarding trigger for device decommissioning), process overlaps (parallel workflows doing the same work inconsistently), and process inefficiencies (steps that added complexity without adding value). From this analysis, BAZ redesigned the procurement and support processes to be simpler, more consistent, and more responsive to user needs.
The redesigned processes had immediate user experience effects. New device delivery times — previously measured in weeks — dropped significantly. Support request resolution times improved. The procurement function, which had previously required multiple staff resources to manage inefficiently, was consolidated into a single FTE operating a streamlined, well-documented process.
The most durable outcome of the engagement was the establishment of an ongoing device identification and optimization program. Rather than treating the initial audit as a one-time cleanup, BAZ built a continuously operating process that integrates carrier data, internal records, and user input on a regular cadence — identifying unneeded devices as they emerge rather than waiting for them to accumulate.
The program identifies 500+ unneeded devices per year and terminates them promptly — generating $350K in average recurring annual savings. This is the difference between a one-time cost recovery and a sustainable cost management capability: the savings don’t erode because the program never stops running.
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Outcome |
Detail |
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Initial cost reduction |
35% reduction in mobile costs ($0.9M) from disconnecting 1,750 unneeded devices |
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Recurring annual savings |
$350K average per year from the ongoing device identification and termination program |
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Devices disconnected |
1,750 in the initial audit; 500+ identified and terminated every year thereafter |
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Procurement consolidation |
Mobile device procurement function consolidated from multiple staff to one FTE |
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User experience |
New device delivery and support request resolution times significantly reduced |
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Ongoing program |
Continuously operating identification process prevents unused devices from accumulating |
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Process improvement |
Procurement and support workflows redesigned for clarity, consistency, and efficiency |
The problems this client experienced are not unusual. In BAZ Group’s work with enterprise mobile fleets, the same waste patterns appear consistently — and they compound over time without active management.
When an employee leaves, a role is eliminated, or a business function changes, the mobile devices associated with that change don’t automatically stop billing. Without a formal process that connects organizational changes to device management actions, unused devices accumulate month after month. In a fleet of thousands, even a modest rate of off-boarding without decommissioning creates significant waste within a year.
Enterprise mobile fleets often contain a mix of device types — smartphones, tablets, mobile hotspots, IoT devices — managed under separate plans or carrier relationships that were negotiated independently. The opportunity to bundle these services under consolidated plans with volume pricing is frequently missed because no one has a unified view of the full fleet. Each plan looks reasonable in isolation; together they represent significant overpayment relative to what a bundled approach would cost.
Fixed individual data and talk plans generate two types of waste simultaneously: employees who exceed their limits generate overage charges, and employees whose usage falls below their plan are paying for capacity they never use. Pooled plans that share allowances across a group of users eliminate both waste types — but only if someone is actively analyzing usage patterns and configuring plans accordingly. Without that ongoing attention, fixed individual plans quietly generate predictable, avoidable costs every month.
BAZ Group’s cellular procurement and mobile optimization service addresses all three of these patterns — through the initial device identification process, the ongoing program that catches new waste as it emerges, and the process redesign that builds the organizational discipline to prevent accumulation in the first place.
What drove the outcomes in this engagement:
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Do You Know What’s Running in Your Mobile Fleet? If you can’t quickly answer how many devices you have active, what each is used for, and which could be safely disconnected — you have a mobile optimization opportunity. Start with a no-cost audit.
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Reducing enterprise mobile device costs requires addressing both the immediate waste and the processes that generate it. The immediate waste typically comes from unused devices still on active billing — phones and tablets assigned to former employees, obsolete functions, or unverified purposes. The process waste comes from plan mismatches (fixed individual plans instead of pooled plans), lack of carrier bundling across device types, and procurement processes that add devices faster than they decommission them. BAZ Group’s cellular procurement and mobile optimization service addresses all three: identifying and disconnecting unused devices, optimizing plans and carrier relationships, and redesigning procurement and decommissioning processes to prevent waste from reaccumulating.
Enterprise mobile device optimization is the process of right-sizing a company’s mobile fleet — ensuring that every active device serves a current business need, that plans and carrier contracts reflect actual usage patterns, and that the procurement and decommissioning processes that govern the fleet are efficient and well-documented. For a major retailer with 6,200+ devices, optimization delivered a 35% cost reduction ($0.9M) immediately and $350K in recurring annual savings through an ongoing device identification program. The user experience benefit — faster device delivery, more responsive support — was an equally important outcome.
The most reliable signal is a discrepancy between your carrier billing and your internal device management records. If the number of devices on your carrier invoice doesn’t match the number in your MDM or asset management system, you likely have unused devices on active billing. Other signals include rising mobile costs without a corresponding increase in headcount or business activity, a backlog of device provisioning requests that suggests your procurement process is broken, and an inability to answer basic questions like “how many devices do we currently have active, and what is each one used for?” BAZ Group’s device identification process resolves all of these questions through a systematic integration of carrier data, internal records, and end-user input.
Mobile device procurement optimization for retail enterprises covers the full lifecycle of device management: acquiring devices efficiently (right specifications, right quantities, right contracts), provisioning them to users quickly, tracking assignment and usage accurately, and decommissioning them promptly when they’re no longer needed. For this retail client, BAZ redesigned the procurement and support processes to eliminate complexity, reduce delivery times from weeks to days, consolidate the function from multiple staff to one FTE, and establish an ongoing identification program that terminates 500+ unneeded devices per year. Procurement optimization is not a one-time project — it’s an ongoing management capability.
Results depend on fleet size and the state of existing processes, but this engagement achieved a 35% cost reduction ($0.9M) immediately and $350K in average annual recurring savings through an ongoing optimization program. As a benchmark, enterprises with fleets of several thousand devices that haven’t been systematically reviewed in the past 12–18 months typically find that 20–30% of active devices are unnecessary or misallocated. Addressing both the immediate waste and the recurring accumulation — as BAZ did in this engagement — generates savings that compound year over year.
Yes — completely. BAZ Group is independent from all carriers, device manufacturers, and MDM software vendors. That independence is what makes it possible to recommend disconnecting 1,750 devices, redesigning procurement processes, and challenging carrier billing — recommendations that a party with commercial ties to the carriers or vendors involved would be unlikely to make as directly. BAZ’s only interest is the client’s financial and operational outcome.