YMCA Client Testimonal

Client Profile:

The YMCA Movement in England is one of the largest youth development organisations in the world. Founded in central London in 1844, the YMCA now has 148 autonomous associations throughout the UK affiliated to YMCA England, a presence in over 120 countries and a worldwide membership of 30 million.

Case Study:

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Left to right: Gill Gibbon, Auditel consultant; Paul Sargison, Head of Retail for YMCA Shops; Peter Mayhew, Auditel consultant

As a charity, the YMCA relies on public donations and sponsorship to fund their wide programme of services, supplemented by money raised through their network of 80 charity shops and Paul Sargison, Head of Retail for YMCA Shops is very aware of the organisation’s duty to spend this money wisely. Auditel’s contingency-fee based cost management programme was, therefore, very appealing to Paul, who engaged Auditel consultant Gillian Gibbon in 2004 to carry out a comprehensive review of the essential services costs being incurred by YMCA Shops.

Paul says, “Many of our shops are on short term leases which can change at a moment’s notice and this has caused us no end of problems with our landline providers over recent years. In particular we’ve had lots of incorrect bills and this has resulted in YMCA staff wasting precious time on trying to resolve problems. Obviously, as a charity we’re keen to reduce expenditure wherever we can so the Auditel proposition was attractive from that point of view but I was particularly interested in the idea of having an outsourced resource dedicated to providing ongoing management of our phones and energy expenditure – particularly one that doesn’t cost us anything. ”

Armed with the challenge to sort out landline phone service levels, regardless of savings, Gill enlisted the assistance of an Auditel colleague, Peter Mayhew, to help her achieve this goal. By pooling their expertise and knowledge of the UK telecoms market, Gill and Peter consolidated landline expenditure across all the shops and moved it to a high quality provider with a proven track record for excellent customer service. What’s more, they also realised annual savings of £4,700 or 37% against original expenditure levels. Having addressed this initial issue, Gill and Peter moved their attention to mobile phone and electricity charges.

The first of these was of particular importance because with District Managers out on the road all day, bills had been steadily rising. In addition, the incumbent contract was due for renewal within months. By carrying out a detailed analysis of the most recent twelve month’s bills, Gill and Peter ascertained that a significant proportion of calls being made were mobile to mobile. Armed with this information, they were able to tender the market for a new package more appropriate for YMCA’s particular call profile. By consolidating mobile phones across both YMCA Shops and YMCA England onto a new contract, Gill and Peter achieved £10,350 of savings, equivalent to a reduction of 34% against the original contract.

A similar consolidation and tendering process against renewal prices for electricity supply contracts meant a further £8,770 savings were found on electricity expenditure. This represented a 14% reduction against the incumbent supplier’s renewal prices; very impressive in a rising energy market. Gill and Peter’s next project for YMCA Shops is to look at ways to reduce and manage their rapidly rising waste collection charges.

By joining forces with three more Auditel colleagues and outsourced experts, Gill and Peter’s success on behalf of YMCA Shops has been extended to ten of the individual YMCA Associations. Of these, projects for nine Associations have already been implemented and total identified savings for YMCA to date now stand at a staggering £135,000 p.a. This includes several rebates for overpaid charges on electricity totalling £21,000. With new Associations being brought into the project each month, and Auditel’s commitment to provide ongoing management services to sites that have already been reviewed, this total will continue to rise.

Savings Achieved:

£23,700 Fixed Telecoms
£10,350 Mobile Telecoms
£49,913 Electricty
£11,299 Gas
£2,000 Waste
£5,500 Fire Equipment
£29,450 Janitorial/cleaning supplies
£2,800 Laundry

Total Saving: £135,012