Fractional IT to Drive Cost Efficiency and Innovation: How FranNet Transformed Its Technology Landscape
Brand: FranNet Industry: Franchise Consulting and Brokerage Scale: 60+ affiliated offices across the United States and Canada Partner: Tsource Engagement Start: September 2023 Engagement Type: Fractional IT — Technology Assessment, Strategic Roadmapping, and Ongoing Execution
FranNet is the most respected franchise broker group in North America. With more than 30 years in business and over 60 affiliated offices across the United States and Canada, FranNet connects qualified franchise prospects with top-tier, pre-screened franchise opportunities providing an affordable and trusted path to business ownership. Their expertise is matchmaking: pairing the right entrepreneur with the right opportunity.
When it came to technology, FranNet needed the same quality of match. What they found was Tsource.
The Challenge
FranNet’s technology landscape had been built over decades on multiple custom solutions supported by a combination of internal teams and external vendors. Over time, those systems became costly to maintain, difficult to upgrade, and increasingly prone to security and infrastructure failures. The organization was heavily dependent on third-party vendors for functions that could have been managed more efficiently from within.
Monthly IT support costs had climbed to $30,000 with no ceiling in sight. Vendor accountability was unclear, issue resolution was slow and expensive, and there was no strategic plan guiding technology investment. Decisions were being made reactively, in response to immediate problems rather than in support of long-term goals.
CEO Jania Bailey recognized that the status quo was no longer sustainable. FranNet needed more than a vendor to fix what was broken; they needed a technology partner who could stabilize the environment, reduce costs, and build a forward-looking strategy that would position the organization for the future.
The Tsource Solution
Tsource engaged FranNet in September 2023, beginning with the foundation of every successful technology engagement: a comprehensive technology assessment.
Technology Assessment The assessment provided an honest diagnostic of FranNet’s full technology environment identifying system inefficiencies, cost drivers, security risks, and the opportunities most likely to deliver immediate and lasting improvement. It created the organizational clarity needed to make deliberate decisions rather than reactive ones.
Three-Year Technology Roadmap From the assessment, Tsource developed a three-year technology roadmap that outlined key initiatives to modernize FranNet’s systems while managing IT costs effectively. The roadmap was designed to be executed at FranNet’s pace and phased to match budget realities and organizational capacity for change, not front-loaded with everything at once.
Strategic IT Enhancements and Cost Optimization With the roadmap as the guide, Tsource took a systematic approach to reducing operational expenses while improving technology efficiency across four key areas:
- Stabilized existing systems. Legacy platforms were upgraded to improve stability and security, reducing the risk of infrastructure failures that had become a recurring operational burden.
- Redesigned IT support workflow. Issue management processes were optimized to validate problem tickets before escalating to third-party vendors eliminating unnecessary escalations and the costs that came with them.
- Refined vendor management. Vendor roles and responsibilities were clarified, enforcing accountability and control over a cost structure that had grown without sufficient oversight.
- Leveraged hybrid offshore support. Tsource introduced a cost-efficient hybrid onshore and offshore support model to manage a three-tier support structure for legacy systems, significantly reducing FranNet’s reliance on expensive third-party resources.
Over time, scalable cloud-based solutions were identified and implemented to replace outdated, high-maintenance legacy systems transitioning FranNet toward a more modern, sustainable technology foundation.
The Outcome
The results of the Tsource engagement were significant and measurable across every dimension of FranNet’s technology operations:
- Monthly support costs reduced from $30,000 to under $8,000 a savings of more than 70% month over month
- Per-hour ticket resolution costs lowered by more than 200%
- Third-party development dependencies eliminated, allowing internal teams to manage and administer SaaS-based solutions independently
- Vendor responsibilities defined, reducing vendor hours and costs while strengthening accountability across the technology ecosystem
- A strategic three-year IT roadmap established, balancing near-term cost savings with long-term business growth
The organization moved from a reactive, vendor-dependent technology environment to one guided by a clear strategy with internal capability, controlled costs, and a roadmap that continues to guide investment going forward.
“Tsource has made a significant difference in our budget. When we began planning to integrate the new processes and systems, Tsource was very agreeable to the idea of not doing everything at once. Other companies would come in and say, ‘oh all of this needs to be done right now and it’s going to be this huge budget’. I didn’t feel any of those same pressures from Tsource, quite the opposite. I felt like they wanted to do this at our pace and at our comfort level with the spend.”
Ready to Explore What Fractional IT Could Do for Your Franchise?Contact our team at tsourceit.com
