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CASE STUDY: InterContinental Hotels Group | View PDF version

Realization - A review of the outcome produced by Telwares

With truly unique business requirements reaching across the globe, a customized and comprehensive approach was critical to the project’s success. Telwares coordinated stakeholder interviews with the IHG Project Team to define clear and precise project objectives. This was critical to ensure all service areas were addressed, ultimately achieving significant savings across voice services (outbound/toll free), conferencing services, DataWAN (MPLS IP/VPN, Frame and Private Lines), and Internet (dedicated and dial). A comprehensive inventory was created to identify baseline expenditures and service details in support of bid requirements and comparative analyses. Telwares managed the entire bidding process, from RFP creation through bidders conferences, to carrier evaluations and final contract negotiations.The results of this engagement included:

• A truly customized RFP that addressed the technical and operational needs of IHG and achieved annualized savings in excess of 36%, driving significant savings to the bottom line.
• A historical audit was conducted; additional go-forward savings were identified and credits were negotiated to remedy past carrier overcharges.
• Robust contract terms and conditions were negotiated to mitigate business risk, maximize future lever age and improve quality of service and support (account team support, stewardship, etc.).
• A thorough assessment of technology options was completed to ensure IHG’s contracts included the technologies required to support the short and long term technical roadmap.

Analysis - An overview of the client’s telecommunications challenge

Once stakeholder interviews were completed, Telwares moved forward with a detailed analysis of the current telecom situation and developed a comprehensive strategy to ensure the successful delivery of the desired outcome. Several external factors also influenced the strategy: recent carrier acquisitions meant carriers were setting new pricing standards and internal carrier organizations were in flux. As a result, IHG’s incumbent carriers were challenged to prepare competitive packages that included both leading edge rates, and the commitment flexibility required to accommodate IHG’s large constituency of franchisees. With current contracts nearing expiration, timing was critical, as IHG needed to preserve its negotiating leverage by mitigating barriers to exit with current suppliers. For these reasons, Telwares needed to move expeditiously to preserve remaining leverage and bring its industry experience, carrier relationships and networking knowledge to bear to ensure all project goals were achieved on schedule.

Strategy - Applying Telwares’ expertise, perspective, leverage and process

Upon completion of its analysis of IHG’s existing telecom situation, Telwares’ project team developed a roadmap to meet the desired project goals: decreased price points and the elimination of extraneous charges, best in class terms and conditions to ensure short and long term contractual and operating flexibility, mitigate business risk, streamline/ simplify the existing contract structures and ensure ease of management going forward, enhanced technical options to improve efficiencies and support future cost reductions, and reduced corporate commitment and liability. To achieve these outcomes, Telwares:

• Developed an all inclusive demand set of IHG’s corporate telecom usage and expenditures to ensure ALL current service elements (and not just key categories) were priced aggressively.
• Coached the carriers to provide the winning combination of leading edge rates, contract terms and conditions and service / support structures that will enhance the carrier / customer relationship throughout the contract lifecycle.
• Leveraged its knowledge of the carrier organization and relationships with the carrier’s key decision makers to achieve the right outcome, quickly.
• Evaluated the carriers’ technical offerings and negotiated pricing for future network services that will allow InterContinental to make a graceful transition to new service offerings, as desired, over time.
• Performed a historical audit concurrent with the strategic RFP effort to achieve additional cost savings.