The client is a leading international insurer with a reputation for specialist underwriting expertise, outstanding claims service, and innovative products. Operating in 46 countries, with over 43,000 people worldwide, it is a longstanding Natilik client with experience working together on various projects across a range of technology areas.

 

  • Challenge
  • Solution
  • Outcome

Challenge

The client’s existing contracts were causing operational issues. The team had inherited a contract structure that was put together by serval Cisco suppliers and while commercial savings were delivered on paper, the ongoing operational overheads which would be incurred by the team as well as the client’s operational experience hadn’t been considered. Challenges around data accuracy and assets being incorrectly configured, linked to the wrong country, being under compliance hold or simply being unsupported, made it extremely difficult to deal with equipment failures, RMAs and the overall management of their assets and contracts. They wanted to simplify their contracts, having all assets under one contract number with one naming convention and to move to a best-in-class operating model so they could realise the benefit of a vendor’s flexible contract structures within new software and hardware licensing agreements available.

The team had never had a Cisco Enterprise Agreement (EA) but knew moving to one was the best next step in their technology journey. They wanted to move to a multi-architecture lifecycle EA however, before they were able to do so, they needed to complete a full review of their existing estate, gathering the data they needed to make the move. Without the expertise or the ability to dedicate resources solely to the project, the team knew they needed support from an experienced team who could help prepare their estate for the upgrade.

It needed a partner with a specialist skillset around Cisco who would be able to understand and simplify all the nuances of their technology and their licencing to design a solution that aligned to their values and business outcomes. The team looked to Natilik to not only provide the expertise, but to make their environment both economically and operationally efficient.

Solution

As the first partner in the UKI to provision, onboard, contract and support a client through the global CXEA experience, the client knew Natilik had the extensive experience required to be a safe pair of hands for this project.

The Advanced CX accredited Natilik experts knew that if the client was going to move across to a Cisco EA that they would first need to collate a comprehensive overview of their current estate. Within an agreed 9-month project timeline, Natilik’s contracts and renewals team cleansed the client’s data, manually completing the moves, adds and changes, fixing it forward and getting an agreed inventory together to prepare them for the upgrade. This ensured the client’s data was accurate and reflective of their production services and global estate. Without completing this, the client wouldn’t have been able to future proof their strategy and take advantage of the commercial benefit this flexible EA would bring.

From there, the team was able to leverage their deep understanding of the client’s key drivers, as well as Cisco’s licensing options to advise a selection of models which would best support their business. They consulted the team on the different options available, and it was agreed that a Cisco Customer Experience Enterprise Agreement (CXEA) aligned best with their strategy as it was simple to manage and provided the flexibility and cost predictability the client wanted. This came with full success tracks and service management EA adoption and client success management delivered by Natilik’s Service Delivery Managers (SDMs).

The solution was wrapped in Natilik’s EA licence and adoption management and client success services, delivered by Natilik’s experienced SDMs. These services allowed Natilik to provide ongoing expertise and guidance on how the client was using their licences, reporting on metrics such as usage vs consumption to ensure they were getting the most from their investment and generating costs savings to the client across the term of their contract. This drives benefit to the client throughout lifecycle and helps set success in contact management moving forward.

Having the Natilik team on hand to oversee the licence management and migration ensured all was completed in a timely, efficient and economical way, with no additional costs being incurred by the client.

Outcome

The client has now moved over to the Cisco CXEA model, a contract that supports them both operationally and commercially and enables them to realise the full value of their existing investments. The client has enjoyed annual hardware support saving of over $283,000 which they can invest back into the business.

Natilik’s ongoing enterprise agreement management service as well as the client success management overlay not only supported the onboarding to the Cisco CXEA but will continue to drive ongoing value and benefit to the client throughout the lifecycle of their solution and helps to set a new global standard for contract management moving forward.

The scale of the project meant that leveraging Natilik’s specialist contracts and renewals team to collate, cleanse and inventory the client’s data meant that they were able to complete the upgrade to the Cisco CXEA more than 12 months earlier than they would have been able to do without Natilik’s expert support.

Overall, the client was able to leverage Natilik’s experience and deep understanding of Cisco’s contract, support, software and asset management options to have a licencing model that aligned to its needs as a business and met both its operational and commercial requirements.