Staying Connected

Last Monday, Verizon and BT unexpectedly announced a joint venture that would combine their international enterprise operations. The new business is expected to serve more than 3,000 customers across more than 180 countries, representing roughly $4 billion in combined annual revenue. Their enterprise customers were the last to know. The proposed Verizon/BT joint venture raises an important questio...

When an invoice doesn't match the contract, customers need a structured way to understand what was negotiated, what is being used, what the supplier is billing, and where the mismatch is occurring. Without that discipline, recurring billing issues can undermine cost management, renewal readiness, supplier accountability, and confidence in the baseline. In this 12-minute episode of Staying Connecte...

Cost creep does not   necessarily mean an enterprise negotiated a bad deal or lacks   robust cost controls. In complex technology environments, spend can rise simply   because ordinary changes pile up:   legacy   services linger, disconnects are incomplete, invoices drift from contract terms, pricing becomes stale, and ownership gets fragmented. Without an active governance model, small issues can...

A supplier discount or individual price point is not the same thing as a market benchmark. In complex enterprise technology deals, a proposal can look competitive on the surface while leaving major cost, commitment, flexibility, and contract risk untouched. Enterprise customers need to understand not only whether the price is competitive, but whether the overall deal will hold up over time. In thi...

The Supreme Court recently ruled on a case involving forfeiture orders assessed against AT&T and Verizon for failing to safeguard customer location information. The FCC forfeiture orders totaled over $100 million in combined penalties.  In this 10-minute episode of Staying Connected, Tony Mangino is joined by LB3 partner Steve Rosen , to address a question that's been hanging over FCC enforcement...

The latest Gartner Market Guide for Telecom Expense Management Services makes clear that TEM is no longer just about invoice processing, inventory and dispute management, or wireless optimization. The category is expanding into broader technology expense management, cloud, SaaS, UCaaS, IoT, utilities, and even emerging areas like AI license sprawl and API consumption.  Tony Mangino is joined by Th...

If your company relies on call centers to support your customers, you'll want to listen to this podcast.  The Federal Communications Commission just put out a sweeping proposal to require the significant onshoring of non-US based call center operations implementation of new customer service standards, such as language proficiency requirements.   FCC mandates would normally only apply to companies...

 Organizations invest a significant amount of time and resources conducting major RFPs, renegotiations, and technology transformations. The project delivers meaningful improvements on deal commercials, cost reductions and operational gains.   However, once the deal is done and everyone goes back to their "day jobs", a surprising amount of the value starts to slip away. In this 10-minute episode of...

When a supplier relationship is broken, performance is poor and expected outcomes are not being delivered, customers don't need more noise, they need more structure. They need to understand what is broken, what outcomes matter most, and what leverage they have to resolve the issues.   Sometimes the right answer is to repair the relationship. Sometimes it is a broader reset. And sometimes the smart...

Colocation discussions usually start with the obvious questions: which provider, which geographic market, and what's the price? Those questions matter, but they are not where real value is won or lost. In this 9-minute episode of Staying Connected, Tony Mangino and   Larry York of TC2 discuss the colocation requirements the enterprise must define before sourcing gets underway. If you would like to...

In 2026, enterprise customers are transitioning from broad sustainability goals to evidence-based supplier requirements across key IT categories.   In this 10-minute episode of Staying Connected , TC2's Tony Mangino joins LB3's Deb Boehling to discuss how embedded and measurable sustainable sourcing practices can help manage risk, control costs, and drive supplier accountability. If you would like...

In almost every major technology deal you'll find tension between "lowest cost" and "total value." On paper, the lowest-priced proposal can look like the obvious win. But when you account for lifecycle cost, commercial flexibility, execution risk, and the impact on the broader roadmap, that apparent bargain can become a very expensive decision to live with.  In this 9-minute episode of Staying Con...

When companies say they're "buying Zoom," what are they actually purchasing? In this 10-minute episode of Staying Connected , Theresa Knutson and Julie Gardner join Tony Mangino , for a deep dive discussion on negotiating Zoom enterprise agreements—specifically software, professional services, and transport components. They also unpack tricky contract terms and how service alternatives and benchma...

