Home  >  Services   >  Provider Selection

Provider Selection

Enterprises continue to utilize third party providers for more services and products every year, but as the provider market grows, it becomes increasingly difficult – and critically important – for the buyers to select which provider is right for them. Alsbridge provides RFP development and provider selection services that ensure your organization gets the optimal providers for IT infrastructure services, network carrier services, hardware and maintenance, software, application support and development, business processes and cloud services.

Depending on your organization's capacity, capabilities and preference Alsbridge can provide RFP development and/or provider selection service in conjunction with or in place of your sourcing/procurement department. We can engage in the process at any stage, whether you are completely unfamiliar with the vendor market, have a few providers shortlisted but want to add more or know exactly which companies you want to run through a competitive process. Whether you want to issue a RFI or conduct an informal market scan, Alsbridge can assist you to develop a shortlist of providers. Whether you want help with RFP development or only provider selection, we can assist your organization to select the right provider(s) for the services or products you need.

Below are some triggers that indicate a need for RFP development and provider selection services from Alsbridge:

• My company has never bought this type of service or product before
• I'm unclear about the exact scope of services to be purchased
• I'm not sure which providers have the capabilities we need and would make our business a priority
• I'm uncertain how to get an apples-to-apples comparison with relevant responses
• My company needs to move fast, but we don't want to sacrifice quality or incur too much risk
• I'm not sure of the complete set of evaluation criteria or how to validate the proposals
• I'm uncertain how to structure the selection process to support negotiations and a collaborative relationship

As a sourcing advisory firm, RFP development and provider selection is something Alsbridge consultants do all day every day. And we do so for a specific set of services and products that your internal resources may only source 2-3 times per year. We leverage the following to your advantage:

• Our methodology provides consistent, repeatable results having been honed over 1000s of engagements
• Our tools and templates accelerate RFP development and provider selection process
• Our people are not only sourcing experts, but also SMEs in the services/products being sourced
• Our pricing databases and benchmarking capabilities ensure you get a fair market price
• We know the provider market and maintain information databases on all of the major providers
• Many of our consultants previously worked for major providers giving us insider knowledge

Alsbridge was ranked the #1 outsourcing consulting firm in the world by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) based on the value delivered to our clients. Alsbridge advised on over $5B in outsourcing contract value in 2011, and our team is actively consulting on 20-25 outsourcing relationships at any given point in time. Since our founding in 2003, we have advised on hundreds of outsourcing engagements for the world's leading companies – and not a single one of the provider selections we've made has ended before term. Alsbridge is also the #1 network sourcing advisory firm in the world by transaction volume. We average 100+ full network procurement engagements per year plus approximately 50 ancillary engagements. Alsbridge placed over $1B in telecom contract value in 2011, and our team is actively negotiating 25-40 network carrier engagements at any given point in time.

In contrast to many of our competitors, Alsbridge does not sell the services you are interested in buying nor take fees – or compensation in any other form – from other providers. Our team is completely unbiased ensuring we recommend the right provider for you, not the provider paying us behind the scenes. We are not broad, generalist consultants but rather niche experts in sourcing this set of products and services. We help our clients to establish sustainable, mutually beneficial relationships by building internal stakeholder consensus, fostering a collaborative process during provider selection and advising our clients on internal changes needed to optimize the way they work with their providers. Our database has more data, our team has more experience and our methodology ensures consistent outcomes. Engaging Alsbridge for provider selection will ensure you get a better deal in a shorter time with the right partner providing the optimal scope of services for a fair market price at the quality level you need.

Contact us today to learn more about how Alsbridge can help you achieve your objectives.