Download printable version of £3m Call Centre Outsourcing Negotiation case study

Project:

£3m Call Centre Outsourcing Negotiation

Client:

A major UK Telecoms company

Scope:

The client wished to outsource its customer contact centre to ensure that customers gained best possible customer service at best ROI.  As the outsourced centre would often be the main form of customer service, exemplary performance was crucial.

Key Business Benefits:

 

Cost Savings:  £300k

Commercial benefits:

Use of a rigorous selection process and strong contract negotiations delivered a £300k saving and kept the project under budget.  Other benefits included:

•    Clearly defined and requirements service levels, allowing performance to be contractually managed
•    Performance links to payment and service credits ensured supplier focus.
•    Transition to the new call centre was smooth with no affect to end customers

Ongoing vendor performance was well-managed through governance processes which had been contractually agreed.

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Turnstone resources ran a tendering exercise to assess the market against the current internally provided centre.  Like-for-like comparison was assured using a detailed requirements structure.

Bidding suppliers included Teletech, Ventura, BT, Didata and Cable and wireless.

The team utilised a structured negotiations process incorporating all stakeholders as appropriate.  This ensured internal buy-in and transfer of requirements into the end contract, allowing a smooth implementation.

Project:

Software Purchase Risk Assessment & Negotiation

Scope:

Through a tender process, the client selected a core financial software system from a small incumbent supplier, with several challenges 
•    Significant development needed to satisfy requirements
•    Small supplier, with unknown financial stability
•    Supplier resources based in Australia and Canada, creating communication challenges
•    Tight implementation deadlines constricted negotiation timescales

Key Business Benefits:

 

Cost Savings:  £100,000 reduction from initial RFP response

Commercial benefits:
1.    All implementation costs fixed price to reduce Client risk of cost increase
2.    Clearly defined requirements within the contract
3.    Clear project timescales and deliverables, set against fixed milestone payment to incentivise on time delivery
4.    Detailed acceptance criteria and a defined acceptance testing process
5.    Granularity of all implementation and ongoing costs
6.    Scalability of costs for future
7.     A pricing model best suited to the client (buy & maintain, not subscription)
8.    Clearly defined service levels set against service credits for ongoing support & maintenance

 

The Turnstone Approach:

 

1.    A risk assessment of the supplier’s response to the RFP
2.    A negotiation strategy to mitigate all identified risks
3.    A draft contract constructed to minimise risk through the life of the contract
4.    Support to the client during the negotiation process

 

“Turnstone helped us to achieve best value for money from the supplier whilst negotiating strong contractual terms to underpin a successful delivery.”
Michelle Senior, Land Securities

Project:

Data Centre and Work Place Recovery Tender

Scope:

The client wanted a low cost solution for their data centre and work place recovery requirements, needing a light touch but reliable, scalable solution.  They needed a seamless transition away from their incumbent provider in short timescales

Key Business Benefits:

 

Cost Savings: £100k total savings, including:
•    £12k on setup costs, insurance and BCP Plan
•    £88k on services throughout the term

Commercial benefits:

•    4 Test days pa included
•    72 Hours Smart hands pa included
•    Fixed Costs for 4 Years – RPI increase if RPI >3% and only on amount >3%
•    20 Racks with 4.8KW per Rack allowed up to 40KW
•    50% Discount on Services purchased up front
•    Command Crisis Centre with internet and Sky subscription facility use
•    Reduction of £4K pa on DC cost for 4 Year Term
•    Reduction of 15% on WPR Seats for 4 Year Term
•    2 BCP specialist days

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Turnstone ran a rapid market assessment and supplier selection process.  This incorporated:
•    A rapid PQQ to shortlist
•    Detailed RFP to gain detailed cost and service solutions
•    Management of all process points, involving Client stakeholders at key decision points
•    Negotiation of the final contract

“Turnstone helped us to rapidly assess the marketplace, select a supplier and negotiate contracts to gain best market pricing for our needs whilst assuring a high quality solution”.

Wendy Antaw, Head of IT

Project:

Mobile Phone Retender

Scope:

The estate comprised of 700 handsets including Blackberries, through an externally hosted Blackberry Enterprise Server. The contract had expired, plus the client wished to replace 400 of the handsets with Blackberry’s.

Key Business Benefits:

 

1.    Large cash incentive and hardware fund for 3 year contract
2.    Blackberry line rental reduced from £28 to £14 per monthly rental
3.    11% saving on UK and international call rates (including roaming), worth £138k over 3 years
4.    Reduction in unit cost of 3G /Sims from £18.00 to £12.77 per month.
5.    Free Sims and low monthly charges
6.    No charges for voice mail retrieval
7.    Improved contractual terms: Warranty period 24 months for all kit
8.    Termination costs to cover only direct losses and not full contract value of £920k.

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone undertook a market tender and evaluation with ten providers, who were assessed on a balance of cost and quality criteria.

The two finalists went through to the negotiation and contracting stage, resulting in a highly competitive bidding process. Turnstone created the final contract, in coordination with the clients legal team and the vendor, through to final signature.

Turnstone managed the project from start to finish, guiding the client through the process and managing the vendors and negotiations. All client key staff were involved at the decision points, with Turnstone undertaking the majority of the workload.

 

“Turnstone brought good management of the process from start to finish. It’s the kind of project that if we’d started it internally, it would probably still be going on now. As well as taking all the vendor evaluation work away, Turnstone also trapped and fixed several contractual issues with the winning vendor.“

                                             Head of IT & Business Integration

Project:

Visa (CEMEA)

Scope:

Our client was facing a major procurement exercise to gain the best commercial deal to double their Storage Area Network capacity, along with an upgrade to the base technology. Their particular challenges were:
•    Insufficient internal time to manage the full process
•    Little internal commercial expertise in this type of procurement
•    Business critical timescales

Key Business Benefits:

 

Cost Savings: £111k (12%)

Commercial benefits:
•    Implementation deliverables and timelines were set against payment milestones
•    Technical staff were freed up to concentrate to prepare for the implementation effort
•    Competition was encouraged via e-auction to deliver market best pricing

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone supported the end to end process, starting with a large set of requirements from many sources within the client, and rationalised them into a coherent RFP.   Our experts worked onsite with the clients technical, procurement and legal staff, acting as the focal point for the project, reporting decision points back to the stakeholders.

