Vendor Selection

In summary

Brief

Procure campus network infrastructure and source an integration partner to implement the infrastructure and services.

Solution

Source the best technology suite that met the functional and non-functional requirements within a budgeted 5 year Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). Then select the best integration partner to design and implement the services as a project and provide a value proposition as an option to support the services on an on-going basis as a managed service.

Result

• • Sourced the best fit ICT infrastructure products and services at less than 50% of the budgeted cost (a saving in excess of $17m)
  • Selected a leading integration partner to design and implement the project
  • Delivered value for money over a 5 year TCO that included the procurement of infrastructure, project delivery services, and pricing for a managed services offering.

In detail

Business need

Professional ICT specialist services to manage the procurement process from requirements gathering to tender management.

Challenges

Choosing the best product vendor and integrator partner should be separate decisions, but discounts and rebates from vendors to systems integrators (SIs) often blur these lines. The key challenge was to separate this relationship to achieve both tangible and intangible benefits. An outcome-based arrangement was needed, rather than just a conventional contract.

Outcome

To position the client so that the IT industry relationships did not compromise product selection and/or the price point for the infrastructure and services. The approach delivered marketplace contestability and selected the best product and Systems Integrator, at the best price while also meeting the project and future IT support needs.

What Frame Did

Frame locked in a vendor discount structure for a product range on a project basis that was extended over the life of the product while selecting a systems integrator based on delivery capability, references, price etc., not just due to their partner status with the vendor.

This was achieved by:

• • Sending an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the key players in the market segment (e.g. to the leaders/visionaries in the Gartner Magic Quadrant) to:
    • • –Gain insights into the current capabilities and where the product was heading in the future e.g. open standards, automation etc.
      • –Understand the commercial construct i.e. project price and % off RRP for the entire TCO period.

• • Developing a high-level set of functional and non-functional requirements and evaluating against the EOI responses.
  • Short listing the products and performing a Proof of Concept (PoC) for the mandatory requirements to ensure there was interoperability between the proposed products and the existing applications and products and services the organisation had in an on-premises hosting environment and in the Cloud.

The next stage was a Request for Tender/ Proposal (i.e. RFx) to the short-listed systems integrators to source professional services. The selection of SI’s was based on previous business relationships and recommendation from the marketplace. This tranche of works had the following key steps and outcomes:

• • Selected a systems integrator that was best of breed in the products and services being considered.
  • Procured the IT infrastructure from the leading products available in the marketplace previously identified.
  • Developed a comprehensive set of functional and non-functional requirements, genericised Bill of Materials (BoM) and other supporting documentation to enable the normalisation activity i.e. to compare apples-for apples, not oranges.
  • Set the evaluation criteria and communicated the proponents what was important to the buyer.
  • Managed the tender process through the client’s procurement team (procurement, legal and IT stakeholders) to ensure that the best product was selected, at the best price, and matched with a quality delivery partner.