Mitra Take the Time, Pain and Risk out of Vendor Selection

LEADING CENTRAL BANK

A large, Europe based, publicly owned central bank that’s been established for over 300 years. The Bank is responsible for maintaining monetary and financial stability while promoting the good of the people. To ensure its own cost effectiveness and accountability, a project was set up to promote rigorous, transparent vendor selection. As a public body, they aspire to set the best example of public service and accountability and required a process to help them choose suppliers who do likewise.

THE CHALLENGE

The Bank wanted to improve its vendor selection process, the catalyst for which was the selection of a strategic partner for a major upcoming IT Service Management (ITSM) project. The existing tender process was labour intensive and relied on the vendor provided details within the tenders being accurate and complete.

While due diligence is a requirement of any public body, The Bank wanted to filter vendors in a more practical and transparent way. 

Mitra was asked to come up with a less onerous process for the client, that challenged the prospective vendors to demonstrate their research and understanding of, and their approach to, the upcoming project. Crucially the approach should require the vendors to demonstrate their understanding, skill and judgment in a real time setting, whilst reducing the workload for The Bank.

THE SOLUTION

Mitra worked closely with The Bank to design, build and deliver a highly innovative “hothouse” methodology for supplier selection. The hothouse provided the vendors with a secure platform on which to demonstrate, in real time, their understanding of the requirements, their technical acuity and ultimately how they would configure their product to meet the specific needs of the client. In turn the client enjoyed a live demonstration of how the vendors would approach the project and how their products and services could be tailored to fit their needs. In one hothouse session the participating teams had 5 hours to show how they would configure the “joiners and leavers” process workflow within their proposed solution, and then demonstrate this to the client.

Cultural Shift

This innovative approach required a change of culture for all those using the new procurement process. Mitra worked closely with IT, Finance and Procurement personnel, gaining their input and approval and embedding this progressive, bold change firmly in the selection and buying process.

Supplier Selection

Not only did Mitra create the hothouse methodology for The Bank, we ran the supplier selection hothouse, providing the live platform and guiding the vendors through the process. Mitra also developed a comprehensive contract negotiation plan for the client.

Better Decisions

Mitra’s clever methodology provided The Bank with a glimpse of the deliverable before the decision making was finalised. In future, vendor selection decisions would be based on real scenarios with real solutions, demonstrated in real time.

THE RESULT

Mitra’s hothousing methodology moved the onus from the client having to review multiple tenders, to the vendors having to demonstrate their understanding and skill in real time, thus reducing the workload on the client and vastly improving the quality of procurement decisions. This methodology also meant any issues with the implementation programme were spotted early, leading to a more pragmatic, effective delivery plan.

The transparency of the hothouse methodology also provided constructive feedback to unsuccessful vendors, thereby preserving business relationships and significantly reducing the risk of challenges to the decision-making process. The chosen solution has been successfully deployed for the strategic ITSM solution, accelerating the vendor selection process, reducing risk and delivering substantial cost savings to The Bank.

BUSINESS BENEFITS

Faster, better procurement decisions based on demonstrated understanding and skill

Reduced time, cost and risk of vendor selection process

Transparency of hothouse methodology fulfils accountability mission of The Bank

Rapid implementation of chosen solution

Improved contract quality for transformation project within The Bank