Strategic sourcing
Our Strategic Sourcing practice is part of our multi-disciplinary Commercial Contracts group which advises on the full spectrum of commercial and outsourcing matters.
We provide legal advice on strategic sourcing arrangements with an emphasis on commercial solutions that help our clients maximise opportunities and minimise risks.
We work closely with specialists in each relevant practice area including financial regulation, tax, employment and pensions, competition, dispute resolution and commercial real estate as the need arises.
We advise on:
- the full range of sourcing arrangements - from technology outsourcings, including infrastructure, desktop, application and application support, to more general business transformation outsourcing including business process, knowledge process, manufacturing, telecoms and facilities management outsourcing. As part of this we advise on different strategic sourcing structures including co-sourcing, multi-sourcing, offshoring and insourcing
- new and existing arrangements - we assist clients on both new sourcing arrangements and on the re-evaluation and renegotiation of current outsourcing arrangements. Our work includes the preparation of agreements that are flexible, operationally relevant and intended as practical manuals to last the full term of the deal. We advise on a range of matters from pure contractual issues to strategy and relationship management issues
- disputes - if a relationship does run into difficulty, we also offer advice both before any formal dispute has arisen and, where relevant, after proceedings have been issued. We work closely with our clients to develop a negotiation and litigation strategy and have strong experience of mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution, as well as arbitration and court proceedings in a large number of jurisdictions
Key experience
We advised Innogy SE on the technology and ongoing servicing aspects of the strategic combination of Npower and SSE’s domestic retail operations in Great Britain
We advised the outsourcing arrangements between Baillie Gifford, Baillie Gifford Services Limited, Baillie Gifford Overseas Limited and Baillie Gifford Investment Management (Europe) Limited
We advised Enstar Group’s outsourcing of insurance administration, finance processing and facilities management services to RSA
We advised Ericsson on its transformational outsourcing of VimpelCom’s business support systems across 11 countries, through the use of Ericsson’s software and cloud technologies
We advised Vodafone on its acquisition of Liberty Global’s telecommunications businesses in Germany, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Romania, and Vodafone’s subsequent outsourcing to Liberty Global of various critical services that will underpin the operations of the acquired businesses on completion of the transaction
We advised Vohkus on the design, creation and implementation of a full suite of contractual documentation for the provision of its range of technology products and services to SME customers including a full outsourced solution as well as hybrid outsource and supply models
We advised Ladbrokes on the business-critical transformation of its data centre outsourcing arrangements with Vodafone
We advised Thunderhead on a long-term agreement with Salesforce for the distribution of Thunderhead’s ‘ONE’ artificial intelligence solution world-wide contract
An independent review on behalf of the Board of TSB into the circumstances surrounding the problems faced by TSB on the outsource of its IT system transformation to Spanish provider SABIS
