Client Stories

Helping a Provider Refocus to Win New Business

Written by Admin | Apr 14, 2023, 7:00:00 AM

ISG helps a major tech provider rebuild credibility, refocus its approach, and win more than $100 million in new scope.

Opportunity

A well-known technology and consulting company had lost some business at a valued client – a Scandinavian telecommunications company – a few years earlier. The provider was spending significant time and resources trying to win back the scope and brought in ISG to help assess the situation and provide recommendations. The provider had a new account manager who was open to making changes.

ISG performed a Cherished Accounts assessment of the relationship and found that the client was happy with its new provider and had no plans to re-tender that work. However, the client had an even bigger piece of business coming up and was frustrated the original provider had not been more proactively engaged. The ISG team then worked diligently to refocus the tech and consulting firm on the winnable business – a digital transformation – by improving its existing bonds with the telecommunications client. ISG used its insights from client and provider interviews, as well as ISG Research benchmarking data to determine the best course of action.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG built a strong relationship with the telecommunications company’s new supplier relationship manager. ISG also performed analysis of both the positive feedback on the provider’s existing client work and the challenges. One key challenge was a need for the provider to better understand the telco’s business and show new ideas for innovation and improvement. ISG delivered a long list of specific recommendations that emphasized three areas:

  1. Build credibility through bettering existing streams of business with the client
  2. Prepare a portfolio of what could be done (through case studies, subject-matter expertise, etc.)
  3. Build a roadmap of how to execute the new business, if won, including detail on service capability, how it would be resourced, training, organizational change management, step-by-step processes and a greenfield system
The provider followed this guidance, showed a willingness to improve, demonstrated proactivity, and ultimately won more than $100 million in new scope from the telecommunications client less than a year later.

Future Made Possible

  • Both the client and provider benefitted from improvements to their existing scope of work and relationship.
  • The provider was able to stop wasting valuable energy on the lost business and also gained significant new business.
  • The telecommunications client received a realistic roadmap outlining a digital transformation approach contextualized for the needs of the business from an invested potential partner.
  • The direction was set for a continued positive relationship between the client and provider, focusing not on quick fixes, but on trust and a long-term path to success.
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