EFS Consulting
Felix Meizer sieht lächelnd in die Ferne

End-2-End expertise along the entire IT contract lifecycle. In tendering, transition and operation.

IT-Sourcing & IT-Service Management

Our offer for IT-Sourcing and IT-Service Management

Our approach serves all needs along the IT contract lifecycle.

  • The tendering phase includes elementary steps such as determining requirements and defining the award strategy. This is followed by the preparation of necessary documents, in-depth evaluation of bidders and awarding of the contract to a service provider.
  • The transition phase involves a smooth transfer of responsibilities and resources from any previous service providers to new service providers to ensure a seamless changeover. If there is no change of one service provider to another, we talk about a transformation phase. Then, the collaboration model needs to be adapted based on the updated contractual relationship.
  • In operations, the services provided are monitored to ensure that they meet the service levels and standards agreed upon. This is where findings are collected as input for enhanced IT-Service Management.

Drivers for IT-Sourcing and IT service management

  • Cost pressure – Providing leading IT services at the best price

Challenges: The increasing intensity of competition due to the large number of providers and the constant search for new customers is forcing companies to optimize their prices. Globalization has led to increased competition from countries with lower labor costs, while customers are increasingly demanding cost-effective solutions with no changes in quality.

Potential: Optimized IT-Sourcing and IT-Service Management strategies can help companies use resources more efficiently. By carefully selecting service providers with an appropriate price-performance ratio, optimizing the use of resources, and negotiating favorable contract terms, companies can reduce costs without compromising the quality or performance of their IT services.

  • Quality requirements – fulfillment of corporate goals

Challenges: When procuring IT services, companies must ensure that the selected service providers meet the required quality standards. The management of IT services also requires clear quality requirements. Companies must ensure that the services provided meet the defined quality standards, whether in terms of performance, reliability, security or service.

Potential: High-quality IT services provide companies with a solid foundation for efficient management of their business processes. In view of the increasing complexity and speed of technological change, higher quality is crucial to meet the requirements for performance, reliability, security and innovation. By selecting service providers who offer proven expertise and experience, companies can ensure that their IT infrastructure is optimally supported. In long term, higher quality IT services can help to increase customer confidence and improve the company’s competitiveness.

  • High effort – lack of time to achieve the required optimum

Challenges: Lack of time is a common problem in companies, especially given by increasing complexity and speed of technological change. As part of the procurement process, companies must conduct extensive research, evaluate potential suppliers, negotiate contracts and make decisions – all within a limited timeframe. This can be particularly challenging when IT service requirements are complex or when decision makers have limited expertise. Lack of time is also a problem in IT-Service Management. Companies need to  monitor the performance of service providers regularly, respond to potential problems, review service levels and adjust where necessary.

Potential: By strategically selecting service providers and negotiating favorable contract terms, companies can save time and effort which can be invested in their business activities. In addition, efficient management of IT services enables optimization of processes and automation of tasks, leading to reduced manual effort. Even more, employee productivity increases, allowing the company to focus on its core competencies.

  • Risk – outsourcing and managing responsibility

Challenges: Risks in IT-Service Management are manifold. There is a risk of selecting an unsuitable service provider. Companies must thoroughly research and carefully evaluate potential providers to choose those who have the necessary skills, resources and experience to meet companies requirements. Another risk is dependency on external service providers. When companies outsource their IT services to third parties, they need to rely on the performance and motivation of their service provider. Furthermore, in audit-proof award procedures, errors during a tendering process making award decisions questionable represent another important risk.

Potential: Companies can minimize the risk of inadequate performance or downtime by conducting thorough due diligence when selecting service providers and defining clear and audit-proof contract terms. In addition, an implementation of robust contingency plans and continuous monitoring of service provider performance support effective risk management. All of this can be implemented in a compliant procurement process.

 

Our offer

We offer the following services to meet the drivers along the entire IT contract lifecycle:

  • Optimize IT contracts: Conduct a benchmark for your IT contracts. Together, we develop a structured optimization proposal for you. From a quality perspective, we consider existing documentation, ITIL-compliant practices and tools as well as your current concept and methods for procuring your IT services. Evaluation of invested or to-be-invested expenses are considered separately for procurement, transition and operation. Also, we take a closer look at your cost structure within the IT contract and suggest potentials for greater transparency, an effective design of support locations and target-oriented service levels.
  • Optimize your tendering methodology: Based on PMT – processes, methods, tools – we restructure your tendering methodology. With the help of our process knowledge, we propose a clear process logic and outline required processes, including their activities and responsibilities. We find suitable methods for each process and allocate them according to your needs, from project management to effective analyses of your bidders. In the end, all results of your processes and applied methods are contained in the tools of an effective tendering methodology, the tender documents. With the help of our expertise, we provide a modular structure for your tender project documents based on a building block logic which can meet all your IT service requirements, covering documents structures from lean to detail-oriented.
  • Automate with Tenderee©: Use our well-proven technology to automate your tendering process. With Tenderee© we accelerate your document creation by automating over 80% of your tender documents’ creation effort. The documents are tailored by answering a defined set of questions. With a roll-out in your company, we offer customized solutions for your needs. In addition, we train your employees and take care of the maintenance and further development of your customized Tenderee©.
  • End-2-End management of your IT tender project: Take advantage of our expertise during your IT tender project. We support your processes and methods of your tendering methodology developed for you so that you can benefit from our best practices. Our End-2-End approach ensures comprehensive management of all phases. Starting from definition of a strategic foundation of the tendered service to co-creative market interaction and technical evaluation of the bidders to an audit-compliant award decision, followed by a goal-oriented and structured transition including a successful change of control.
  • Roll-out of the service management tool: We are the right partners for you if you plan to use an IT-Service Management tool to manage your IT services. With our proven ITSM tool roll-out approach, we can cover all needs for a successful implementation your chosen tool to use. By content-related levels of project management, organizational change, adaptation of processes and preparation of relevant data including requirements for connected systems, we support achieving specific results at each project phase.
  • Optimizing IT-Service Management: We provide ITIL-compliant approaches to optimize your IT-Service Management. Our experience allows us to analyse your organization and your IT service approach in such a way to be able to recommend ITIL practices most effective for your use cases. This allows you to base your ITSM strategy on proven best practices, leading to sooner acceptance from your target groups. Possible results after our analyses are process assessments and precise implementation plans . We are happy to accompany the implementation of your optimization measures so that these can efficiently anchor in your organization.

People

Jürgen Leitner, Partner bei EFS Consulting

Jürgen Leitner

Günther Kolar-Schandlbauer

Michael Bereczuk