As the FCC prepares for a congressionally-mandated auction of upper C-band spectrum sought for 5G, aviation safety experts warn those frequencies are dangerously adjacent to aircraft radio altimeters. In this 8-minute episode of Staying Connected , Steve Rosen from LB3 joins Tony Mangino to discuss the technical and financial challenges that come with upper C-band spectrum and the risk to aviation...

Deploying and Operating Starlink at Scale Once you've decided Starlink is a fit for your enterprise, you get to the hard part– how to deploy and operate it across your estate, while minimizing technical, operational and commercial risk. If Part 1 of this series was 'should we consider it,' Part 2 is 'can we do it well at scale.' In this 8-minute episode of Staying Connected , Tony Mangino is joine...

Where does Starlink work best in the large enterprise networking space? In this part one of a two part series, we examine strategy: where Starlink's high-speed, low latency internet service fits, where it doesn't, and why enterprises are paying attention beyond connectivity to remote locations. In this 9-minute episode of Staying Connected , Tony Mangino , Frank Zagrodnik and Brent Knight from TC2...

What impact will   Lumen's recent EMEA divestiture have on your organization? Lumen's sale of its EMEA assets to COLT allows Lumen to focus on its North American core, while utilizing Colt's expanded footprint to serve international clients. In this 12-minute episode of  Staying Connected , Tony Mangino and Frank Zagrodnik from TC2 are joined by LB3's Deb Boehling to outline potential impacts of s...

SASE, A Practical Guide to the Future of Secure Networking SASE is one of the biggest shifts in enterprise networking and security — and it's changing how the enterprise thinks about architecture, access, and risk. If you've heard secure access service edge (SASE) come up in cloud or cybersecurity discussions but still want a clear, practical definition, you're not alone. In this 8-minute episode...

IT cost management is more than a "finance cleanup exercise," it's a board-level priority. If you're responsible for major run-rate spend across cloud, software, telecom, and infrastructure, you've probably felt this shift. Cost questions used to be periodic, but now are continuous and tied directly to governance and risk. In this 11-minute episode of Staying Connected , TC2's Theresa Knutson join...

Legacy networks are a classic form of technology debt: they work, but they quietly limit agility, drive unnecessary cost and constrain innovation.   In this 10-minute episode of Staying Connected , TC2's Keith Cook joins Tony Mangino to talk through how enterprises are shedding that debt by moving to an Internet-first WAN—and how to do it with a clear plan rather than a disruptive leap.  We cover...

Enterprise IT and procurement teams start the year with big priorities; however without disciplined contract management and a clear view of services and spend, those good intentions may be lost as costs and risk can creep in, weakening your leverage. In this 11-minute episode of Staying Connected , Laura McDonald of LB3 joins Tony Mangino to walk through a practical New Year's "housekeeping" check...

Lumen recently announced the migration of its legacy "Control Center" customer portal to the newly branded "Lumen Connect".   In this 8-minute episode of Staying Connected , TC2's Theresa Knutson joins Tony Mangino to cover what's changing with this rollout, why Lumen is making these moves now, and what steps your team should be taking. If you would like to learn more about our experience in this...

If you manage telecom and technology spend at a large enterprise scale, you already know the hardest part isn't finding "savings." It's sustaining control—inventory accuracy, invoice integrity, governance, and supplier leverage—month after month, deal after deal. In this 9-minute episode of Staying Connected , TC2's Theresa Knutson joins Tony Mangino to mark the first anniversary of TC2's TEM Talk...

As enterprises push to modernize, many find that years of accumulated decisions have created a heavy, often invisible burden in their IT environments. In this 9-minute podcast, Brent Knight joins Tony Mangino to discuss how technology debt accumulates over time, why it is so difficult to unwind, and how enterprises can build a fact-based view of their hardware, software and WAN liabilities to enab...

As enterprises push to modernize, many find that years of accumulated decisions have created a heavy, often invisible burden in their IT environments. In this 9-minute podcast, Brent Knight joins Tony Mangino to discuss how technology debt accumulates over time, why it is so difficult to unwind, and how enterprises can build a fact-based view of their hardware, software and WAN liabilities to enab...