Our consultant led the following activities:
1.    Creating evaluation scorecard, in agreement with technical function
2.    Identifying suitable vendors
3.    Publishing the RFP
4.    Managing vendor Q&A
5.    Evaluating vendor responses
6.    Running an eAuction to determine best commercial pricing
7.    Providing a final summary of quality scores vs price
8.    Contract negotiations with the chosen vendor

Project:

Multi-functional Devices

Scope:

A leading communications company needed to improve print services deliver the first class service expected in the creative industry.  Challenges included:

•    Dramatically improving colour calibration
•    Streamlining the number of machines without affecting the user experience
•    Upgrading all of the machines without huge capital outlay
•    Enabling greater print capability in house to reduce outsourced print costs
•    Increasing print security on certain machines
•    Enabling accurate onward billing of print jobs to clients

Key Business Benefits:

-    Hardware refresh
-    Full colour calibration
-    Reduced cost of printing with the use of Uniflow and follow me printing
-    Purchase and disposal of old hardware by vendor at no further cost
-    Low effort for the client - Turnstone dealt with the vendors and most of the workload

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone was engaged by the Client to identify the technologies that could be employed in-house and select the supplier most able to deliver these.

Turnstone adopted a full tender process, including RFI, RFP, Proof of Concept and final negotiations to achieve a satisfactory final contract.  Turnstone worked closely with the  client by:

1.    Shaping the client’s needs into formal requirements to ensure comparable supplier responses
2.    Identifying and prioritising the client’s requirements
3.    Communicating closely with all stakeholders throughout the process
4.    Liaising with finance to ensure that commercial matched budget requirements

“We work in an industry that is very much concerned with how things look and our print service was holding us back. Turnstone helped us to select a supplier who could meet our requirements of colour management, improved functionality and quality output whilst significantly reducing our annual costs.”

Matt Ballantine Head of IT - Imagination

Project:

Full Refresh of Laptop and Desktop Estate

Scope:

DTZ had a disparate estate of laptops and desktops, including those from an acquisition. The business required a standardised, higher spec platform to enable a new suite of applications and to enable hot-desking.

Key Business Benefits:

- Laptop price was previously Dell’s floating daily price, now agreed for the duration of the contract
- Benchmarking built in: if the IDC benchmark price falls beneath the Dell unit price, Dell must reduce their cost to match
- Standardised PC image and deployment included within pricing and contract
- Hot desking business case worth >£100k per annum in office space / no desktop move costs
- New platform to support Vista and SAP rollout

The Turnstone Approach:

Our consultant rapidly captured DTZ’s requirements and their scoring criteria. We facilitated a market tender to the main manufacturers, including kit samples for a user group to assess.
We facilitated the evaluation and scoring phases, to arrive at an agreed quality score for each vendor. We then undertook all price negotiations, using a reverse internet auction tool to ensure fair market pricing and foster competition amongst the bidders.

We then contractualised all pricing and negotiated all points in the lease agreement, to ensure DTZ gained a fair deal which protected their interests.

All associated costs around imaging, deployment, storage and removal were included in the pricing, such that there were no nasty surprises.

Support from Turnstone assures you to gain the best commercial deal, with our experienced, CIPS qualified procurement consultants, who have run countless IT tendering and negotiation exercises.
Progress is also accelerated, through the use of our model requirements documents from which your team can pick and choose, rather than starting with a blank sheet of paper.

Project:

OJEU Full IT Outsource

Scope:

ENW had used IT services provided by the parent organisation for many years, so when ENW demerged it was a challenging task to define the requirements and to tender for these through the OJEU regulations for utility companies.

Key Business Benefits:

•    The contract was let successfully, the ‘Alcatel’ standstill period completed without challenge
•    A single supplier is in place delivering improved services at less than budgeted cost
•    Significant knowledge transfer to ENW staff on OJEU Public Procurement

The Turnstone Approach:

•    The Turnstone team worked partly onsite, partly offsite during the project
•    Our consultants liased with stakeholders in the IT, Procurement and Financial teams, working on the OJEU notice, the PQQ phase, ITT and final contract award
•    Turnstone were used by ENW in conjunction with ENW’s legal counsel
•    We developed the OJEU Procurement Strategy, which was followed through to close out
•    The process drove out all the issues for ENW to address before contract signature, to prevent any surprises during delivery

“Turnstone guided our inhouse team successfully through ENW’s first IT outsource under the OJEU regulations.
It was a difficult task, with many stakeholders from across the business, tight timescales and a complex project.

Turnstone performed very well, providing key OJEU advice and commercial input, as well as hands on support.
They are not a typical consultancy - they worked alongside us and got their hands dirty, undertaking the workload of communication with all of the bidders.

Turnstone went on to help to ensure the winning deal was commercially favourable to ENW, negotiating appropriate service level terms and checking the schedules.
 
I would not hesitate to deploy them again on a similar exercise - they proved invaluable to our process.”

Richard Hetherington, Head of Procurement ENW

Project:

MOT and Renegotiation of Key Software Contract

Scope:

Over a number of years the suppliers’ solution had evolved to become key to the bank. An initial review of the contract revealed major risk exposures and significant costs, triggering the comprehensive contract MOT and renegotiation plan.  Lacking in house resources, the bank also engaged Turnstone to manage subsequent negotiations with the supplier

Key Business Benefits:

Around half of the red clauses were resolved in the initial rounds of negotiation, with the remainder to be concluded with the roll out of a completely new agreement at next renewal. In addition, an alternative hosting provider was sought, to reduce the cost of hosting.

