ISG successfully guides a global travel technology company through the request for proposals (RFP) process with multiple hyperscalers.
Opportunity
After having been in talks with the three US hyperscalers for more than 18 months and not progressing with its plan to move most of its workload to the public cloud, a large European global travel technology company engaged ISG to help with its public cloud endeavor.
The company followed a single provider strategy. Its deal at the time also established a strategic business partnership and considerations regarding future use of the company’s main data center.
The company requested ISG manage the tender process end-to-end, from refining its requirements in an RFP and running joint sessions with the hyperscalers to establishing and negotiating appropriate solutions, including non-standard hyperscaler terms, assisting the company until contract signature.
Imagining IT Differently
In a highly collaborative approach, ISG reframed the company’s RFP process, slicing the RFP into logical pieces as lots, consisting of cloud services, datacenter usage and the strategic partnership. ISG substantiated the company’s requirements to the public cloud providers. We developed and applied our proven RFP scoring mechanism as well as managing and maintaining the document process for the final contract.
ISG also facilitated a due diligence process, which included designing and defining the governance for the transition and transformation and the run phase. Finally, ISG led the negotiations process with two finalists, successfully achieving agreements with the hyperscalers on the company’s specific requirements and non-standard hyperscaler terms, such as security and protection of service levels.
Future Made Possible
- The company completed the entire RFP process, from RFP submission to contract signature, in a record 8-month timeline.
- It followed ISG’s recommendation to insist that the hyperscalers to make concessions from their standard offerings. This provided the company with both enhanced certainty regarding service delivery as well as increased flexibility.
- The company received and followed ISG’s recommendations with respect to clearly defining responsibilities during the transition/ migration period while retaining the service integrator role for its cloud transition/migration.
