Project Background
A client with a global operation outsourced their end user services in Europe to the same company they had contracted in the U.S. The contract was awarded without a thorough evaluation of Service Providers (SP) and without sufficient participation from the Europeans. The outsourcer’s prices were found too high for the quality of service received in Europe and the reporting long overdue. The Europeans solved some of their own problems by working around the SP, but at a premium. Although the contract was only midway to completion, they decided to investigate other outsourcing companies.
Problem Summary
The representatives from the European operations were jaded by their experience with their current outsourcer, too busy with their job responsibilities to find a long-range solution, unfamiliar with outsourcer selection process and not empowered to make a change. Some were willing to continue working with the current outsourcer as a stopgap measure, but knew they had to find a long-term solution.
With no CIO in Europe, the client looked to TBI to help them identify and evaluate potential Service Providers in Europe. TBI was charged to define the client’s needs, form a team of representatives in Europe, identify Service Providers to meet those needs, prepare a Request For Information (RFI), facilitate the SP response sessions, help to evaluate the responses, report on the results of the RFI process and prepare an RFP.
TBI’s Approach
TBI met with the client representatives in Europe to develop an understanding of the problems and needs. TBI determined the services required and developed a project plan. As a result, TBI moved forward to identify potential SPs, prepare an RFI that reflected the client’s special requirements and arrange a week of SP responses and evaluations.
TBI facilitated the oral presentation sessions, helped with the evaluations and delivered a report that ranked the SPs. Client management was provided with reasons to support the rankings. Then, TBI prepared a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the client.
Successful Business Solutions
As a result of engaging TBI services, the client received a list of qualified SPs for Europe, an RFI that reflected their needs in Europe, a comprehensive outsourcer evaluation methodology, a ranked list of SPs and an RFP. In addition, the team of European representatives gained experience in the outsourcer selection process.
