Client Stories

Autonomous Driving (AD) – Digital Cooperation and Partnerships

Admin — Wed, 30 Sep 2026 19:59:13 GMT

ISG aided an automotive and manufacturing company in negotiations and the development of several new digital solutionsto save a failing multi-partner cooperation.

Opportunity

This company entered a multi-partner cooperation (3+ partners) to build and operate an industry-leading platform for autonomous driving.
The success of the cooperation was at risk after only 1 year as the cooperation suffered from unclear strategic value for the partners. Existing agreements (SoW) between the partners were too high-level with unclear scope, roles and responsibilities. As a result, partners left the cooperation, AD product development was slowed down and the entire AD strategy was at risk. Additionally, there was great potential for damage to the company’s reputation.
The company wanted to be ready to transparently discuss contributions of partners at a level of detail where it would be clear ”who” should do “what”. It aimed for an attitude of ”we do it together” rather than "I tell you what to do.”

Imagining IT Differently

ISG developed an IT service concept based on “as-a-Service“ approach. We defined a service-based solution for autonomous driving consisting of Infrastructure-, Platform- and Software-as-a-service (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) services. The final service concept included all necessary information to precisely describe the services and enabled the partners to clearly discuss who is contributing which service to the cooperation.
We designed a partner operating model for the cooperation which established an aligned, integrated and consistent way of working across the cooperation.
ISG also designed the pricing model, which established a mutually-shared view on service volumes, financial contributions and shared funding.
The ISG team guided the orchestration of partnership negotiations.

Future Made Possible

The company is now able to answer the “what” and “how” questions of its multi-partner cooperation. It can describe the purpose of the cooperation by using services (what) and the way of working by defining the delivery model (how). It is also able to be pro-active and shape the cooperation according to its expectations.
ISG enabled the company to shape the cooperation by using the "tools" that ISG built for them – first a comprehensive service concept and second a partner operating model to establish an integrated way of working.

Turning Misalignment into a Funded Transformation Path

Admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2026 07:00:00 GMT

A major Canadian utilities company partnered with ISG to validate its enterprise transformation roadmap and align stakeholders. The result was 40 - 50% percent immediate savings versus the original single-provider path, four market-fit provider options and a phased roadmap with a further 40- 50% operational savings potential over five to seven years.

Opportunity

A major Canadian utilities company wanted to modernize its enterprise functions and unlock greater operational efficiency. However, inconsistent processes across business units and differing stakeholder priorities were limiting transformation momentum.

The company’s initial roadmap relied heavily on a single-provider path and did not fully reflect the savings or transformation opportunities available in the market. Uncertainty around the future scope also made it difficult for leaders to align on the right operating model, sourcing approach and sequence of change.

ISG was engaged to validate the transformation roadmap, test the underlying business case and identify a practical path that could deliver near-term value while preserving options for a broader managed services transformation.

ISG applied market benchmarks to challenge the existing assumptions and assess whether the proposed roadmap represented a competitive and achievable outcome. This analysis identified opportunities to improve the commercial position, strengthen the transformation scope and create a more compelling case for leadership investment.

Imagining IT Differently

Rather than continue with a conventional request for proposal based on a scope that was still evolving, ISG recommended shifting to a request for solution. This gave potential providers greater flexibility to propose different delivery models, transformation approaches and commercial structures.

ISG assessed more than 10 providers and narrowed the field to four options that offered the strongest fit with the company’s requirements and transformation ambitions. The process introduced greater market tension while helping the client evaluate a broader range of capabilities and approaches.

The provider discussions were reframed around process design, standardization, AI opportunities and the sequencing required to support a sustainable transformation. This moved the conversation beyond a narrow sourcing exercise and created a clearer view of how the organization could improve operations over time.

ISG also worked with leaders to build alignment around a phased approach. The proposed path balanced the need for immediate savings with the organization’s readiness for change, giving stakeholders a practical way to move forward without requiring agreement on every element of the long-term model at the outset.

