Transformation at Speed

Service Review

The service review involved a benchmark of the costs and prices being paid for the existing services, users’ satisfaction with the service, a review of the existing operational model within IT, and a quick assessment of the technology.  The key findings of the service review indicated that there had been a lack of investment in IT for several years, aspects of the existing services were not providing value for money, users were very dissatisfied with the Service Desk, a lot of the existing technology was old, the in-house team had evolved to cover up for short-comings in the managed service provider, and the incumbent’s contract was approaching a point in time where there was an exit clause that would not trigger any termination payments.

Based on these findings, the main recommendations were to restructure the in-house team to operate more in line with a SIAM Model, follow more options analysis work, recompete the services to get better value, and use the opportunity to transform the technology.

iCore was asked to examine whether the Service Desk should be brought in-house. The conclusion was to keep it as a managed service but bring it near-shore.

Requirements and Selection

On iCore’s recommendation, the Networks and Telecommunications (Telecoms) lot was completed first as this was easily defined, and a shortlist was quickly agreed upon. This included the incumbent, but they chose not to bid. In the end, a specialist telecoms supplier was chosen, and iCore managed the transition of services to that new supplier over a period of three months.

For the Desktop, Datacentre, and Service Management (Compute) requirements, iCore produced a three-part Request for Information (RFI) that was issued to a chosen list of suppliers. The suppliers were invited to attend an open Q&A meeting before presenting their credentials. As time was of the essence, the CIO rejected single-lot responses and selected three suppliers who could deliver all three lots, plus the incumbent, to respond formally to the RFI.

The four became two through a series of proposals and meetings, including the incumbent. These two were asked to present their best and final offer, which was presented to the Board, which selected their preferred supplier, who was not the incumbent.

Negotiations and Transition

iCore managed the contract negotiations with the new Telecoms supplier and the new Compute supplier, working with the company’s legal and financial team, and the exit of the incumbent in both cases.  The Telecoms negotiations and eventual transition took 6 months, including upgrading the network components and the issue of new mobile SIMs.

The Compute services took longer to negotiate, which ran in parallel with the Telecoms transition, but the Compute transition did not commence until the other was complete.  The Compute transition was phased with the new ITSM services moving quickly after the contract was signed, as this was to manage the incumbent.  The new Desktop service was delivered next, enabling the new platform, followed by the other IT Services, which were transitioned into the new supplier’s Datacentre over a single weekend.  The whole transition took six months to complete.