Mid term Data Centre and DR cost avoidance

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.

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

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."