ISG supported Amadeus, a travel technology provider, with the tender and selection of a new strategic partner for the travel industry. ISG’s sourcing advisory as well as expertise in tenders and contract design played a role in Amadeus now having access to new business opportunities with Microsoft as a strategic partner as well as a reliable plan for migrating to the Cloud.
Opportunity
Amadeus is one of the leading global technology service providers for the travel industry and has deep expertise in the development and operation of related solutions. The company wants to migrate to Cloud services. The goal was to not only increase flexibility, Amadeus also wanted to enter a strategic partnership with a Cloud services provider to tap into new business opportunities.
Amadeus acts as a platform for many processes within the entire travel industry and has entered into very demanding Service Level Agreements with its customers, which include airlines and airport operators. The chosen Cloud services provider had to provide the service reliability and speed to enable Amadeus to meet its contractual commitments. Amadeus’ goal is to move its infrastructure into a Public Cloud and still have access to a unified solution.
Imagining IT Differently
ISG’s role at Amadeus was to ensure the current levels of service quality remained, both functionally as well as within the new Cloud application. ISG helped create the tender for the Cloud services project. ISG experts also relied on their years of expertise as sourcing advisors to structure, manage and coordinate the various aspects of the complex procedure for both Amadeus and the provider.
ISG also created an approach that Amadeus could use to meet the planned milestones for the project and sign a contract on time. As part of the sourcing advisory, ISG acted as an intermediary between the customer and the service provider. This role did not only require the creation of financial bridges between Amadeus and the service provider. Furthermore, the role included to align the standard Cloud solution from the Cloud services provider on the one hand and Amadeus’ sometimes very unique requirements in the performance and reliability of its services. ISG in its role as Sourcing Advisor ensured that the final contract with Microsoft Azure as Cloud services provider will enable Amadeus to meet these requirements in full.
Future Made Possible
Amadeus reaped the following benefits:
- Amadeus and Microsoft entered a partnership that goes beyond just Cloud services: Its strategic goal is to create new business opportunities in the travel market together.
- The agreement with Microsoft supports Amadeus’ migration plans.
- The migration plan will clearly define when and what components of Amadeus’ infrastructure will be migrated to Microsoft’s Public Cloud via Lift & Shift.
- The contract offers Amadeus a high level of flexibility should certain migration steps need to be completed differently or at a different time than planned.
- Amadeus will profit from structural Change Management that includes, for example, training for all company application developers and operators in relevant Microsoft Cloud areas.
- Moving to the public Cloud offers Amadeus a significant increase in market flexibility.
The terms of agreement with Microsoft are of course strictly confidential.