Future Made Possible

The market-tested process identified an opportunity to achieve immediate savings of 40 to 50 percent compared with the original single-provider path.

A partner was selected to support process design and identify opportunities for AI-enabled improvement.

The company established a phased transformation roadmap that creates a foundation for future managed services, greater scale and broader operational value.

The roadmap identified the potential for a further 40 to 50 percent in operational savings over a five-to-seven-year period.

ISG helped leadership move the transformation forward despite stakeholder misalignment, providing a clearer path to process standardization, automation and AI-enabled enterprise operations.

Separating at Scale: Untangling 700+ IT Contracts to Enable a Clean Divestiture

Admin — Fri, 03 Oct 2025 07:00:00 GMT

ISG helped a global healthcare company going through a divestiture separate 700+ IT contracts across 300+ suppliers, meet TSA deadlines and set up governance with ISG GovernX.

Opportunity

A global healthcare company was undertaking a major divestiture, requiring rapid, clean separation of its IT contracting landscape to enable the remaining company ("RemainCo") to operate independently from the newly divested company ("NewCo"). The contracts were stored in many locations and formats, with tight transition service agreement (TSA) milestones and little room for error. Internal procurement capacity was constrained, and leaders needed a scalable model that could move hundreds of agreements in parallel while protecting continuity and commercial position.

The company selected ISG to assist for our independence, experience and ability to flex resources up or down week-to-week. ISG also brought our supplier and contract management platform, GovernX^®, our depth of expertise in complex software agreements, and our onshore and offshore center of excellence (CoE). Competing models lacked the same specialization or were aligned with the NewCo, whereas ISG’s focus remained on the RemainCo’s outcomes.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG proposed a tiered operational structure: a Tier1 team dedicated to handling complex agreements and a GovernX-enabled team for all other in-scope contracts. GovernX served as ISG’s governance and contract platform, streamlining processing and laying the groundwork for potential post-divestiture supplier and contract management services.

To handle volume without sacrificing quality, ISG combined an onshore team of software, contract lifecycle management services (CLMS) and network experts with the offshore center of excellence. An extraction engine and AI-enabled tooling accelerated metadata capture, clause analysis and negotiation prep, while GovernX and a custom-built Power BI platform provided tracking, dashboards and status transparency.

The initiative adhered to a phased approach in alignment with TSA exit timelines: vendor review and prioritization; contract assessment and data collection; determination of contract disposition (assign, novate, terminate or renew); vendor engagement and tracking; resolution of high-impact or high-risk issues; and finalization with ongoing PMO and metrics.

Future Made Possible

In summary, ISG performed:

A rapid triage and processing of over 700 IT contracts; predominantly software-based portfolio;
Coordination among approximately 300 suppliers in parallel Tier1 and Tier2 provider workstreams;
Strategic management of a complex telecom carrier environment;
A successful two-year separation program aligned to TSA exit milestones; and
Detailed contract status and stranded cost executive reporting.

The results:

Throughout the process, ISG underscored best practices for separations, including the prompt identification of critical systems and dependencies, clear task ownership, automation to minimize manual effort and risk, and strategic reporting.
These measures created structure amidst uncertainty, maintained synchronization of workstreams and safeguarded business continuity.
Quantitatively, ISG successfully helped the RemainCo address 700 agreements across 300 suppliers over a two-year span with the required velocity, best practices and coordination.
Qualitatively, the RemainCo achieved enhanced cost transparency, lowered stranded cost risks and improved positions for renewals all while ensuring service continuity during the transition.

Is a divestiture or acquisition on the horizon for your firm? To ensure a clean separation and reduce stranded cost risk, reach out to ISG today.

Deal Advocacy: Save Millions, Plus Strategic Benefits

Admin — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

ISG assists a global multi-billion-dollar commodity trading company in successfully migrating from its SAP ERP central component (ECC) platform to S/4HANA, saving $80 million in the on-premise and cloud redesign and sourcing process.

