Case Study: Manufacturer Will Consolidate Global Telecom With A Telco Integrator

A US-headquartered global consumer manufacturing firm recently asked Forrester to review its global telecom sourcing strategy with the aim of helping it balance opportunities against risks associated with sole-sourcing its global telecom tower. The firm historically has sole-sourced IT — hardware, software, and services — as much as possible. The benefits it has enjoyed from single-sourcing the different IT towers include simpler sourcing processes and easier vendor management and contract governance. Its sourcing and vendor management (SVM) organization also is mindful of the need to mitigate the risks of sole-sourcing telecom services — specifically, ensuring both future price competitiveness and continuous innovation by the service provider throughout the contract term. This case study illustrates how one global manufacturing firm plans to leverage the benefits and address the risks of using one services provider as its integrator for worldwide network and telecom services.