Pomeroy

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

We are a division of a major pharmaceutical company and manufacture medical devices and related disposables. I am the manager of indirect spend for the company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with Pomeroy?

We were attempting to improve the service level for the purchase, installation, configuration, support, maintenance, and disposal of our PCs. When we wrote our original RFP [request for proposal], we knew what our related and total costs would be, and were attempting to evaluate if the work could be done more efficiently, reducing the total cost of ownership for our PCs.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We negotiated prices with our preferred computer-related equipment suppliers for PCs, laptops, servers and so on, and were looking at how we could reduce the time needed for getting them onto end-users' desks. We also needed to keeping the users to be current with software, minimizing our helpdesk costs and ensuring that, when the units were disposed of, the information on them would be wiped according to DoD specifications.

How did you come to work with Pomeroy?

We have a formalized RFP/RFQ process which is documented and developed based on the collaboration of relevant departments, legal and procurement, as well as end-users. These documents have been refined over a 20-year period, and, anytime we go through an RFP or finalize a bid, we do a review after the contract is awarded, and modify the appropriate internal documents, continually improving what we have.

How much have you invested with Pomeroy?

The cost of Pomeroy's work has been several millions of dollars per year, over a three-year period.

What is the status of this engagement?

We have been working with Pomeroy for a little over three years. We have made a one-year extension to our original contract.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Could you share any evidence that would demonstrate the productivity, quality of work, or the impact of the engagement?

What we have realized is that, when establishing KPIs [key performance indicators], we have to take a look at more than the end-results. The biggest issue we've had, and the reason for going out for a bid, was that those KPIs are normally related to business issues and to how we had done the work in the past. We found that, when we start outsourcing services, there are human factors which are taken for granted, and for which normally there aren't established KPIs. This is the reason for our current bid: we've included KPIs which are more geared towards the individuals which will be interfacing with us on a daily basis.

How did Pomeroy perform from a project management standpoint?

One of the points in our RFP addressed the certifications of the individuals we'd be dealing with on-site. Pomeroy has maintained a certification and knowledge level for all the people they've assigned us. There are three people from Pomeroy assigned on-site to our buildings.

What we believed worked extremely well was Pomeroy's ability to procure computers, perform basic loads on them at a remote site, and bring them into our buildings so that our employees could finalize the software load on the PCs and meet individual requirements. Different people need different loads: engineers need engineering software, while accountants don't.

What did you find most impressive about Pomeroy?

They are nice, knowledgeable people, and this is Pomeroy's area of expertise.

Are there any areas Pomeroy could improve?

On the negative side, we have given up some of the interpersonal relationships, since we can't reach out and touch them. The communication has to be done via telephone, teleconference, or quarterly review meetings. For example, we had originally anticipated that the final installation would be done at the end-users' desks within the timeframe prescribed, but Pomeroy interpreted this to mean that the software would be finished at their desks, and not installed. While the computer was functional, it was not at the end user's desk.

The major issue we've assessed through our KPIs is that Pomeroy is not strong in terms of managing people remotely. We have five buildings and three people from Pomeroy's team working for us. Some of them would sometimes disappear, and we couldn't track them down.