Opportunity

A global commodity trading company wanted to migrate from “SAP Classic” to S/4HANA. It also wanted to simultaneously mitigate its exposure to digital access, platform migration, maintenance and cloud costs. To ensure the best possible outcome, ISG deployed a team of SAP licensing experts and software architecture and technical auditors who worked with the company’s various stakeholders to create an engagement approach which eliminated risks and optimized costs.

We created a “current state” inventory of its existing SAP infrastructure which identified surplus and under-licensed assets. Then ISG conducted workshops to identify and rationalize S/4HANA sizing requirements, license unit tiering, upgrade requirements, interfaces, third-party applications and a deployment roadmap. Finally, ISG developed a bill of materials (BOM) based on the outputs of the current state assessment and the company’s roadmap and deployment roadmaps.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG strategically leveraged our reputation as a “deal advocate” to achieve the following deal attributes:

Pricing: ISG advised on pricing based on the company’s invest and run costs, our deep market data, conversion credits, reduced maintenance rates, phase-in of maintenance and software-as-a-service (SaaS) subscription fees.
Contract Flexibility: We secured value flexibility on the on-premise engines and step-in on the cloud products.
Risk Mitigation: ISG helped it suspend compliance audits, conform digital access based on its business model, and expand territory restrictions and affiliate use.
Partnership: We obtained an upfront SAP investment to ensure a successful transition from ECC to S/4HANA.

Future Made Possible

The company received a market-leading agreement which achieved each of the cost and risk mitigation goals it outlined at the engagement’s start. Under the agreement negotiated by ISG, it realized the following benefits:

Savings of $80 million,
A maintenance holiday of 3 years,
Flexibility to manage its SAP estate for a period of 3 years before crystallization of the environment,
Audit holiday of 2 years,
Free MaxAttention for a period of 2 years, and
An upfront SAP investment of free training, which covers the first year of the transition from ECC to S/HANA.

Training for New Finance and Operations Technology at a U.S. Manufacturer

Admin — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

A U.S.-based manufacturer with offices in more than 20 countries receives cutting-edge training for its employees on new enterprise-level software (SAP) and the streamlined processes to go with that software.

Opportunity

A multimillion-dollar manufacturer of software, sensors, vision systems and industrial barcode readers used in product assembly and inspections needed help preparing its workers for new software to integrate the company’s manufacturing, order-fulfillment and financial activities. More than 700 employees around the globe would be affected by the new SAP S/4HANA software and the more than 20 redefined processes that would accompany it.

Imagining IT Differently

Experts from ISG’s organizational change management (OCM) team were brought in to help guide employees through the imminent changes. They collected and summarized the results of the coming change impacts and created a network of more than 90 change champions and super users at the company to help bring their peers up to speed. Once the manufacturer’s executives saw the initial ISG work, they expanded the team’s engagement from a light standard training effort to a much larger, customized end-user training program.

ISG’s training representatives designed and built process- and role-education materials, including 26 courses containing more than 100 simulations. The team used SAP’s Enable Now rapid training-development tool and leveraged a team of industry veterans from ISG’s India office. They also delivered train-the-trainer courses based on the actual roles and scenarios that employees would have in the new systems.

Future Made Possible

The new, modern software and processes are enabling the company and its employees to move toward the future of manufacturing with better procurement practices, more accurate inventory reporting, better lead times and improved logistics.
The company is using ISG’s custom training materials for this initial effort, plus future training of new employees on the system.
The manufacturer now has an existing network of champions and super users for ongoing change initiatives.

ISG’s Expertise is the Missing Element Chemical Company Needs

Admin — Thu, 14 Aug 2025 07:00:00 GMT

ISG helps chemical manufacturer more accurately plan for and estimate costs of ERP project, allowing for the project’s successful completion.

Opportunity

A global manufacturer of chemicals wanted to estimate the range of external costs and timescale needed to complete the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementation project.