The bank are now in a safer position with regard to this critical system and will be in a stronger position at contract renewal. The process has also laid the foundations to explore the wider market and competitor offerings.

The Turnstone Approach:

Firstly a cost benchmark revealed that server hosting prices and day rates were significantly in excess of market norms, with questionable costs for the software itself.
Secondly, using Turnstone’s proprietary Contract MOT methodology, a full analysis of the contract was conducted. This identified 26 ‘red’ clauses, which put the bank at serious disadvantage and/or high risk. These were chiefly around:-

-    Weak service descriptions and poor SLA’s with no meaningful commitment or redress
-    Unfavourable payment and cost mechanisms, with no cost granularity
-    Nothing around Exit – in terms of what, when, cost and how

A negotiation plan was drawn up based on these reds and on the benchmark.
Turnstone were then engaged to commence a structured and methodical renegotiation process with the supplier, working to resolve each of the identified areas. 

“We were delighted with Turnstone’s careful approach to this critical supplier. Firstly their ‘Contract MOT’ revealed the meaningful risk areas in the contract. More importantly, the subsequent negotiation plan initiated a successful mid term renegotiation with the supplier. Out of this we achieved several important improvement which helped to secure our position and gain clarity on cost”

Senior Vice President of Technology, EMEA

Project:

Data Centre Contract MOT and Benchmarking

Scope:

The client was in a unique situation where they owned 10% of their supplier whilst at the same time providing 30% of their annual business.

With this in mind the client required a full contractual review and benchmark of their pricing to enable them to mitigate risk, negotiate successfully with their supplier to reduce cost.

The client wanted:-
-    Contract review
-    Identify negotiation approach
-    improved and safer contractual terms
-    to reduce existing costs

Key Business Benefits:

•    Identification of £600,000 savings
•    Identification of 23 red clauses and 28 amber clauses totalling 61% of the contract
•    A clear negotiation strategy document was written to mitigate the risks identified and improve the clients commercial position

The Turnstone Approach:

Utilising Turnstone’s proprietary Contract MOT model a complete contract review was conducted which provided the basis of a negotiation strategy. A benchmark analysis was also performed which identified potential savings of up to 50%.

“We were in a unique situation where we didn’t have the typical customer-supplier relationship with our data centre provider.  We also had a six year old contract that we knew needed to be renegotiated due to commercial risks and spiralling costs. We deployed Turnstone to conduct a full contract review, compile a re-negotiation plan and benchmark our current costs.”       

Ian Davies, CIO British Land

Project:

Mobile Phone Contract Renewal

Scope:

Following a company merger the client inherited two suppliers of mobile phone services. With a commercial deal from several years ago, and a sizeable fleet of 1,200 devices, there was much scope for improvement.

The client required a robust public procurement tender for their mobile services that would reduce the number of suppliers and ensure best value for money, maintain service and improve any contractual or commercial deficiencies.
Solution
Turnstone managed the tender process from start to finish utilising an existing Buying Solutions framework agreement. Once the contract was signed the Client undertook implementation and the rollout.

The Client team was involved in shaping the requirements and key evaluation decisions. Our methodology ensures that the Client gained maximum savings using a robust tender process under public procurement guidelines and as streamlined as possible, without having to commit significant resourcing to the project.

Key Business Benefits:

The key service improvements included:-
•    Termination costs of £65k paid for by new supplier
•    Handset current and future contracts are now all co-terminus allowing for ease of supplier change
•    Increased flexibility - reduced Minimum Handset holding to 700 (current 1200)
•    Reduced line rental for voice handsets
•    Discounted voice tariffs
•    Improved Service Levels with Service Charter
•    Title in all devices with the client
•    Hardware support for new handsets
•    Further rebates for any new handsets added

The Turnstone Approach:

Following a company merger the client inherited two suppliers of mobile phone services. With a commercial deal from several years ago, and a sizeable fleet of 1,200 devices, there was much scope for improvement.

The client required a robust public procurement tender for their mobile services that would reduce the number of suppliers and ensure best value for money, maintain service and improve any contractual or commercial deficiencies.
Solution
Turnstone managed the tender process from start to finish utilising an existing Buying Solutions framework agreement. Once the contract was signed the Client undertook implementation and the rollout.

The Client team was involved in shaping the requirements and key evaluation decisions. Our methodology ensures that the Client gained maximum savings using a robust tender process under public procurement guidelines and as streamlined as possible, without having to commit significant resourcing to the project.

“Turnstone conducted a robust mobile phone tender through a public procurement process.  They unlocked significant cost savings whilst improving service levels and account management.”
Martin Carpenter,  Head of Central Services, Notting Hill Housing Trust

Project:

Vendor Consolidation: Software Development Suppliers, National Standards Institute

Scope:

The client, a leading provider of standards, used a variety of software developers both off shore and on shore. There was no cohesive approach, with most project managers using them because of past history. Costs varied between the vendors, with no use of the organisations buying power. Contract terms also varied, with differing levels of risk exposure.

Turnstone’s remit was to reduce the number of vendors, obtain competitive rates and improve the commercial terms through deploying a safer contract framework.

Key Business Benefits:

The client, a leading provider of standards, used a variety of software developers both off shore and on shore. There was no cohesive approach, with most project managers using them because of past history. Costs varied between the vendors, with no use of the organisations buying power. Contract terms also varied, with differing levels of risk exposure.

Turnstone’s remit was to reduce the number of vendors, obtain competitive rates and improve the commercial terms through deploying a safer contract framework.

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone managed the project from start to finish, guiding the client through the process and managing the vendors and negotiations. The technical specification within the tender was a collaboration of knowledge between the client and Turnstone.
The RFP went to 10 bidders - offshore, onshore and nearshore. This in turn was reduced to 7 and after further evaluation to 3 final winners, all of whom were contracted with.               

Key client staff only had to be involved at the decision points.

