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Our Clients

See our client success stories to learn how RampRate has slashed costs, risk and time from complex infrastructure sourcing projects.

RampRate

Shopzilla
Organization:
Shopzilla
Location:
Los Angeles, CA
Website:
shopzilla.com
About Shopzilla:
Shopzilla, Inc., is a leading source for connecting buyers and sellers online. Reaching a global audience of over 40 million shoppers each month through both its destination Web sites and affiliate network, Shopzilla connects shoppers with over 100 million products from tens of thousands of retailers a month. Shopzilla, Inc., manages a premier portfolio of online shopping brands in the US and Europe, consisting of Bizrate, Beso, Shopzilla, Retrevo, TaDa, PrixMoinsCher, and SparDeinGeld, as well as a series of B2B businesses including Bizrate Insights, Shopzilla Publisher Program, and a display and audience targeting division, Aisle A. Headquartered in Los Angeles, CA, the company operates sites and business services in the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Germany. Shopzilla, Inc., is owned by Symphony Technology Group (STG).

Situation

  • With a portfolio of shopping Web sites offering a robust price comparison service, Shopzilla sites had attracted over 19 million unique visitors in the US alone by 2009.
  • Continued growth coupled with a mission to enable shoppers to find, compare, and buy anything, sold by virtually anyone, anywhere—combined with continued growth in the US and Europe—meant that data colocation would be critical to success.
  • Shopzilla had multiple service complaints and contractual issues with its colocation provider in the US, and was concerned that its SLAs and contract terms were inadequate.
  • At the same time, Shopzilla needed to identify optimal colo sites in the EU.
  • Shopzilla turned to RamRate for help and realized optimization in areas it never thought possible.

Action

  • In just 9 weeks, achieved 7-figure savings in mid-contract renegotiation with incumbent colo supplier—equivalent to 28% savings over the previous contract.

 

  • Negotiated and realized strong protections in new contract against the kinds of service level problems experienced in the past.
  • Consolidated multiple service orders into one coterminous contract.
  • Obtained multiple offers for data center and bandwidth in London during time of scarcity due to Olympics and financial crisis.
  • Helped Shopzilla determine that colo in the EU was not necessary, thus saving nearly $2 million in unnecessary colo expense.

Download Shopzilla Client Success Story

 

The subsequent savings, SLA/business term improvements, and intangible advantages achieved were all derived from a common source— RampRate’s data-driven sourcing process. This process bypasses the high-cost direct sales organization and procures IT services at wholesale rates while using industry cost benchmarks and best practices to ensure maximum client advantage. Through proprietary tools and internal expertise, RampRate achieved results for Shopzilla in just 9 weeks.



Related

Blizzard Success Story Blizzard Success Story
CBS Success Story CBS Success Story
Constant Contact Success Story Constant Contact Success Story
eBay Success Story eBay Success Story

RampRate

Blizzard Entertainment
Organization:
Blizzard
Location:
Santa Monica, CA
Website:
blizzard.com
About Blizzard:
Best known for blockbuster hits including World of Warcraft® and the Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® franchises, Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. (www.blizzard.com), a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI), is a premier developer and publisher of entertainment software renowned for creating some of the industry’s most critically acclaimed games. Blizzard Entertainment’s track record includes 17 #1-selling games and multiple Game of the Year awards. The company’s online-gaming service, Battle.net, is one of the largest in the world with millions of active players.

Situation

  • With 8.5 million subscribers around the globe, Blizzard Entertainment was a huge success in the online gaming industry.
  • The record-setting launch of World of Warcraft®: The Burning Crusade™, underscored Blizzard’s transition from a top developer to the unquestioned leader in the “always-on” immersive virtual world.
  • But with unprecedented growth in subscribers came exponential growth of player expectations for service uptime and performance. Blizzard needed to continue to meet player expectations despite mounting infrastructure pressures.
  • Every dollar spent externally to support the Blizzard audience needed to be allocated for optimal efficiency and effectiveness. RampRate was enlisted to make this happen.

Action

  • Delivered 8-figure reductions in colocation and bandwidth costs as well as future leverage through vendor diversification.
  • Achieved 20% or more savings from aligning existing contracts while rewriting SLAs to cutting-edge best practices.
  • Realized further savings from the identification and removal of unnecessary service components in existing contracts.
  • Significantly reduced Content delivery network (CDN) expense by identifying multi-vendor strategy.
  • Completed 32 ITO projects within the first year.
  • Engaged new vendors rapidly and successfully even when unpredictable growth required very fast expansion.

Download Blizzard Client Success Story 

 

The imperative that had driven the company’s initial growth—“Do everything it takes to deliver a gold medal user experience”—meant operational costs were also growing exponentially.



