How a multi-branch community bank cut WAN costs 41% and eliminated single-carrier dependency — without touching core banking systems.
Key Outcomes
The bank had been with the same carrier for nearly a decade. The relationship had started well, but without competitive pressure at renewal, pricing had drifted well above market. A preliminary analysis showed they were paying a 35–40% premium over what comparable institutions were paying for equivalent services.
Beyond cost, the architecture itself created risk. Every branch connected through a single carrier's MPLS network — meaning a carrier outage had the potential to affect multiple locations simultaneously. With regulators increasingly focused on operational resilience, this was a vulnerability the CIO needed to address.
The challenge was bandwidth. The IT team was managing a core banking migration in parallel and simply could not run a full RFP process on top of their existing workload.
ARG embedded with the IT team to understand the current environment, the performance requirements of the core banking platform, and the regulatory context — including the OCC's guidance on third-party dependency management.
A branch-by-branch connectivity assessment established the baseline: current costs, contract terms, expiration dates, and performance benchmarks at each location. This created the foundation for a targeted RFP that specified exactly what the bank needed — not a generic connectivity RFP.
ARG ran the competitive process across eight providers, including the incumbent, and negotiated final terms using comparative pricing data from its broader client portfolio. The selected architecture introduced carrier diversity at key locations, eliminating single-carrier dependency while reducing total cost.
Branch-by-branch audit of current circuits, contract terms, expiration dates, and performance metrics. Established a clear baseline and identified locations where the largest cost and performance improvement opportunities existed.
Issued a structured RFP to eight carriers including the incumbent. Evaluated proposals against a banking-specific scorecard that weighted regulatory compliance, uptime SLAs, and support responsiveness alongside cost.
Used competitive proposals and ARG's market pricing data to negotiate final terms. Achieved 41% cost reduction with improved SLAs, carrier diversity at primary locations, and favorable migration and termination terms.
Managed the full migration timeline around core banking system availability windows. Zero downtime achieved across all branch migrations through detailed cutover planning and carrier coordination.
The 41% WAN cost reduction represented a significant improvement in the IT operating budget — capital that was redirected toward the core banking modernization initiative already underway.
Carrier diversity at primary locations addressed the operational resilience concern that had been flagged in a prior regulatory exam, closing a gap that had been on the IT risk register for two years.
The bank retained ARG for ongoing vendor management — providing a single point of accountability for carrier performance, contract renewals, and any service issues that arise across the network.
“We knew we were overpaying. We just didn't have the time or the leverage to do anything about it. ARG ran the entire process, negotiated better than we could have internally, and we didn't have to take our eye off the core banking project.”