Improving wide area network services
Background
A top 50 law firm with more than 650 fee earners, was experiencing increasingly poor service from their wide area network provider and was unclear on how to best resolve this. They were also experiencing demands from both the firm and the firms clients that they were unable to fulfil due to technology constraints. The existing network was also unable to be easily upgraded and there was a major concern about whether it would provide adequate business continuity in future. Each year there was a small window of opportunity afforded by the existing contract to terminate and change suppliers, but this window was less than 30 days away. The firm asked Consulting Stream for help to address the immediate issues but also on how best to upgrade the network.
Business Challenge
Aside from the existing service issues, the firm faced a number of other issues that needed to be addressed:
- How best to assemble and articulate a complex set of technology and business requirements
- Understanding the market and potential WAN suppliers,
- Engaging key internal stakeholder groups in the procurement process
- Needing a structured approach to the end to end process, to ensure that the best supplier was selected
- Designing and sourcing a solution that would provide high availability, flexibility as well as meet their budget constraints
- Concluding the whole end to end process in just seven months
Services Provided
- Service Improvement Planning and Management
- Business Requirements Analysis
- Network Design
- Procurement Management
Skills Deployed
- Business Analysis
- Risk Management
- Project Management
- Supplier Management
- Contract Management
- Technical Architect
Our Approach
Following an initial briefing with the client, we devised a service improvement strategy which we executed alongside a requirements capture exercise. Following this work we determined that the current commercial arrangements and the existing network were not going to meet the needs of the business.
Consulting Stream then initiated a procurement project utilising our proven procurement methodology. This followed a set of clear steps that involved firstly working with all the key stakeholders in order to identify their business requirements and translate these into an appropriate technical design. We then created all the required procurement documentation that could be used to engage suppliers and went on to manage the procurment process. Finally we assessed each response and supported the conclusion of commercial negotiations with the chosen supplier.
Business Outcome
The negotiation process, which our team led, achieved a significant discount in overall pricing as well as a negotiated discount framework to cover any future incremental spend. The resulting new IP network has improved the performance of the firm and has capacity for growth.
The existing service was improved in paralell and the provider along with all risk managed appropriately. The clients team also benefited from knowledge transfer throughout the project so that in future they will be able to conduct similar exercises themselves.
The overall procurement exercise was achieved on time and under budget and the delivery of the new network was also achieved with minimum disruption and all within the limited time available.
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