Related

CBS Success Story CBS Success Story
Constant Contact Success Story Constant Contact Success Story
Success Story Shopzilla Shopzilla Success Story
eBay Success Story eBay Success Story

RampRate

CBS Success Story
Organization:
CBS
Location:
New York, NY
Website:
http://www.cbs.com/
About CBS:
CBS Corporation is a mass media company that creates and distributes industry-leading content across a variety of platforms to audiences around the world. CBS owns the most-watched television network in the U.S. and one of the world’s largest libraries of entertainment content. The Company’s operations span virtually every field of media and entertainment, including cable, publishing, radio, local TV, film, outdoor advertising, and interactive and socially responsible media.

Situation

  • Even as it moves towards its 90th birthday, CBS has never been afraid to reinvent itself. From its split with Viacom, to the growing success of its Web properties such as CBS Sportsline, to hosting one of the largest streaming events in history, the multifaceted media giant has maneuvered and thrived in a challenging, time-critical, ever-changing industry.
  • One of these time-critical challenges occurred when CBS was separating from Viacom. CBS had to outsource infrastructure that was previously controlled internally—and it had to do so within specific timelines reflecting the need for complete separation from Viacom within one year.
  • CBS engaged RampRate Sourcing Advisors to find the technological solutions that could support its burgeoning online success, and to examine technology relationships for fairness, risk factors, and adherence to market best practices.

Action

  • Oversaw a 24% reduction in cost with the same supplier in a hosting infrastructure transaction.
  • Used market-leading process to ensure that installation deadlines driven by CBS’ separation from Viacom were met.
  • Seven-figure savings compared to prevailing market rates in two concurrent colocation procurement exercises.
  • Ensured inclusion of more than 75% of the market’s most stringent SLA provisions in each colocation contract.
  • Reduced bandwidth costs by more than 50% by helping CBS move to a new provider in a carrier-neutral location.
  • Developed a financial projection tool for minimizing streaming event costs by using multiple CDNs concurrently.
  • Identified seven-figure savings in unapplied vendor credits that were added to a software license agreement.
  • Negotiated a 50% discount from a vendor’s initial quote to its final quote in a time-pressure environment.

Download CBS Client Success Story

The two distinctive characteristics of the CBS-RampRate relationship were adapting to unfamiliar situations and timeline compression. CBS engaged RampRate Sourcing Advisors to find the technological solutions that could support its burgeoning online success, and examine technology relationships for fairness, risk factors, and adherence to market best practices.



Related

Blizzard Success Story Blizzard Success Story
Constant Contact Success Story Constant Contact Success Story
Success Story Shopzilla Shopzilla Success Story
eBay Success Story eBay Success Story

RampRate

Constant Contact
Organization:
Constant Contact
Location:
Waltham, MA
Website:
constantcontact.com
About Constant Contact:
Constant Contact, Inc., provides online marketing tools that are designed for small businesses, associations, and nonprofits primarily in the United States. The company offers email marketing products that allow customers to create, send, and track professional-looking email campaigns; event marketing products, which allow customers to promote and manage events, communicate with invitees and registrants, capture and track registrations, and collect online payments; and social media products, including Social Campaigns. As of December 31, 2013, it served approximately 595,000 customers, including business-to-business users, business-to-consumer users, and nonprofits and associations.

Situation

  • At the end of 2010, Constant Contact was a fast-growing leader in providing Internet-based marketing services to small companies.
  • It recognized the need to ensure optimal price and service levels associated with a major IT expense–primary and redundant DR (disaster recovery) data centers on the East and West Coasts.
  • When Constant Contact engaged RampRate, it wondered if it would end up staying with its incumbent DR supplier.
  • The result proved otherwise.

Action

  • Constant Contact is projected to save a total of $21.3M over the next 6 years and achieve another $1.9M in intangible benefits.
  • Constant Contact’s final costs were 13% below its goal of reaching market 25th percentile rates and 27% below the median of all quotes for West Coast data center space.
  • Achieved intangible benefits of single-source provider, favorable location, and ability to build out into a large suite without space constraints.
  • Conversion of power charges from per-circuit to metered charges, resulting in an estimated 75% reduction in power costs.
  • 225 kilowatts of additional high density expansion space.
  • Attainment of both of the above goals without signing a lease longer than 6 years.
  • Deferral of rent increases and charges for 4 months, which resulted in savings of approximately $224K.

Because of RampRate’s proprietary technology and industry expertise, it was able to determine the precise right supplier fit for Constant Contact. RampRate was able to look beyond the “lowest price tag” to reveal actual price when all factors, tangible and intangible, were considered.



Related

Blizzard Success Story Blizzard Success Story
CBS Success Story CBS Success Story
Success Story Shopzilla Shopzilla Success Story
eBay Success Story eBay Success Story

RampRate

ebay Success Story
Organization:
eBay
Location:
Global
Website:
www.ebay.com
About eBay:
With 128 million active users globally, eBay is one of the world's largest online marketplaces where practically anyone can buy and sell practically anything. Founded in 1995, eBay connects a diverse and passionate community of individual buyers and sellers, as well as small businesses. Their collective impact on ecommerce is staggering, and more than 500 million items are listed on eBay.

