Market entry support for a major IT managed services procurement

Building on Success

Analysis of the IT services and infrastructure landscape at the TUC as part of our strategy development had revealed the opportunity for a broad and holistic upgrade approach, involving consolidation of several service elements.  Our recommendations for market entry were endorsed by the new vCIO and sanctioned by the TUC management team.  The desired outcome would be a ‘one-stop shop’ covering WAN, secure hybrid hosting, Office 365 with Skype for Business and a managed backup/DR solution in a three to five-year agreement, with built-in benchmarking, renegotiation and termination options.

Core Strength

Managed services procurement is a core strength for Acert; we were retained to support the development of a scope document for the TUC and the vendor screening and selection, together with support for the RFx documentation and overall process.  This was later extended to include a leadership role with final negotiation and contracting.

Approach

The initial vendor long-list was reduced with the help of an RFI and formal evaluation toolset that we developed.  RFP participants were invited to Q&A and introductory sessions at the TUC.  Final RFP responses and associated pricing were formally scored to achieve the final shortlist.  We developed an ROI model to track the savings benefit through final negotiations and then supported the final negotiation and contracting process.  Due to the number of service components and the varying individual terms provided by the vendor, contract negotiations were complex and highly interactive. Nevertheless, an all-encompassing agreement was made ahead of the necessary transition deadlines.

Fast, Tangible Benefits

This complex engagement process was completed over a short period at the end of 2016 and early 2017, with the transition schedule set to deliver the intended benefits over the remainder of the year.  The collaboration effort across the TUC end-user base, management and IT team that we have supported and encouraged to date will soon see this large change programme delivering improved efficiency, resilience and security, together with significant first-year savings and an even larger cost reduction benefit beyond.