“Turnstone brought management to the process, and undertook nearly all the ‘grunt’ work. It was great to have all the comparative analysis work taken out of my hair. I only had to be involved in 3 short meetings throughout the whole process” 

Head of IT & Business Integration

Project:

Mobile Phones Renewal for DTZ Property

Scope:

The client wanted the best value for money contract but without any service problems or major effort on their own behalf. In addition the following improvements were required:-
-  Better global coverage and pricing under one contract
-  To streamline billing, which was time-consuming and inefficient
-  To harmonise individual phone contracts which did not terminate together, effectively locking the client in

Key Business Benefits:

 

Cost Benefit: a 41% saving, worth £284k pa

Service Benefits:
1. Provision for scaling across Europe with tiered discounts
2. Reduced administration costs through enhanced billing
3. Better contract for DTZ, with less contractual liability
4. Future proofed with rates for newer technologies included
5. ’Co-terminus’ for all handsets at end of contract, to allow free tendering at next renewal

The Turnstone Approach:

A tender process was undertaken, including a detailed specification and Q&A process. Bidders for the contract were quality scored against a matrix agreed with DTZ, which included all aspects of providing a successful service.
During cost negotiations, an e-auction was used to foster maximum competition amongst the bidders, resulting in lowest market pricing.
Based on a combination of pricing and quality scores, the client selected the winning vendor.
Note that the winning vendor provided a significant cash sum upon contract signature.

"We deployed Turnstone to effectively 'outsource' our tendering process for a major telecommunications contract. Turnstone clearly added value to the end contract and also facilitated cost savings significantly in excess of their fees"
Duncan Scott, CIO

Project:

Arcadia Group

Scope:

The client wished to replace multiple legacy systems with a single ERP suite. A tender was undertaken to select the preferred SI partner. 

To minimise the risk of delay, cost rise and scope creep, Turnstone were asked to undertake a commercial assessment of bidder responses.
This was focussed on the commercial / non-technical area of the bid responses, to ensure a 360 degree assessment.

Key Business Benefits:

 

Cost Savings:  £3m savings identified from the SI responses alone, with further structured negotiations recommened to reduce one off and ongoing support costs

 

Commercial benefits:

1.    Cost benchmark information provided for SI partners, providing levers for further negotiation

2.    Areas of commercial risk identified so that these can be addressed during negotiations

3.    Key terms & conditions provided for negotiation into the final contract

 

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone undertook a detailed review of both ERP suppliers’ proposed costs and the SI partners’ tender responses.  We benchmarked all licence, support and implementation costs against the nearest market alternatives.

 

We provided detailed recommendations on commercial negotiation points to be utilised, and contractual clauses to be included to reduce the risk to the client. 

“Turnstone has provided a thorough commercial assessment of all supplier responses for this business critical software implementation. 

 

They have identified the keys risks in each supplier response and provided a negotiation strategy to mitigate them.”

 

Andrew Clarke

Download printable version of Public IT Procurement Training Courses case study

Project:

Public IT Procurement Training Courses

Scope:

Procurement staff often struggle to find courses to give practical, pragmatic guidance in how to buy various aspects of IT.  It is a complex category, with few procurement courses tailored to IT, and fewer IT courses tailored to the commercial aspects of buying it.  The most common complaints are:

• Only generalist procurement courses available
• Little guidance on which elements of IT contracts should be negotiable, and by how much
• Trainers often do not have relevant, real-life experience to draw on

Key Business Benefits:

1. Small group classes (6-10 delegates) to encourage discussion
2. Delegates are encouraged to air current commercial challenges for tips on resolution
3. Trainers are our IT procurement consultants, who give real life examples
4. Common tactics and sales techniques of key IT suppliers are explored
5. Courses are designed to give pragmatic tips on best IT negotiation points for each category
6. All procurement processes are discussed from an IT perspective

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone courses are tailored specifically to buying IT goods and services, and delivered by our IT procurement consultants, who all have 10 years or more field experience.

 

Download printable version of 3rd Generation Full IT Outsourcing Re-tender for Tubelines case study

Project:

3rd Generation Full IT Outsourcing Re-tender for Tubelines

Scope:

 

Tube Lines wished to re-tender their major IT outsource deal, consolidating from two suppliers down to one:

• The requirement had to follow the OJEU procurement process
• There was insufficient internal procurement expertise or resource to run this complex process. 
• They required options to move from traditional licensing models to SaaS over time 

 

Key Business Benefits:

Cost Saving: £19m reduction in costs over the term of the contract

Commercial Enhancements:

1. Provision of clear deliverables for every area of service, matched against Service Levels and KPIs, with associated service credits
2. Contractual terms included for mid-term change of licensing structure to SaaS
3. Smooth implementation achieved with chosen supplier

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Our consultant was engaged from project inception, advising on procurement strategy, use of the OJEU process, as well as on requirements structure and evaluation.

• Key commercial terms were included in the tender, to avoid lengthy negotiations later
• All required OJEU timescales were adhered to
• All appropriate information was provided to bidders, eliciting bids from 6 vendors
• Turnstone facilitated the evaluation and scoring phases
• Auditable quality scores were produced for each vendor
• Competitive Dialogue resulted in best and final offers from two vendors
• All pricing and commercial points were captured in the final agreement

 

Download printable version of Core Financial System Selection and Contract Negotiation case study

Project:

Core Financial System Selection and Contract Negotiation

Scope:

 

A central Accounts Payable department had used a manual, paper-based invoice authorisation process for multiple business units. They required an electronic workflow based process and software to support this. 

Turnstone provided support in choosing the right system for a multi company, multi currency environment.

 

Key Business Benefits:

 

1. Business case gained finance approval and funding
2. Minimum disruption to finance team during RFP process
3. Rigorous selection process revealed most suitable software provider
4. RFP gave detailed requirements and fixed pricing, easing the negotiations process

As a result of the rigorous process, the software delivered more benefits than predicted, and early user involvement in project fostered buy in.  The software was quickly widely accepted.

Turnstone managed the process on the Client’s behalf, enabling Client resources to continue with other strategic projects, but retaining all key decisions.