Situation

  • As one of the 20 most highly trafficked websites worldwide, eBay’s need to build out infrastructure to accommodate both organic growth and acquisitions was constant, expensive, and time-critical.
  • eBay was well-known in the e-commerce industry as a thought-leader and innovator, creating a distinct competitive advantage through the skillful management and progression of its IT infrastructure.
  • Having negotiated contracts superbly for years, eBay had some of the best rates and contract terms in the industry.
  • However, each new acquisition added a layer of amendments to eBay’s outsourced data center, network, and CDN contracts, causing a strain on its top-notch infrastructure team, which was being pulled from innovative projects to address contract- and growth-related issues.

Action

  • Created 13% savings in restructured data center contract through removal of excess capacity and by replacing custom circuits with standard circuits, while also allowing flexibility for early exit.
  • Achieved 16% rate reduction from telecom provider through comprehensive renegotiation of nine-figure contract.
  • Achieved 26% cost reductions from strategic WAN providers through route redundancy and uncompromising SLAs.
  • Created 22% outsource provider-related savings through contract expiration, while also strengthening eBay/supplier relationships.
  • Saved 4,320 hours (two years) of staff time on contract negotiation and management.
  • Stronger supplier contract terms with more accountability, flexibility, and fluidity.
  • IT team freed up to focus on innovative projects rather than contract-related issues.

Download Ebay Success Story

“I knew I was leaving a bit on the table in our outsourced contracts. But the corporate mandate is growth and innovation, and when further contract improvement seemed to be marginal, my team’s first priorities had to move elsewhere.”

Dean Nelson
Vice President of GFS
eBay

Related

Constant Contact Success Story Constant Contact Success Story
Success Story Shopzilla Shopzilla Success Story
CBS Success Story CBS Success Story
Blizzard Success Story Blizzard Success Story

Testimonials

eBay“RampRate was a risk-free proposition money-wise. If they didn’t save or create us at least twice their initial fee we’d get a full refund. And with 100 big-name clients, there had to be something there. But I was worried that in negotiating lower rates they might undermine my key relationships. When they came in and said they could carve out 27% savings and optimizing contracts, I thought it was impossible without undermining key relationships. But they hit that number and the relationships are stronger than ever.”

Paul Santana, Manager of Data Center Operations, eBay


Accenture"I have had the pleasure of working with the crew at RampRate several times. Each time they have saved significant time in negotiating and closing contracts for data center space, telecom and managed services, which provided at least 20% savings over what we could have done alone and certainly cut processes in half. Tony and team are extremely knowledgeable in this space and always bring innovation and out-of-the-box thinking to the table."

Michael Montalto, Accenture


Sony Corporation"I engaged Ramprate to work as sourcing advisors to Sony Music. Since engaging them they have helped me significantly reduce my cost structure through several major outsourcing deals worth deep 8 figures. RampRate's, hard work, diligence and attention to detail are phenomenal. All in all, they made me look like a hero to my executive management. They are a secret weapon."

Peter Borner, former head of IT Sony


Microsoft, Windows Marketing"RampRate helped us cut the clutter, gain insight and distill our team's thoughts for over 50 digital media, IT and product studies. Their access to global top-level non-Microsoft executives, their granular bottom-up approach, and their understanding of our corporate strategy differentiate their offering. RampRate is an invaluable partner for us." 

Gary Share, Microsoft, Windows Marketing and Product


Blog

Blockchain: Obstacles to a World-Changing Trajectory

The Ball and Blockchain

The blockchain decentralization revolution may not be the first, but it is well-funded, and led by people that think big. With a dream and billions in funding, what can go wrong? Distractions, disputes, and hubris top the list, with a very dishonorable mention for the industry’s problem of hucksters.

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Tony Greenberg - CEO, RampRate

Tony Greenberg - CEO, RampRate

What Solutions are Best Built with Blockchain or NOT

Blockchain6 1 - What Solutions are Best Built with Blockchain or NOT

Obviously, not all solutions are a fit. No one is going to be building the next spreadsheet with blockchain. Rather, you need to focus on areas where one of the core strengths of the technology amplifies the value of the solution – or better yet, creates it in a place where centralized approaches are failing.

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Tony Greenberg - CEO, RampRate

Tony Greenberg - CEO, RampRate

A Historical Perspective on Blockchain

RampRate

The blockchain has a small circle of bitcoin billionaires that can break the mold. Some are open advocates of the technology’s revolutionary potential, like Puerto Rico crypto-utopia crowd. Some prefer to remain more anonymous.

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Tony Greenberg - CEO, RampRate

Tony Greenberg - CEO, RampRate

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WHAT WE DO

RampRate delivers expert, transformative technology cost savings and optimization services. We reduce risk by refining client and supplier relationships, aggregating service provider data into a turnkey solution. Some of the world's most recognized brands rely on RampRate to make the most intelligent contract re-negotiating and sourcing decisions for their IT OPEX spend.

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