Business Technology Alignment | Replace outsourcing vendor
THE SITUATION
The client organization is in a highly regulated industry sector and was experincing rapid growth.
Expanding service offerings and office locations required increased information technology systems, as well as support services. Information technology was outsourced to a local managed service provider (MSP). The client began to experience service and support issues as the organization expanded.
ENGAGEMENT LENGTH: 5 MONTHS
ENGAGEMENT HIGHTLIGHTS (Replace Outsourcing Vendor)
The initial engagement scope entailed a general evaluation of the situation, including a review and analysis of the following areas:
- MSP’s contract and scope of work
- Interview with the MSP
- Vendor’s recent performance issues, including staff interviews
- Client’s internal IT related policies and processes
- Client’s business objectives, specifically related to their growth and expansion initiatives
The general result of the evaluation indicated the MSP was competent but not able to meet the scaling demands of the client. Specific concerns included:
- The service agreement did not adequately address new services or volume increases and lacked a defined change management process
- The MSP was struggling to manage the increased workload from the client, due to a lack of resources and specific skill sets
- The MSP did not have a clear plan to remedy the identified concerns
Blue Mensa reviewed the results with the client and recommended engaging a vendor better suited to support their environment, along with the ability to scale with future growth objectives. The client agreed and extended the engagement to source and transition to a new MSP. Moving forward the project was broken down into three phases:
- Requirements definition
- Request for proposal (RFP) and vendor selection
- Vendor transition
The client’s requirements were defined, using information already gathered during the initial evaluation, along with further discovery activities. A vendor profile document was created defining the attributes of an ideal vendor based on the client’s requirements. Criteria included staffing levels, expertise in the client’s industry, scalability, ideal service offerings, and other relevant attributes. The formal request for proposal (RFP) document was created and included the following components:
- Detailed client profile including an overview of the technical environment with accurate systems and user counts
- Summary of the RFP and award process, including dates and deadlines
- The client’s detailed technical and contractual requirements
- Detailed instructions for responding to the RFP
A scoring matrix was developed to uniformly review and rate vendors throughout the entire RFP process. The selection process consisted of three rounds. The initial round eliminated vendors that did not adequately meet specific criteria (e.g. did not provide 24×7 support coverage). During the second round vendors were provided two discovery meetings to gain detailed client information and was required to submit final pricing. In round three, a vendor was selected following presentations from the top two vendors. During these presentations, each vendor walked through their entire service process from contract negotiations through post-transition support operations.
Blue Mensa provided complete oversight of the post selection process, which included contract negotiations, the new vendor’s discovery phase, notification of termination of services to the current vendor and final transition of services to the new vendor.
OUTCOME
From initial assessment to transition, Blue Mensa provides a turn-key solution for the client’s outsourcing problem. The new vendor’s support model and capabilities were properly aligned with the client’s operations. The client transitioned from a reactive service model to an interactive and proactive model, with the ability to scale with the organization’s growth objectives.
CHALLENGES
The main challenge with this engagement was the compressed timeframe:
- The client desired to transition to a new vendor (Replace Outsourcing Vendor), just prior to the expiration of the current vendor’s existing contract.
- The change from working in the previous vendor’s reactive support model, to a proactive model with a larger vendor, required a significant level of changes and additions to internal processes, to ensure a successful transition and proper adoption.
