Fortune 500 Bank Procurement Uses Microsoft Support RFP to Save Millions on Unified Contract.

See how a Fortune 500 bank procurement team used the Microsoft Support RFP to save millions of dollars on their Unified support contract. Learn what the key RFP criteria are to evaluate third-party Microsoft support providers.

Audience: Banking CIO and IT Executives | Banking Sourcing, Procurement and Vendor Management

Key Microsoft Support RFP Criteria for banking vendor management and IT sourcing professionals include:

CAPABILITIES

• 24/7 global Microsoft helpdesk L1-L4 supporting all MSFT products.
• At least 75% of total revenue derived from Microsoft support services.
• Provider has demonstrable feature parity with Microsoft Premier/Unified Support.
• All Microsoft support staff are domestic US persons (per ITAR 120.15)
• Willingness to support end of life Microsoft products.

EXPERIENCE

• 5+ years experience supporting Fortune 500 enterprises and Global 2000.
• Validated independent third-Party Microsoft support provider by Gartner.
• Minimum industries supported: Manufacturing, healthcare, financial, insurance, technology, government and education.

PROCUREMENT

• Simplified pricing and use model – one bucket of hours with discounting by volume.
• Flexible negotiation, contracts, and Monthly Recurring Revenue (MRR) billing option.
• Proof of Concept (POC) trials available to demonstrate capabilities.
• Diversified supply chain sourcing via WBE and government WOSB status.
• Ability to add hours mid-contract with no penalty.

COST OPTIMIZATION

• Minimum 50% cost reduction and avoidance over next 3 years vs MS Premier/Unified.
• 3 or 5 year contracts to lock-in rates and anchor pricing predictability.
• No additional charges for support ticket escalations to Microsoft.

PERFORMANCE

• Response time 30 min or less across all severities and MSFT SKUs.
• Percentage of tickets escalated to Microsoft is 20% or less.
• Time to resolution at least 25% faster than MS Premier/Unified.
• Service Level Agreements (SLA) for response time and Microsoft escalations.

ACCOUNT MANAGEMENT

• Triage team to route ticket by severity and technology.
• Technical Account Managers (TAM) used instead of less capable CSAMs.
• Single-sign on client portal with real-time visual KPI including TTR, escalation status, burn rate, ticket details, child-parent groups, POC, cloud outage notification, alerts on incident hour thresholds, hourly usage breakdown by technology and incident type, deep search on prior incident details.

Bank vendor management teams have found the Microsoft Support RFP template has everything needed to find the best alternative to Microsoft Premier/Unified Support.  As a result, the Fortune 500 bank was able to solicit bids for third-party Microsoft support to replace their Unified support contract.

Download the RFP template and use the detailed selection criteria to score third-party Microsoft Support providers across their capabilities, experience and value to the banking industry. Use the RFP to identify support providers and mitigate financial and operational risks by identifying the most qualified provider to support your financial institution’s Microsoft technologies.

Bank sourcing, procurement and vendor management teams are finding the RFP template saves weeks in time and the replacement of Unified Support is yielding millions of dollars in immediate cost savings, additional savings in cost avoidance over the next 3 years, and measurable IT operational gains.

Save your bank’s procurement team hours of work. Do your due diligence by downloading the Microsoft Support RFP template today.

Requests for proposals (RFPs) are used in negotiated acquisitions to communicate financial institution requirements to prospective contractors and to solicit proposals. Bank Chief Procurement Officers (CPOs) are using the Microsoft Support RFP to identify certified underepresented groups and diversify their supply chain.

Many national and regional banks require RFP bids from multiple parties. Some give preference to certified diversity vendors via set asides and diverse business participation requirements for contracting assistance programs such as the Women Business Enterprise (WBE) certification or US Small Business Administration’s Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program.

Working with diverse suppliers aligns with our bank’s core values and is the right thing to do. Giving selection priority to certified minorities who have vendor capability parity is a key initiative for our organization. 

The Contracting and Procurement teams at financial institutions can download the Microsoft Support RFP template to facilitate the identification and qualification of certified minority  contractors capable of replacing Microsoft Premier or Unified Support, often at significant cost reduction and operational efficiency gain.