The project was successful with 100% uptime and invoice accuracy, on budget, and on time.

 

The Turnstone Approach:

 

We ensured that the proposed software was fully tested during the RFP through use cases, ensuring that the chosen software could support the proposed processes.

The RFP included detailed requirements for service and service levels, enabling rapid contract negotiations.  Users were involved throughout the process, buy-in to the new software and processes. 

 

Download printable version of Re-tender of Hosting and Management of B2C Website and Database case study

Project:

Re-tender of Hosting and Management of B2C Website and Database

Scope:

 

The client had previously outsourced their website and database hosting to a number of third party suppliers. The client wanted to consolidate to one supplier, reduce costs and encourage innovation from the supplier.

Turnstone was approached by the client to manage the sourcing process and undertake commercial and contractual negotiations.  A key requirement was to run a robust, transparent and auditable process.

The client is Europe's largest trade association in the marketing and communications sector, formed in 1992 to protect the direct marketing industry from legislative threats and promote its development. 

Key Business Benefits:

 

The client saved a large amount of time, as Turnstone undertook the majority of the tendering workload. We worked with the client team to obtain the raw inputs and to gain management approval at the key stages.

Our professional negotiators ensured a fair selection process and put a robust contract in place, with better protection for the clients’ interests.

The negotiator worked with the vendor sales teams to hammer out the best pricing and best terms, resulting in a net saving of almost £200k per year for the client.

Service benefits for the client included:

1. An upgrade to the website including design and functionality
2. Improved contract terms with greater clarity on the suppliers obligations
3. Inclusion of future volume changes
4. Adhoc fees for future work keenly negotiated at time of contract renewal
5. Modernised hardware platform with an agreed upgrade path

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Due to the clients’ position within the industry, a highly inclusive yet rigorous procurement process was required.

With a high number of potential suppliers for hosting, data processing and fulfilment services, Turnstone recommended an RFI process be used first.  This achieved two goals, firstly of inclusion, allowing many suppliers to respond, and secondly it provided rapid filtering. From an initial 30 suppliers, the RFI process shortlisted down to 8. The shortlisted suppliers then entered the more detailed RFP process, allowing for a manageable process.

RFP responses were scored and evaluated using a scoring matrix pre-agreed with the client. A shortlist of 4 suppliers then proceeded to presentations of their proposals.

The presentation allowed the team to meet the potential suppliers and gather further information on the supplier’s abilities. From the presentation the final 2 suppliers were selected for contract and commercial negotiations.

The joint Turnstone / client team made the final selection, with Turnstone managing contract development through to final signature.

Finally, Turnstone undertook all debriefs for unsuccessful suppliers.

 

Download printable version of Full refresh of laptop & desktop estate case study

Project:

Full refresh of laptop & desktop estate

Scope:

 

DTZ had a disparate estate of laptops and desktops, including those from an acquisition. The business required a standardised, higher spec platform to enable a new suite of applications and to enable hot-desking. 

 

Key Business Benefits:

 

• Laptop price was previously Dell’s floating daily price, now agreed for the duration of the contract
• Benchmarking built in: if the IDC benchmark price falls beneath the Dell unit price, Dell must reduce their cost to match
• Standardised PC image and deployment included within pricing and contract
• Hot desking business case worth >£100k per annum in office space / no desktop move costs
• New platform to support Vista and SAP rollout

 

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Our consultant rapidly captured DTZ’s requirements and their scoring criteria. We facilitated a market tender to the main manufacturers, including kit samples for a user group to assess.

We facilitated the evaluation and scoring phases, to arrive at an agreed quality score for each vendor. We then undertook all price negotiations, using a reverse internet auction tool to ensure fair market pricing and foster competition amongst the bidders.

We then contractualised all pricing and negotiated all points in the lease agreement, to ensure DTZ gained a fair deal which protected their interests.

All associated costs around imaging, deployment, storage and removal were included in the pricing, such that there were no nasty surprises.

 

Download printable version of UK Standards Agency Multi-functional Devices Procurement case study

Project:

UK Standards Agency Multi-functional Devices Procurement

Scope:

 

The current MFD estate was over over 3 years old, sourced from a small reseller. The service and maintenance was expensive, based on a cost per copy per machine, plus the vendor had been unreliable.

The MFD market is fiercely competitive with a large number of manufacturers and re-sellers. Vendors have various different methods of quoting for business some of which are complex and can be misleading. In this context our client wished to deploy Turnstone's specialist capabilities to ensure safe delivery of the project, and also to take on the workload and insulate them from all the bidders.

 

Key Business Benefits:

 

By using Turnstone’s procurement, RFP knowledge and evaluation experience the 10 vendors were reduced to a short list of 3. From this the most optimum vendor was chosen, with the following benefits:

-       They agreed to provide a rolling replacement of equipment over a period of 12 months to minimize disruption.

-       Lower servicing costs for both black & white and colour copies, A3 and A4

-       High level security software for finger printing

-       The ability to use any machine at any  location

This was achieved without the client having to invest a lot of time in running the process.                   

 

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Turnstone undertook a review of all existing kit at 5 UK locations. There was a variety of machines from high to medium sized volume. This kit was used not only for photocopying, but for printing from desktops, faxing, scanning and emailing. Access was via a pin number linked to the user’s cost code. Some additional networked HP printers also existed.

A request for proposal was compiled that asked for a variety options including:-

-       Complete replacement of all MFDs

-       Partial replacement of worn out machines

-       Secure printing either by password or fingerprint

-       Separate break fix contract for networked HP printers

Various finance options were also sought either by leasing or by purchase

The RFP was sent out to 10 vendors which consisted of re-sellers and manufacturers. A number of these were well known brands in the MFD market.

A full evaluation took place of all the options to seek best business solution and meet the demands of the client. These were presented to the client with the proposed solution.

