Customer Objectives
In recent years much of Emerson’s growth has derived from acquisitions. Whilst this has enabled them rapidly to enter new markets and consolidate their position in existing ones, it also created a patchwork of business units, each with its own local arrangements for mobile communications. Operating in this way not only prevented the Group from leveraging its worldwide buying power in this market, but compromised the quality of roaming services for staff, and denied the group visibility over their total costs. As a publicly owned company Emerson carry a responsibility to shareholders to promote financial and operational efficiency within the business.
Emerson’s goal through this centralized procurement approach was to enhance overall efficiency and introduce a more streamlined process which removed individual supplier contracts, and replaced them with one contract per country. A further factor requiring consideration was that some divisions of Emerson already held contracts with providers who were part of The FreeMove Alliance, and would thus need to be retained and integrated into the new central agreement. This presented several difficult decisions, for which Emerson turned to the FreeMove team for their insight and guidance. Due to the need to break up old structures and implement new ways of working in a number of regions, the preparation for this consolidation required considerable time and effort, requiring ongoing support from FreeMove’s central and local teams. The first international RFP took place in 2020, with the second in 2021. Emerson’s headline deliverables can be summarized as follows:
A single, streamlined agreement
Rather than burden each division with responsibility to negotiate its own mobile services and contract terms, Emerson believed that a central procurement strategy would increase control, and provide better visibility over cost and usage.
Competitive pricing
Emerson correctly deduced that multiple agreements would result in higher net costs to the group than a single contract, and were keen to realise the scale economies of their purchasing power.
RfP efficiency
Emerson identified that by working with a partner who offered a single point of contact, the management of the RfP would be more cost-effective and operationally robust than if run in house. Additionally, Emerson recognised the value of trusting the work to a partner with expert knowledge of the global mobile communications marketplace, and the ability to offer value-adding consultancy.
Global Account Management
Aware that supporting mobile communications across multiple geographies was a complex and specialized undertaking, Emerson acknowledged the value of working with a Global Account Manager for support throughout the life of the contract.
Flexibility
Maximum contractual flexibility and works towards a co-termination agreement.
„Through this RFP, Emerson aims to optimize the number of suppliers and agreements, standardize technology, centralize management functions, simplifying operational management at local level and ensure that Emerson obtains leading edge prices. Emerson is not looking for technology but for ‘unburdening’ functional services to support the primary business processes.”
How the FreeMove Alliance designed and delivered a solution for these challanges?
FreeMove Alliance’s core value proposition is the synthesis of multi-national corporations’ scale advantages with the co-ordination of local insight and implementation capabilities. We refer to this as our GLOCAL approach. By providing centralized supplier-side support, the FreeMove Alliance were able to mirror the central approach of the customer. This created the opportunity to transfer the customer’s requirements over to the local entities through FreeMove’s local account managers. This typically creates better and more efficient access to the local entities on the customer’s behalf than the customer HQ or central team themselves, as well as the expertise to identify market-specific offers.
Additional Customer Priorities
Service:
The establishment of an excellent global communication network, clearly mirroring Emerson’s corporate culture of continuous improvement. To achieve this, the customer expected to see clear evidence of innovation, flexibility, pro-activeness, reliability, sustainability and above all quality.
Optimization:
Constant enhancement of service levels and performance, balanced against competitive pricing.
Unburdening:
Ameliorate the burden on participating countries on delivery, both in operations and management.
ADDITIONAL VALUE REALIZED FOR THE CUSTOMER
Network performance
FreeMove’s award-winning partner networks are consistently recognised as best-in-class. By focusing relentlessly on comprehensive network coverage, data speed and unrivalled reliability FreeMove can proudly claim to rank #1 for connectivity across 90% of our footprint. This is further evidenced by countless industry award, as well as comprehensive and transparent quality control programs.
International Implementation Management
FreeMove’s entire philosophy is to minimize the net business impact of both the strategic approach to, and management of, global mobile communications. Our Implementation Team ensure that once an agreement has been reached, the fast and frictionless set-up of services can begin. Owing to several embedded local supplier relationships with divisions of Emerson, the FreeMove team had to work with sensitivity and care in managing the migration to the new structure.
FreeMove International Master Agreement
The Master Agreement establishes a framework for which centralized services will be provided and the footprint of implementation while leaving room for individual customer terms and conditions.
Quality of relationship management
Emerson claim this process resulted in a strong relationship, during which they have developed a greater appreciation for the value of their data, helped to reach faster and better informed decisions, and pave the way for continuous process improvement.
