This Partners was tasked with obtaining a fully priced proposal for the majority of IT operations – within 6 weeks from a standing start. The client was suffering: ~70 major incidents per month, a legacy, unsupported infrastructure, little visibility of costs and minimal direction / strategy. We focused on 3 main areas: a) requirements clarification b) base case development and c) stakeholder & vendor management.
Requirements clarification necessitated a delicate approach: a fragile technical environment with overworked staff who were initially reluctant to engage. By investing time in face to face meetings, we earned respect and were able to develop the requirements of the desired end state. This enabled simple, clear playback of baselines, scope and requirements to the vendor.
A financial base case was built, containing a 5 year forecast illustrating hardware / software / labour and services, including inflation / forex predictions. Completion of this enabled a clear, realistic and unambiguous price target to be agreed. Effective stakeholder and vendor management was achieved through working collaboratively. Multiple interested parties, some pro and others initially anti-sourcing, were regularly communicated with to ensure that their perspectives were reflected. Sessions were held to explain the process, the desired outcomes and proposed timeline, resulting in a presentation to the client board of the vendor-proposed (and accepted) solution.
The outcome – a full scope outsource deal with a Tier 1 service provider that achieved the price targets, completed transition & transformation in 18 months, removed the dependency on unsupported infrastructure and had a clear a roadmap and strategy for ongoing success.