 

Download printable version of Second Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing Negotiation case study

Project:

Second Generation Infrastructure Outsourcing Negotiation

Client:

Finance Wales

Scope:

Our client wished to tender for their outsourced IT Services.  They required fully defined services including service levels and service credits.  They also needed to include some service transformation work. 

They required market competitive costs which included predictable running costs over the 5 year term. 

They desired a high performance managed service with the flexibility to scale up and down on demand.  The tender needed to use the OJEU public procurement process.  

Key Business Benefits:

Major forecast cost savings of 26% on running costs. Other benefits include:

• Services fully defined and included in the contract
• SMART Service Levels linked Service Credits.
• Flexibility to increase or decrease requirements as needed
• Good cultural and operational fit with the chosen supplier

The Turnstone Approach:

We performed a cost benchmark against the incumbent supplier and identified areas of cost saving and performance improvement, which strengthened the client’s business case for change.

Our team then ran a full tender process in line with the Public Procurement Competitive Dialogue process regulations.  We worked closely with the client throughout, ensuring that they were fully briefed to make all key decisions.  All actions were monitored and recorded in case of audit.

Our consultants used a mixture of onsite and remote working to gain highest efficiency and best value for money for the client.

 

 

“Turnstone helped us to reduce our ongoing costs whilst gaining greater value for money from the supplier.  They ensured that the process adhered to the rigorous public procurement regulations.”               

 

Download printable version of UK Standards agency case study

Project:

UK Standards agency

Scope:

Our client wished to outsource their data centre requirements for the first time.  They required a smooth transition with predictable running costs over the 5 year term.  They needed a high performance managed service with the flexibility to scale up and down on demand.  They did not have the manpower to give this project sufficient focus internally. 

We achieved all of their requirements using a rigorous tender process and strong contract negotiation.

 

Key Business Benefits:

 

Major cost savings of £100k on deployment costs and £850k on running costs. Other benefits include:

• Electricity costs fixed to capped 10% increase pa
• 41% Additional hardware cost saving of £500k
• Transition payment profile based on tangible deliverables
• SMART Service Levels linked to Delay Deductions and Service Credits.
• Flexibility to increase or decrease requirements at known cost increments

 

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Our experts worked closely with the client’s technical and legal teams to produce detailed technical, service and commercial requirements.  This assured an efficient tender process, with much of the negotiation built into the tender documentation, reducing the amount of time spent in final contract negotiation significantly.

Our consultants had access to Turnstone’s library of information and template documents increased project efficiency.   

Our team managed the vendors and managed the bulk of the workload, ensuring that the Client was fully briefed to make the key decisions throughout the process.

 

“The results have been pleasing for us in the IT function and also well received at board level.  Turnstone helped to lower the proposed lifetime costs by 23%, and introduced many commercial improvements to gain us a more favourable contract.” 

Project:

Core Software Tendering and Negotiation

Scope:

A European cruise company relied on an ageing mainframe for its business critical reservations system. Following a strategic review, they decided to source a package-based replacement via market tender.

A niche US software vendor was chosen, with implementation by a ‘big four' consultancy and integration from 10 local companies.

Turnstone provided all commercial support, including:-

1. Initiation and management of the strategic review
2. Management of the tendering process
3. Negotiation of contracts for all 12 vendors
4. Provision of advice on changes to the IT architecture
5. Management of all vendors during the project, including change management and cost control

Key Business Benefits:

 

Supplier Negotiations

• €2.2m saved through software supplier negotiations (43%).
• €1.4m saved through consultancy supplier negotiations (20%).
• Contracts negotiated to include key IT requirement detail and performance related payments
• Costs were controlled and constantly visible - overrun avoided
• Better supplier performance through strong relationships

Vendor Management

• Ongoing savings of €250k from negotiating preferred rates
• Cost tracking and forecasting a key feed to project planning and budget

Project Assurance

• Board focused on key decision points through monthly review meetings
• Project was a key part of the overall business strategy
• Emphasis of key issues such as integration ensured early resolution to avoid delay

Strategic Advisory

• ERP deployment to simplify IT footprint
• Post go-live organisation structure delivered to ensure ongoing success of project

The Turnstone Approach:

 

Supplier Negotiations and Vendor Management
Turnstone created a contract governance structure, providing contract templates and negotiating them through to final signature alongside the internal legal team.

Relationships were built with all suppliers to resolve problems rapidly and focus teams on working together to keep project on budget and time.

Project Assurance and Strategic Advisory
Assessment of company architecture and culture enabled recommendations and ongoing assurance delivered those recommendations

Eija Rasanen, Silja Line
"Turnstone proved invaluable to the project. They kept our supplier costs down and reduced the admin hassle. They saved us €400k of consultant mandays by negotiating a rigorous contract with our supplier."

Steven Robson, CFO, Silja Line
"We were able to negotiate pretty good prices and terms ourselves, however we've been able to secure better prices and terms having deployed Turnstone. As a result we can control our suppliers better"

Project:

IT Procurement Strategy and Organisation

Scope:

The procurement team was undervalued by the business units, resulting in missed savings opportunities.

Business teams did not feel supported in negotiations, while morale within Procurement was low.

Key Business Benefits:

Turnstone provided a clear Procurement Strategy, identified savings targets with a roadmap to achieve them.

Roles and responsibilities were revisited to address low morale, with business involvement and communication to ensure new strategy could be rapidly approved.

The implementation of the strategy delivered the following benefits:

• £400k savings achieved during period of assessment (average 29% saving)
• Business unit awareness of procurement value raised - team now involved at project start rather than cost negotiation
• Clear resource development strategy in place to deliver a world class procurement team

The Turnstone Approach:

A strategic review of the supplier base and associated savings potential, current processes, and relationship with the business functions was undertaken by Turnstone.

Business unit interviews uncovered issues to be tackled and kept stakeholders informed of the approach.

Socialisation of the proposed strategy was essential to ensure business approval.

Knowledge transfer to the in-house team enabled them to continue working towards the agreed strategy.