The previous implementation of the ERP project halted due to severe costs and duration overruns by their selected SAP integrator, affecting the development and deployment of the first of four planned releases.

The company hired ISG to provide an updated and more realistic estimate of costs and to create a roadmap which would plan out how to proceed with the ERP project.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG utilized our SAP implementation experience and customized our ISG strategy approach to determine accurate and appropriate estimations of the costs for each release.

We then designed and detailed a high-level roadmap for the completion of the remaining worldwide releases of the ERP project. Finally, ISG provided the company with options for approaches to engage a new systems integrator.

Future Made Possible

ISG’s expertise gave the company the following:

Updated knowledge of the change in market labor and services rates that impacted the project cost profile;
Realistic estimates of the costs and duration needed to complete the project;
In-depth knowledge of the investments required to engage and get to contract with a new SAP systems integrator;
Estimates of costs necessary to on-board and educate a new systems integrator with the work completed to date; and
An executive-level presentation to assist the project and legal teams during arbitration.

ISG Helps a Mid-size MGA to Find the Right Data Management Partner

Admin — Thu, 20 Feb 2025 08:00:00 GMT

ISG served as a strategic sourcing advisor, guiding this insurance company on its go-to-market strategy for data management services, helping define the right-sized partnership to match analytics and data science goals of the organization.

Opportunity

The company, a specialty insurance managing general agent (MGA), was going through aggressive expansion, adding at least 4-6 new businesses each year for the next three years.

Company leadership recognized that data was an essential driver of a successful growth strategy. Leadership’s commitment to data-driven insights required that the company ensure that each acquisition and new business launch was supported by rigorous analysis, allowing for smarter decision-making and proactive identification of growth opportunities.

With the data current environment being essentially green field, the company was looking for a partner who could leverage their experience, processes and toolsets to deliver an effective data platform with a balanced approach to high quality output, speed of delivery and cost.

Imagining IT Differently

The company's retained data team was skeptical that it would be possible to effectively engage a partner due to poor experience with their incumbent provider. Therefore, for ISG, it was vital to ensure that the providers were going to bring subject matter expert (SME) value as well as a developer skillset to the proposed solution.

Working with ISG advisors, the team was able to create an efficient set of requirements but also understand the right approach to setting expectations and stage gates to ensure that their goals were met.

Additionally, ISG data SMEs helped the company explore a number of architecture options both in terms of effectiveness and cost, providing an independent, third-party perspective for future state.

Future Made Possible

Minimize Client Risk: ISG worked diligently with each provider to ensure that the final proposal given to the company minimized the company's exposure to risk and focused on results.
Lean Total Cost of Ownership: We structured the contract to optimize cost efficiency and maintain delivery value through service optionality and volume flexibility.
Establish Clear Detailed Expectations: ISG helped the company review and clearly define what it needed from the provider to deliver and ensure that there was a robust set of expectations.
Focus on future partnership: The company intends to leverage ISG's unique approach to foster a relationship between the company and potential providers during the sourcing process to ensure ongoing success of the engagement post signature.

Partnering with Best of Breed Network Providers

Admin — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

ISG supported a complete reconfiguration of a major Australian government agency’s managed network services landscape, including facilitation of multiple contracts to maximize flexibility and value for money.

Opportunity

A large Australian government agency had been under contract for managed network services for a decade to one provider. Due to government pressures to test the marketplace to ensure services were competitively priced, the agency concluded that it needed to strategize, plan, and conduct sourcing activities for the various components of its managed network services.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG provided sourcing and commercial advisory services. We began by gathering requirements to develop a sourcing strategy and roadmap to execute a planned sourcing activity. From there, ISG led the production of multiple RFx across six different types of network services. This involved developing all specifications and templates for service providers to complete. After release to the marketplace, ISG led the processes from receipt of bids, evaluation, down-selection, and negotiations with preferred providers.

