Delivering network technology to support new media in the 21st Century

Background

Guardian News and Media (GNM), publishers of the Guardian, Observer and network of Guardian Unlimited websites were moving into a new office in Kings Cross in late 2008. The new office was to house GNM’s editorial and operational staff, as well as their primary data centre. The transfer to the new site required step change to the provision of voice and data networks, as well as contracting for external data centre hosting.

Consulting Stream were appointed to specify and procure the MAN, WAN, LAN and data centre technology to support the building infrastructure, provide resilient data centre services and provide connectivity to the rest of GNM’s offices and print sites.

Business Challenge

Guardian News and Media faced issues of;

• Concluding the whole end to end process in less than six months
• Articulating a complex set of technology and business requirements
• Engaging key internal stakeholder groups to the procurement process
• Needing a structured approach to the end to end process, which could be audited
• Understanding the market and potential suppliers, particularly around supply of fibre services
• Finding a solution that would provide high availability and meet their budget

Services Provided

• Market Intelligence
• Supplier Liaison
• Technology Sourcing
• Technical Assessment

Skills Deployed

• Project Management
• Stakeholder Management
• Risk Management
• Technical Analysis
• Commercial Negotiation

Our Approach

Following an initial brief with the client, Consulting Stream planned a procurement project utilising our procurement methodology. This followed a set of clear steps to take the client from their requirements through to concluding commercial negotiations with the chosen supplier.
The scope of this project covered discovery and analysis of the existing network, requirements definition, technical architecture validation, ITT construction, supplier communication, evaluation and selection and finally negotiation and award. Our approach, coupled with high levels of buy in and awareness from GNM stakeholder meant that the brief could be articulated as a set of business challenges.
This enabled the suppliers to demonstrate thought leadership in their solutions and engage with Consulting Stream and GNM in a meaningful debate through the presentation and negotiation stages. Parallel negotiations were held with two favoured suppliers, with one being chosen for final pricing discussions. Consulting Stream played a key role with GNM procurement team in finalising the deal.

Business Outcomes

GNM were able to review responses from prospective network suppliers, utilising Consulting Stream’s objective assessment framework. The final supplier was chosen following a round of technical and commercial meetings. The negotiation process, for which our consultant and GNM’s head of procurement worked side by side, achieved a 25% discount in overall pricing. During the project Consulting Stream also carried out an assessment of candidate data centre suppliers and identified and specified the key supplier manager role for the contract, which GNM subsequently hired as part of the project.

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