Peter Callow, Head of Finance

“Turnstone undertook a rapid review of the company’s procurement function, used to re-task toward strategic sourcing and supplier negotiation.  Turnstone also negotiated savings of £190k (13%) on one contract, supporting our in-house procurement team during a peak workload.

As well as a healthy ROI from deploying Turnstone, our in house team absorbed skills which will benefit us going forward”

Project:

HW and SW Reseller Consolidation

Scope:

The Economist had naturally evolved to a situation with several resellers, where overlap had begun to occur.

They wished to undertake a market tender, but had little resource or time available.

The client also required more formal contracts to be put in place.

Key Business Benefits:

Turnstone's experienced consultants and documentation enabled the Client to achieve the following:-

• A reduction in mark-up costs of 9%
• Two preferred suppliers to manage, down from eight
• Defined Service Levels and Account Management, ensuring supplier accountability for poor performance
• Beneficial contract terms
• Little impact on the client's workload, with the tender and negotiation process run on their behalf by Turnstone

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone undertook all of the tendering workload with suppliers on the clients' behalf, scoring all responses on cost and quality.

Turnstone provided a template requirements structure, for ease of data gathering and to ensure best tender results.

Turnstone negotiated all requirements into the end contracts - both technical and commercial, with particular attention to ensure the negotiated cost reductions were written into the end contract.

Project:

Commercial Awareness Training for IT Managers

Scope:

Individual IT Managers had managed their supplier base using best endeavours and personal experience, without any formal IT Procurement training.

There was little awareness of key contract terms and what could be negotiated on in Hardware/Software/ Services/Telecoms spend.

Managers had little time available to go on training, and needed advice on how to manage their own suppliers, rather than just procurement theory.

The company had issues with specific vendor performance, but little formal structure around vendor management and performance monitoring.

Key Business Benefits:

• Awareness of best practice and what can be achieved, to all the management team
• Used that years' contract renewal schedule to teach the most relevant theory for upcoming supplier negotiations
• Role play and document drafting practice was included so that managers could practice what they were learning
• New skills were immediately used with positive results

The Turnstone Approach:

We designed a 2 day flexi-course split into ½ day chunks, on the following topics:

• Analysis of the Land Securities supplier base
• Contract principles, key clauses
• Differences between purchasing hardware, software, services and telecoms
• SOW drafting techniques
• Negotiation - key principles and some tactics
• Vendor management

Our procurement consultants mixed procurement theory with real life experience and their knowledge of the Land Securities supplier base to provide an informative and interesting course covering the fundamentals of IT Procurement and Vendor Management.

Course handouts were designed with ongoing reference in mind, with ‘cut-out-and-keep' sections

The follow-up sessions with the IT managers allowed them explore in more detail any questions or issues.

Wendy Antaw, IS Programme Manager, Land Securities

"Turnstone ran a customised course for our IT managers, aimed at increasing their commercial and contractual skills, to enable them to deal more effectively with our portfolio of IT vendors.

I am confident my team is now more commercially skilled. The course was lively with a good blend of theory and practical examples from our own vendor portfolio.

I fully expect the investment to more than pay off over the year - a small improvement in our approach to our IT vendors, may well realise large improvements."

Project:

Demerger negotiations for entire IT contract portfolio

Scope:

The existing IT function had to be duplicated in it's entirety, including all vendor IT contracts.
This involved novating, duplicating or renegotiating commercial deals with over 260 separate vendors.
The project carried significant legal risk and potential additional cost, against immovable deadlines and timescales.

Key Business Benefits:

Turnstone ensured that all commercial negotiations were completed on time with the following benefits:

• All s/w licences correctly novated/duplicated
• Keen negotiation avoided signifcant extra cost, totalling £1.6m saving
• The demerger and sale were able to progress as planned with no service interruptions

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone managed the full re-negotiation process for all 260 suppliers.

Our team worked closely with the client's IT and legal teams to ensure that all requirements were captured in the new or novated contracts. Our consultants' experience in negotiating a wide variety of software and hardware was invaluable in ensuring best prices were achieved.

Our consultants ran the negotiations with each supplier, bringing in client resources where necessary, to reduce the time burden to the client.
All negotiation results and new contracts were provided to the client to ensure full knowledge transfer at the end of the project.

Nick Foster, CIO

"Turnstone played a key role in preparing for a demerger of our organisation. They worked closely with our in-house IT and Procurement teams, providing extra capability and expertise in contract novations. Their most valuable input, however, was in our commercial renegotiations. They were able to reduce our budgeted expenditure on procurement to the extent that we were able to recover their fees"

Project:

Oracle E1 License Renegotiations

Scope:

Our client needed to duplicate the entire Oracle technology stack, including the Oracle ERP software and RDBMS.

This was triggered by a company de-merger, to be achieved at lowest possible cost and under strict timescales.

Key Business Benefits:

 

• Major cost savings on license costs
• Highest savings off list price ever achieved by the client
• Trading relationship with Oracle enhanced for future vendor management

The Turnstone Approach:

Our experts took on the face to face negotiations with Oracle. As central point of contact, Turnstone liaised with the clients technical, procurement and legal staff, to agree the negotiation strategy.

A specific set of tactics were deployed to first unlock and then proceed with negotiations. Working closely with the client, we continually briefed and involved them at key escalation points.

Our familiarity with the Oracle organisation and licensing models allowed us to overcome initial stumbling blocks, set up good communication channels and proceed more rapidly.

Nick Foster, CIO

"In our commercial renegotiations they were able to reduce our budgeted expenditure on procurement to the extent that we were able to recover their fees"                       

Project:

Mobile phone 35% saving and new kit

Scope:

Turnstone was approached by DTZ to run the tendering, negotiation and contracting for the renewal of their pan-European mobile telephone contract. Having already commenced a Request for Information (RFI), Turnstone proceeded to the Request for Proposal (RFP) stage. The remit was to acquire the best value for money, reduce risk and cost, whilst improving service.

DTZ is a global real estate adviser, working with clients to create leading-edge property, investment and business solutions worldwide.