Producing six MNS contracts allowed for more competition amongst MNS providers, and the agency can manage each contract independently, enabling future sourcing decisions on a contract-by-contract basis as well as complying with government regulations about procurement of certain services from established panel contracts.

Future Made Possible

The client ensured maximum savings and value-for-money by making competitive awards.

Processes were updated and transformed – New contracts were designed for providers to participate with the agency as it transformed its processes and procedures to increase efficiency and integration of its network operations into the business.

Technical transformation occurred – New technical solutions were proposed and negotiated, to ensure the agency utilized updated network management technology. This mapped to the agency’s planned migration to a new ITSM tool to manage IT services across the entire organization.

Transforming Service Provider Relationships to Strategic Partnerships

Admin — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

ISG assists a federal agency in transforming its relationships with three key suppliers into more strategic partnerships to maximize value.

Opportunity

A federal government agency approached ISG with a challenge. It needed to leverage greater value from its three strategic providers. Significant internal change within the agency, such as an amalgamation of several previously separate portfolios, all with different needs, had diluted the agency’s strategic clarity. This lack of clarity was preventing the agency from driving its transformational agenda forward. All parties within the relationship aspired to a strategic partnership but were struggling to make this aspired-to future state a reality.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG conducted a customized ISG Partnership Experience Assessment with feedback obtained through a one-way online survey and bilateral interviews. ISG discovered a systemic lack of shared understanding of what a strategic partnership entailed within the agency, as well considerable fragmentation in the agency’s sourcing culture. The governance frameworks were not supporting a strategic partnership. There was a lack of a consistent approach to communication. A failure to track ongoing continuous service improvement initiatives led to perceptions of low value being delivering into the account. ISG facilitated a series of workshops to unify all parties and create a roadmap for strategic partnership. This led to a complete reorganization of the agency’s approach to vendor management. With ISG’s assistance, the agency created a segmented governance framework, tailored to encourage strategic collaboration between its top three providers.

Future Made Possible

The agency received a structured communications plan, an ongoing initiative tracker, and a comprehensive governance review.
The restructured approached to the partnership sparked a range of proofs of concept (POCs) to investigate the application of new technologies in this environment. Each provider now has a structured forum for discussing its capabilities in a way that meets the government agency’s probity and vendor management office requirements.
A critical barometer of success will be when we re-measure the health of the engagement in the coming months; however, there are already anecdotal reports that there has been notable uplift in the tenor of all three engagements.

Modernizing Core Infrastructure in the Public Sector

Admin — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 07:00:00 GMT

ISG helped its federal client stand-up a critical program of work and engage appropriate partners to deliver required outcomes.

Opportunity

The client’s core IT Infrastructure, comprised of network devices (switches, routers, load balances, firewalls), compute (servers), and storage devices were due to become obsolete from 2024 to 2027, creating unacceptable operational risk to mission critical systems. The IT Core Infrastructure Modernization Program was initiated to develop the future core IT Infrastructure design and prepare for implementation and migration of all the banks applications, but the program had stalled due to resourcing constraints. The client required critical support to re-initialize the project at program level to deliver in significantly constrained timelines.

Imagining IT Differently

ISG developed a robust business case backed by a detailed program plan, commercial strategy, and support for go-to-market preparation, evaluation and negotiation of tenders for a Systems Integrator (SI). Our market-leading expertise and understanding provided support with the go-to-market approach, risk assessment, and evaluation for selection of a new co-location data center facility to house the new future-proof IT infrastructure. ISG’s methodology further delivered accelerators in the go-to-market approach for infrastructure design, implementation and hyper care services that met the client’s regulatory and security environment in the significantly constrained timeframes.

Future Made Possible

The client implemented tranche-based funding for establishing a $280 million program of work to address obsolescence and operational risks for the client. They successfully performed bid evaluation and risk assessment, leading to the execution of a $37 million TCV co-location contract. In addition, they received complete sourcing lifecycle support to negotiate value for money and execution of a $13 million TCV contract for an Infrastructure services integrator.