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CASE STUDY: Sonoco | View PDF version

An Overview of the Challenge

Telwares and Sonoco were introduced by the CIO of a satisfied Telwares client who believed that the Hartsville, SC based global packaging provider would benefit from Telwares’ services. During initial discussions with Sonoco executives, Telwares discovered that Sonoco was interested in seeking alternative telecom providers in Europe to improve service levels and cost position. Although Sonoco had plans to issue a RFP to transition service to a new carrier, this project was scheduled to follow another top priority project. In subsequent discussions between Telwares and Sonoco, the company’s CIO confirmed that securing cost savings was indeed a key objective, and expressed interest in accelerating the initial timeline to achieve more immediate results.

Sonoco’s sourcing goals included the removal of exclusivity and onerous commitment structures inherent in their existing telecom contracts, the improvement of their traditional service level agreements, and the streamlining of multiple contracts and commitments to facilitate ease of management. Despite the staggered expiration dates of Sonoco’s contracts with their many global service providers, Telwares was able to achieve an optimal solution in both operational and financial terms, for both local constituencies and the global CIO.

Due to the allocation of internal resources to Sonoco’s existing top priority project, Telwares augmented Sonoco’s resources to expedite the release and administration of the RFP, enabling Sonoco to move forward in unison with both projects.

Applying Telwares’ Expertise, Perspective, Leverage and Process

Telwares conducted a competitive bid for Voice and Data services in which global and regional service providers were invited to respond to Sonoco’s EMEA and North American telecom needs. Telwares’ status as consultancy headquartered in the United States did not diminish their effectiveness in managing the international bid, as confirmed by Luc Mahy, Director, Information Technology Europe. "The location of a consultancy with the experience of Telwares, was irrelevant in this undertaking. Their depth of data telecommunications negotiation experience was on display through our engagement."

By leveraging the RFP, Telwares was able to deliver savings to Sonoco beyond what the client had forecast. Telwares also leveraged Sonoco’s U.S. Voice & Data and Mexico WAN provider to honor their established rates while reducing their MARC. This MARC reduction provided Sonoco flexibility to re-assign their European WAN services. Upon Sonoco’s decision to choose new European carriers, Telwares performed an analysis to quantify the “cost of change” and negotiated contractual language to greatly minimize these costs to Sonoco.

In addition to the re-assignment of their EMEA WAN, Sonoco also adopted Telwares’ recommended best practice of diversifying their Conferencing services from this single carrier.

To address Sonoco’s mobility needs, strategic negotiations leveraging a competitive, dual carrier environment were undertaken with the client’s deeply rooted incumbent mobile services providers. These wireless negotiations produced a 9% reduction in annual wireless spend, incremental to the savings previously negotiated and optimized by the client’s procurement team.

Driving Results

Luc Mahy reflects on his company’s telecom sourcing initiative: "Based on the current economic climate, I believe that CIOs need to be proactive in identifying bottom line savings for their organizations. Choosing a partner for a telecom negotiation initiative is a task that should not be taken lightly. Telwares possesses the experience and people to achieve maximum results from such a project. The Telwares offer is not a high risk proposition, as the consultancy is compensated on the savings they identify."