Clients
We support Clients in gaining the most benefit from their IT Services contracts.
Embedded IT provide advisory services to help Clients find the best service partner; agree the best technical, operational and commercial framework; build and maintain the best working relationship focussed on business outcomes, not technical inputs.
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Based on decades of experience, Embedded IT consultants can work with you to understand your business need and how best to configure the IT team to support that. From organisational design, development of best practice process and procedures, through to optimum procurement and supplier management. With a major network of Channel Partners within the UK, we can help identify the right suppliers to best align to your IT strategy, based not just on technology, but also size and shape of your business.
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Armed with this core information, Embedded can review current IT service performance and strategy, review current supply chain performance and suitability of suppliers to your organisation, and propose tangible action plans to drive improvements throughout the IT delivery function. We can manage the process of re-negotiating or changing your IT or Telecoms suppliers, driving improved quality or relationship, or reduced cost - depending on the key business drivers.
IT & Telecoms
Audit / Strategy
Many businesses struggle with the alignment of IT to their business objectives. With technology now becoming more key to the success of a business, IT can be seen as both an enabler and an inhibitor depending on the success of this alignment.
Misalignment can lead to IT underperformance or lack of flexibility in responding to new business direction, which in turn can create end user discontent, or in worst case scenarios cause customer churn because of poor customer experience. Taking a step back to determine an IT strategy to support the business can deliver substantial revenue and customer satisfaction benefits.
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Embedded IT have worked with many clients to understand their IT and Telecoms estate and how it relates to their business strategy. Through a process of interviews and reviews of documentation, Embedded will engage with a business to understand:
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Core business objectives and strategy
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Current IT and Telecoms services, suppliers and organisation
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Challenges with current IT service and impact of these challenges on business strategy
Armed with this information, Embedded can form a clear statement of direction deliverable for IT that overcomes the current challenges and re-aligns IT strategy with business objectives.
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This relatively short piece of work can help with direction setting for both IT and business users, and create a framework within which strategic IT decisions can be made to best support the business environment.
With over 6,000 IT and Telecoms suppliers within the UK, find the right supplier can be time consuming and complex. As a result, businesses tend to stay with their current suppliers, renewing each year to save the challenge of migrating services to a new, unknown entity.
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However with technology changing at such a pace, new entrants to the market are frequent and can add significant value to a business’s IT function. Incumbent IT providers, who sometimes have not invested in the latest skills and technologies, find it difficult to independently advise a client to work with new suppliers as it could damage their revenues and relationships.
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Embedded IT have significant experience in both the business alignment to IT suppliers, but also the latest technology trends and drivers. In this context, Embedded can offer a fully independent view of your business’s IT supply chain and can make recommendations on how suppliers could form part of the business strategy based on skills and culture.
Through a series of interviews and reviews of documentation, Embedded will determine:
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Inventory of all suppliers showing what services they provide
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Service quality / contract positions for each supplier as a Red/Amber/Green
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Proposals for changes in the IT Supply Chain, if required
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Potential new IT Suppliers to consider in the context of business strategy
The core deliverable will be an audit report with prioritised recommendations on current IT and Telecoms supply chain, with potential benefits and actions to realise these benefits.
IT & Telecoms Supplier Reviews
IT & Telecoms Procurement
The IT and Telecoms supply chain is undergoing significant change, with massive consolidation through mergers and acquisitions activity, as well as technological change and adoption of new business models, such as cloud. IT suppliers are therefore prone to risk of change, and frequently businesses do not hear about these changes until it is too late.
As a parallel activity, technology procurement is changing at a rapid pace. With changes in buying behaviour, different commercial and financial models for products and services, and the aforementioned supply chain turmoil, buying IT services can be a complex and time consuming task. Without appropriate domain expertise, the risk of buying the wrong thing from the wrong supplier is high, with unquantifiable commercial and operational impact.
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Embedded IT have significant experience in managing procurement activities for clients of all sizes and sectors. Leveraging our experience of working on both sides of the procurement fence (Client / Supplier), we understand the key drivers for client and suppliers and navigate the best path between these agendas to secure the best result for both. This can take the form of a managed Request For Proposal (RFP) process, or more commonly, a process of simple dialogue to ascertain the best approach to a specific business requirement.
Embedded can provide:
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Initial requirements gathering
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Supplier long and short list selection
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Evaluation Criteria development, in conjunction with business requirements
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Contract negotiation support (in conjunction with professional legal advice)
Embedded can provide support for Procurement processes, from initial strategy definition to supplier recommendation, to ensure all parties achieve the optimum outcome, with minimal effort.