Key Business Benefits:

Turnstone undertook all of the tendering and evaluation workload with suppliers, providing full requirements scoring. An e-auction, used to carefully achieve lowest market pricing, provided a 35% saving, which the successful vendor provided as a lump sum upon signature.

The key service improvements included:-

1. Provision for scaling across Europe with tiered discounts
2. Inclusion of personal call tagging for UK tax legislation
3. Reduced administration costs through better billing
4. Reduced DTZ contractual liability
5. Future proofed with rates for newer technologies included
6. 'Co-terminus' to allow free tendering at next renewal
7. Improved risk position

DTZ staff saved a great deal of time, with Turnstone doing the workload, DTZ were only involved at key decision points

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone used their extensive skills in procurement and negotiation to tailor a strategy specifically for DTZ. A detailed specification and coordinated Q&A ensured that all bidders received the same information. Bidders for the contract were then quality scored against a matrix agreed with DTZ, which included all aspects of providing a successful service.

Duncan Scott, CIO, DTZ
"We deployed Turnstone to effectively ‘outsource' our tendering process for a major telecommunications contract. The time saving enabled my team to focus on more strategic issues. Turnstone clearly added value to the end contract and also facilitated cost savings significantly in excess of their own fees. "

 

Ed Mitchell, DTZ
"Appointing Turnstone to assist in the procurement process - was a great relief. Having some one who is dedicated to the task of getting the best deal for our company throughout the contract award/negotiation was a great idea, freeing me up to do my ‘day job'! Since the first successful project, we have continued to use Turnstone on other similar tasks."

 

Andrew Perkins, DTZ
We deployed Turnstone to take on the tendering process for supply of mobile telecoms. We asked them to assess the quality of vendors' proposals, drive lowest cost through eAuction, and deliver the final contract.
Turnstone produced cost savings far in excess of what we have achieved historically, dwarfing the fees which we paid them. At all times they were transparent about their fees. Our own staff appreciated being able to concentrate on what they do best, whilst taking advantage of Turnstone expertise to get the best result.
We have since engaged Turnstone to help us with another technology purchase."

Project:

Mid term Data Centre and DR renegotiation

Scope:

The client needed to split its Data Centre and Disaster Recovery contract mid-term, due to sale of a subsidiary. The supplier, a major global provider of these services, used this as an opportunity to completely renegotiate the terms, threatening limits on power and significant cost increases for power and DR invocation. The existing contracts were ill suited to how the service had evolved over the years.

Turnstone was approached by the client to improve contractual terms, preserve existing cost levels and take on the negotiation workload.

The client is a UK commercial property company, providing end to end buy & leaseback deals with full management. Their IT systems are the backbone of the business offering, so a disruption to these would be disastrous.

Key Business Benefits:

Turnstone took on the negotiation workload with the supplier, the benefits for the client were:

1. Each change proposed by the supplier assessed for cost and performance impact
2. £660k of total cost was removed from the contract (35%), with the yearly saving guaranteed by the supplier for the remaining 7 years of the contract
3. A further £850k of cost increase for DR invocation was avoided
4. Future growth in power requirements factored into the contract
5. Reduced legal time / expense required prior to contract signature
6. Retention of the Client's positive relationship with the Supplier with Turnstone in ‘Bad Cop' role
7. Regular performance reviews committed to by the Supplier
8. Confidence that the contract remained value for money with no reduced service levels
9. Minimal time commitment from the Client - key decision points only

The Turnstone Approach:

Familiarity with the suppliers' tactics helped drive a more effective commercial deal for the client.
Our skills in IT procurement and negotiation were used to set out an agreed strategy with the Client.
A detailed service questionnaire to the supplier elicited full detail.

Turnstone managed all of the communications and update reporting between the Supplier and Client, providing the Client with key decisions as they arose.

Turnstone included all future business needs and ensured that these were suitably covered within the contracts. We ensured that changes proposed by the supplier did not reduce the service.

Adrian Perry, IT Infrastructure Manager, Trillium Property Partnerships

"We deployed Turnstone to run a major mid-term contract re-negotiation for our datacentre and disaster recovery provision. They worked closely with our in-house IT and procurement teams, and reduced the time spent by internal resources whilst communicating all key decision points. They enabled us to significantly reduce the proposed supplier costs, providing savings many times in excess of their fees."

Project:

SAP Licensing and Implementation

Scope:

A large Scandinavian cruise and ferry company with fragmented buying processes chose to create a centralised purchasing department.

A central procurement system was required to support this.

Turnstone helped define the business requirements, ran the tendering process and managed all contract negotiations.

The SAP SRM system was chosen and implemented successfully in 5 months, used to control all company spend.

Key Business Benefits:

Business & Financial

• completed early, on quality and budget
• £210k (40%) saved on software licence fees
• £100k (10%) saved on implementation partner costs
• Supplier base reduced from 5,000 to 1,000
• New common processes were created and successfully implemented across the company

Technical

• Cost exposure of integration to the legacy system was controlled
• Outsourced SAP technical support organisation set up
• Post go-live support levels well-defined to avoid scope creep and performance issues

The Turnstone Approach:

Turnstone’s knowledge of SAP enabled us to position the client as strategic customer for SAP, resulting in improved service at reduced costs. 

Turnstone used RFP methodology and templates to run a fully transparent, auditable supplier selection process, including clearly defined business requirements and detailed supplier demos.

Our rigorous vendor management approach streamlined the negotiation process and eased the assessment of performance against requirements throughout the implementation project.

Eija Rasanen, Vice President, Silja Line
"Turnstone proved invaluable to the project. They kept our supplier costs down and reduced the admin hassle. They saved us €400k of consultant mandays by negotiating a rigorous contract with our supplier."

Steven Robson, CFO, Silja Line
"We were able to negotiate pretty good prices and terms ourselves, however we've been able to secure better prices and terms having deployed Turnstone. As a result we can control our suppliers better"