Procurement Case Study: finding flexible and scalable sourcing support to meet peaks in demand, accommodate enterprise growth and adjust to changing footprints around the world.

1. Technology Leader Takes Global Sourcing Operations
to the Next Level
“We were reorganizing and restructuring at a feverish pace, and our procurement
specialists were overburdened. ISG was incredibly flexible and helped us achieve
our goals. They tailored their work material and design model to match our
direction and culture. They led the way with everything – development of the RFP,
supplier selection, due diligence visits, change management, negotiations and
ultimately through to the signing of the contract.”
Senior Director, Global Sourcing Services
Overview
One of the fastest-growing storage and data management providers in the industry, this
firm delivers a wide range of services, including support for business applications, storage
for virtual servers, disk-to-disk backup and more. With 10,200 employees in over 130
offices worldwide, the company is widely recognized as an innovative and supportive
workplace. It has reported significant growth over the last five years with revenue of $5.1
billion in 2011.
A period of operational profitability and rapid growth outpaced the company’s internal
sourcing support structure. With limited geographic scope, the global sourcing team was
taking a mostly tactical approach. Insufficient global process standardization resulted in
regional procurement that was essentially “self service.” With little visibility into spend,
procurement tracking had no clear ties back to finance, and, because few meaningful
service levels were in place across the organization, administrators had inadequate
transparency into the root cause of bottlenecks and difficulty in providing timely solutions.
Client:
Storage/Data Management
Industry:
Technology
ISG Services:
Sourcing Strategy
client requirements
■
Transparency into global spend
■
Consistent and standard processes
■
Flexibility
ISG solution
■
Current-state assessment
■
Transaction support
■
Change management and governance
client benefits
■
Cost savings
■
Visibility into spending patterns
■
Reduced cycle times
To address these challenges, the company sought flexible and scalable sourcing support to
meet peaks in demand, accommodate enterprise growth and adjust to changing footprints
around the world.
Specific requirements included:
 A single view of global spend
Consistent standard process flows and process management with automated
purchase order creation
 Clear service levels to measure and account for performance

Flexible sourcing and contracting capabilities
Consistent and timely reporting
 Savings methodology that links realized savings to financial reporting
 Service desk availability for all time zones


www.isg-one.com

2. CASE STUDY: Global Sourcing Operations
ISG Solution
Client Benefits
ISG was engaged to help develop an optimized sourcing delivery
model to meet business needs and help lower costs. After an indepth assessment of the company’s current state, ISG advisors
recommended a strategy that would complement the internal
organization’s capabilities with sourcing of six procurementrelated processes, including strategic sourcing, spend analytics,
service desk support, catalog management and spot buying.
Following the process, the company was positioned to reap the
benefits of a more strategic sourcing plan. A hybrid capability
model for the six selected sourcing processes brought the
following specific benefits:
 Greater efficiency and effectiveness from process
standardization across geographies
 Increased ability to meet demand peaks and growth
 Costs savings from new and incremental spend
 Greater visibility of spend patterns and concentrations
 More consistent management of operational and financial
risks
 Stronger financial control and regulatory compliance
 Improved support of users
 Reduced processing cycle time
Selecting the right third-party provider was critical to the
implementation of the strategy. ISG leveraged its outsourcing
transaction experience and market data to help the client
through all phases of the outsourcing process – from evaluating
alternative organizational approaches, to developing a detailed
RFP for potential providers, to gauging RFP responses, to
contract and SLA standards negotiations.
As a part of evaluating and narrowing the field of potential
service providers, ISG conducted due diligence visits to candidate
provider facilities in Europe and India and created customized
score cards to help the team assess provider capabilities to
ensure appropriate service levels. As a result, the company was
able to find the “right-fit” service provider that could deliver
results and match its high-tech, high-growth company culture.
Finally, ISG prepared the change management plans required for
a successful long-term service provider relationship and the
governance structure to meet the retained organization
objectives. Specifically, service level methodology training and a
communication plan were implemented to manage expectations
and capitalize on the process of change for the whole enterprise.
Instead of spending time and resources band-aiding problems on
an ad hoc basis, the company’s sourcing organization staff can
now focus on account management and play a more strategic
role across all regions of the company. The new procurement
model evolves the work of the internal team so that it can
proactively address behaviors, processes, perceptions and
expectations to help more directly meet customer needs and
business requirements.
Information Services Group (ISG) (NASDAQ: III) is a leading technology insights, market intelligence and advisory services company, serving
more than 500 clients around the world to help them achieve operational excellence. ISG supports private and public sector organizations
to transform and optimize their operational environments through research, benchmarking, consulting and managed services, with a focus
on information technology, business process transformation, program management services and enterprise resource planning. Clients look
to ISG for unique insights and innovative solutions for leveraging technology, the deepest data source in the industry, and more than five
decades of experience of global leadership in information and advisory services. Based in Stamford, Conn., the company has more than 800
employees and operates in 21 countries. For additional information, visit www.isg-one.com.
To learn more about ISG solutions for Global Service Delivery Strategies, contact:
Alex Kozlov
Director
+1 617 558 3377
alex.kozlov@isg-one.com
www.isg-one.com
052913
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