From 45 contracts to two: transforming a global IT outsourcing relationship.
A Fortune 500 data and analytics company had outsourced application support for its production estate to a major IT services firm. The relationship had grown fragmented over years of organic expansion. What started as a structured engagement had become 45 separate contracts, 21 internal leads, and a support function that was expensive, opaque, and difficult to govern.
295 outsourced FTEs supporting 159 applications across 22 technologies. 45 contracts renewing at different points in the year. 540 invoices processed annually.
Onsite resources were 22% of outsourced headcount but consumed 40% of cost. Routine activities consumed an estimated 114 FTEs and $8m per year. 30% of all support effort went unrecorded in the service desk.
No consolidated view of performance, no consistent SLA governance, and no commercial leverage from the overall scale of the engagement.
Three independent datasets — outsourcer portfolio data (159 applications, 295 FTEs), a time-and-motion study across 81 FTEs, and 70,000+ service desk records — each with its own coverage gaps and categorical inconsistencies. 26% of outsourcer effort wasn't ticketed at all. All findings had to be presented as indicative, with convergent evidence across sources to be defensible under scrutiny.
22 technologies, 21 organisational silos, 45 contracts with varying SLAs, renewal dates, and billing structures. Understanding where genuine efficiency gains existed — and where they didn't — required analysis at a level of granularity most vendor relationships never reach.
Board-level approval was required. The outsourcing partner was a key counterparty with their own commercial interests. Multiple internal technology leads had operating models that would change under the new structure. The business case had to hold up simultaneously across all three audiences.
Business Case
End-to-end investment case covering problem diagnosis, target operating model, benefit streams, transformation plan, costs, and full investment appraisal across worst, expected, and best-case scenarios. 40-page board-ready document authored by Kitsilva.
Application Portfolio & Data Analysis
Analysis of 159 applications across 22 technologies and 295 FTEs — examining offshore leverage ratios, team capacity, support model fit, and SRT patterns. Combined with a three-month time-and-motion study and 70,000+ service desk records extrapolated to a full-year FTE equivalent.
Commercial Restructure Framework
Consolidation from 45 SoWs to 2 × 3-year agreements. Uniform monthly billing from programme start to front-load financial benefits before operational transformation completes — delivering $3m/year in immediate savings through commercial restructure alone.
Evidence-led
Three independent datasets triangulated to build an airtight picture. No single dataset was sufficient — the value came from finding where they converged, and being honest about where they didn't.
Commercially structured
The commercial restructure was front-loaded: billing adjusted from the start, delivering immediate savings regardless of how quickly operational changes took effect.
Phased and sequenced
Benefits were structured in order of delivery confidence — offshore leverage and Level 1.5 savings in year 1, operational efficiency building through year 2, knowledge transfer completing the FTE reduction by year 3. The phasing made the case credible, not just aspirational.
Kitsilva led the business case and evidence work end-to-end — from feasibility analysis through to investment appraisal and board-ready documentation. All primary deliverables were authored by Kitsilva: the 40-page business case and the 27-page application, effort, and ticket data analysis across 159 applications and 83,000+ service records.
$7.6m net ROI over three years (expected case), across offshore leverage, Level 1.5 support restructure, operational efficiency, and shift-left initiatives — net of all costs. 40× return on a total programme investment of $0.19m. $3m/year immediate saving from programme start through commercial restructure alone, before operational transformation completed. 45 contracts consolidated to 2, reducing annual invoice volume from 540 to 12 and cutting contract management overhead by 95%. 50 FTE reduction over three years through right-shoring, Level 1.5 transition, and automation.