How Conestoga College cut mobility costs by 70% with Cimpl

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Why Modern Organizations Need Telecom Expense Management

Telecom and mobility costs are rising, environments are expanding, and manual processes can’t keep up. Many organizations still rely on spreadsheets, manual invoice checks, or best‑effort guesswork, leaving significant cost savings and operational improvements unexplored.

Conestoga College, one of Ontario’s fastest‑growing post‑secondary institutions, realized this challenge firsthand. Their journey from manual tracking to automated, data-driven telecom management with Upland Cimpl shows how transformative a Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution can be.

This story is privacy‑friendly, using percentages only to highlight impact without sharing exact figures.

Manual telecom processes that couldn’t Scale

Before implementing Upland Cimpl, Conestoga College managed telecom across:

Manually updated spreadsheets
Decentralized processes split across teams
Little to no contract validation
Time-consuming reconciliations
Limited visibility into usage or inventory accuracy

As the college expanded—more employees, more devices, more hybrid learning—the complexity quickly outpaced what manual methods could support.

Carissa described the environment clearly:

“Our data wasn’t consistently up to date, and even small updates took a lot of effort. We didn’t have the tools to manage telecom efficiently or confidently.”

Why Conestoga College chose a Telecom Expense Management (TEM) solution

The college needed a platform that could:

Centralize telecom and mobility inventory
Validate invoices automatically
Provide clean, real-time data
Reduce manual workload
Improve cost control
Support rapid organizational growth

Upland Cimpl offered all of the above through its automated inventory, continuous invoice‑level audits, contract alignment checks, and expert managed services.

“We started seeing value quickly—both in time saved and confidence in the data.” What is TEM?

Over 70% reduction in mobility spend

Conestoga College experienced more than a 70% decrease in its mobility expenses after implementing Upland Cimpl.

That outcome came from:

Plan optimization
Removing unnecessary services
Identifying low‑usage or unused lines
Catching discrepancies early
Avoiding overages
Ensuring everything matched contract terms

This cost optimization delivered meaningful financial relief at a time when budgets were tightening across the institution.

“The savings were significant and came at the perfect time. It made a real difference for our organization.”

Improved forecasting, budgeting & financial transparency

With Cimpl’s real‑time dashboards and reporting, Conestoga College gained a level of visibility they had never experienced before.

Now they can:

Forecast telecom spend accurately
Track usage trends month‑to‑month
Validate charges immediately
Present clean, trusted data to Finance
Align budgets with actual consumption patterns

This transparency strengthened collaboration between IT and Finance.

“Finance knows our data is accurate and that we’re making decisions based on facts—not estimates.” Is it your time to implement a TEM Solution?

Gaining agility during times of rapid growth

During periods of high-paced onboarding and program expansion, Conestoga College’s telecom needs shifted daily.

Cimpl enabled the college to:

Adjust plans instantly
Redistribute devices efficiently
Keep inventory continuously accurate
Avoid unexpected cost spikes
Stay ahead of carrier charges

This real‑time responsiveness supported operational continuity even during peak growth.

The Minimal Use Report: A powerful tool for mobility optimization

One of the most valuable insights for Conestoga College came from a customized Minimal Use Report—created at their request.

Unlike zero‑usage reports, this version identifies consistently low usage, enabling the team to:

Spot devices belonging to employees on leave
Confirm whether phones are still needed for certain roles
Retire underused lines
Transition teams to alternatives like Teams Calling

This insight allowed the college to reduce unnecessary lines, contributing significantly to its cost optimization.

“Cimpl doesn’t just show you data—it gives you actionable insights you can use immediately.”

Shifting from manual admin to strategic IT projects

With Cimpl taking on operational telecom tasks, the IT team gained meaningful bandwidth back.

They were able to advance:

Digitalization initiatives
ERP transformation
Print reduction strategies
Migration from Mitel to Teams Calling
Long‑term cost optimization projects

Instead of being stuck in spreadsheets, the team could focus on strategic, institution‑wide improvement.

When to consider a telecom expense management solution

Carissa identified several signs that an organization is ready for a TEM solution:

Telecom invoices aren’t reviewed consistently
Telecom inventory lives in spreadsheets
Overages or discrepancies go unnoticed
Users receive devices without clear approval standards
Forecasting is based on assumptions
Telecom costs fluctuate with no clear reason
IT teams spend too much time manually reconciling data

If even one of these sounds familiar, it’s worth exploring a more structured solution like Upland Cimpl.

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What Conestoga College would do differently

While the implementation of Cimpl went smoothly, Conestoga College would have strengthened one process earlier:

More rigorous criteria for approving phones before issuing them.

This would have prevented committing to multi-year service contracts for roles that later changed or no longer required a dedicated phone.

A modern, data-driven approach to Telecom Expense Management

Conestoga College’s experience demonstrates how powerful telecom expense management can be when it’s automated, centralized, and paired with expert services.

Their benefits included: