Fuhu / Nabi: ~$1.8M/year savings

Engagement context

Fuhu / Nabi operates in Consumer electronics. Restructured global IT for an Inc. 500 #1 company, saving roughly $150k per month (~$1.8M annually).

As Nabi’s product line scaled, Fuhu lost visibility into internal technology across four global offices. Vendor sprawl, inconsistent connectivity, and unclear IT ownership drove cost without matching capability — leadership needed fractional CIO judgment and a concrete savings path.

Approach and outcomes

Foundation5 assessed business needs office by office, redesigned the IT operating model, and implemented WAN, VPN, AWS, and Google Apps services that replaced overlapping spend. The program tracked monthly savings so finance could verify the ~$150k/month run-rate reduction.

The headline result — ~$1.8M/year savings — came from process clarity, the right systems choices, and enabling the team to own what we built.

• ~$1.8M/year savings (~$150k/month)
• IT team and vendor model restructured
• Global WAN, VPN, and AWS implemented
• Shared collaboration stack across offices

Technology and practices

Core components included WAN, VPN, AWS, Google Apps. Foundation5 stayed platform-agnostic: selections reflected client standards, licenses, and skills — with clear system-of-record responsibilities for data and integrations.

Comparable programs succeed when executive sponsorship stays active through adoption, process ownership is named before configuration, and success metrics are defined at charter. If your situation resembles this engagement, a short discovery phase usually shows whether similar outcomes are realistic.

• Outsourced CIO/CTO
• Process Engineering