CASE STUDY:

Vodafone Hutchison Australia Applications Transition Project

Client Profile:

Vodafone Group Plc is the world’s leading mobile telecommunications company, with a significant presence in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the United States. Hutchison Whampoa Limited (HWL) is a leading international corporation committed to innovation and technology with businesses spanning the globe. In June 2009, Hutchison 3G Australia and Vodafone Australia merged businesses through a 50:50 joint venture, operating under Vodafone Hutchison Australia. VHA is now owned 50% by Hutchison Whampoa Group, and 50% by Vodafone Group Plc. As at 30 June 2011, there were 7.2 million VHA customers in Australia.

Background:

A key aspect of driving synergies from the merger of the two firms was to consolidate and rationalise key business applications to one platform and drive capital and operational costs savings through a re-balanced application sourcing strategy.

A primary objective of this strategy was to create a competitive environment for applications development between multiple tier 1 suppliers. As a consequence of this, VHA decided to move development, maintenance, support and operations from one tier 1 services provider (IBM) to another (TCS) for a select group of key business applications via an Applications Transition Project.

Client Objective:

There were three business objectives of the Applications Transition Project;

1. Drive capital and operational cost savings by having the services transitioned to, and provided by a lower cost application service provider.
2. Key business applications services SLAs should remain the same or improve with the new service provider.
3. Maintain a balanced allocation of workload and have competitive tension between the two tier 1 service providers.

Seven Consulting Solution:

Seven Consulting were engaged to plan and negotiate supplier alternatives in line with the objective of reducing costs and maintaining or improving service levels. Subsequently Seven were engaged to project manage and deliver the Applications Transition Project.

Seven Consulting;

1. Conceived and developed the initial outsource scope and proposition
2. Developed strategic supplier options and business case
3. Negotiated the supplier outsource solution
4. Engaged and contracted the supplier to deliver the solution (with VHA legal)
5. Developed the Applications Transition Project scope and budget
6. Managed and delivered the project outcomes
7. Developed Business As Usual (BAU) operating models
8. Transitioned all services to BAU with the new supplier with no business impact;

Client Outcome:

The Project was delivered on time, on budget;

1. Achieved capital and operational costs savings as defined in the business case across applications development, applications maintenance, applications Support and applications operations
2. Maintained or exceeded key business applications services SLAs
3. Created competitive tension for Applications Development work between the two tier 1 service providers.