Case Studies

Explore how we've helped organizations recover costs and reinvest strategically.

Some details and figures have been slightly altered to protect client confidentiality.

Reclaiming $17.2k for a $25M charter network

See how a growing 4-school network identified 8% in immediate technology savings, redirecting thousands from vendor overhead back to classrooms—all with less than 10 hours of staff involvement.

Saving $140k on an LMS renewal

See how a technology budget audit reduced a $180,000 projected Canvas renewal to $40,000 by restructuring contract terms to reflect actual platform usage—in just 18 days.

One phone call, three platforms, $47,700/year

See how a single discovery call uncovered education pricing on Zoom—then triggered a chain reaction that eliminated two additional vendors entirely, all within 12 days.

The $50,000 Billing Error Hiding in Plain Sight

See how a routine invoice review uncovered a Zoom pricing discrepancy—and triggered a vendor audit that more than doubled the recovery.

The $30,000 Line Item Nobody Saw

See how a routine invoice review revealed a hidden pricing model that penalizes growth—and how surfacing it created an 18-month runway to solve it right.

Migrating to a Better AI Tool at 75% Off

A spending anomaly led to an investigation. The obvious recommendation turned out to be wrong. The right one saved $18,900/year and gave staff a better tool.

Mission Reinvestment: What Does $17,200/Year Look Like?

  • •40 new student Chromebooks every single year
  • •Full funding for an out-of-state grade-level field trip
  • •Significant reinvestment into specialized student tutoring

The Challenge: When "Lean" Can Be Leaner

Led by CEO Amy Kiyota, Impact Public Schools is a $25.6M network of high-performing charter schools in Washington state known for its fiscal discipline. When Relational Tech Partners approached Chief Business Officer Nathan Jacobs with an offer to audit a subset of their technology spending.

The audit focused on $211,000 in technology expenses—and uncovered $17,200 in annual savings (8.1% reduction).

The Discovery: Finding "Invisible Technology Debt"

Specialized technical oversight revealed that even in highly efficient organizations, over-provisioned services and legacy architecture can quietly drain resources. Three key optimizations were identified and implemented:

  • 1. Decommissioning Over-Engineered IT Management — $9,700 Saved

    Impact was utilizing Solarwinds for IT ticketing and asset management at $10,000/year. A deeper analysis revealed two opportunities:

    • •IT Ticketing: Migrated to Jira Service Management with a 75% nonprofit discount, delivering the same functionality for five agents at a fraction of the cost
    • •Asset Management: Impact's usage of Solarwinds' asset management platform was essentially a secure place to store a CSV file, downloaded and manipulated in Google Sheets once yearly. The functionality was replicated with a protected Google Sheet in a shared Google Drive at zero additional cost.

  • 2. Cloud Infrastructure Right-Sizing — $2,500 Saved

    Impact's WordPress website was hosted on an oversized AWS EC2 instance (t3.2xlarge) selected by a contractor. Analysis of actual traffic patterns revealed this was vastly over-provisioned. Migration to a t3.medium instance cut costs by 85% without noticeably impacting performance.

  • 3. Usage-Based License Auditing — $5,000 Saved

    An audit of Impact's Zoom account revealed that while they paid for 150 licenses ($7,500/year), only 37 distinct staff members actually hosted meetings during 2025. Right-sizing to 50 licenses with a simple annual review process reduced costs by two-thirds while leaving ample capacity for growth.

The "Low-Lift" Impact

  • Total Staff Time Invested: Less than 10 hours cumulative
  • Implementation Friction: Minimal—technical due diligence was handled externally
  • Total Annual Savings: $17,200 recurring annually
  • Return on Time: > $1,720 saved per hour of staff time invested

Client Perspective

"Harry's approach made it easy for us to identify real savings without adding work for our team. The process was straightforward, and the results directly support our mission."
— Nathan Jacobs, Chief Business Officer, Impact Public Schools

Why This Matters

Technology budgets accumulate "invisible technology debt"—not due to poor management, but because technology landscapes evolve faster than budgets can adapt. Services that made sense years ago may now be over-provisioned. Better alternatives emerge. Without dedicated technical oversight, these inefficiencies hide in plain sight.

Nathan's openness to external review—even in an organization already known for fiscal discipline—created $17,200 in new annual capacity for students. These aren't painful cuts that compromise capability. They're smart optimizations that redirect resources from vendors to mission.