Blog Post 04.08.24
Service
Global Sourcing & Technology Transactions
Among the most experienced advisory practices worldwide, Pillsbury’s Global Sourcing & Technology Transactions team has architected more than 1,000 strategic outsourcing and technology transactions over the past 30 years, with an aggregate value exceeding half a trillion dollars.
Established in 1988, Pillsbury’s Global Sourcing & Technology Transactions practice is consistently recognized as among the “World’s Best Outsourcing Advisors” by the International Association of Outsourcing Professionals and as an outsourcing leader by Chambers and The Legal 500 U.S. With more than 50 professionals, ours is the largest customer-focused sourcing team worldwide. We employ a pioneering integrated consulting/legal advisory model, with a team consisting of top-ranked outsourcing lawyers, skilled industry consultants and technical advisors. Applying legal experience, deep industry knowledge and business perspective, we effectively address our clients’ strategic, business, financial, technical and contractual challenges, structuring, negotiating and helping them implement sourcing solutions with world-leading service providers.
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We advise clients throughout the sourcing life cycle, developing delivery and sourcing strategy, crafting effective supplier solicitations (e.g., RFI, RFP), leading proposal evaluations, developing and negotiating contracts, and enabling and overseeing implementation. We create deal structures, delivery models and sourcing processes that anticipate change and devise solutions based on each client’s specific circumstances and goals. Further we handle issue remediation, dispute resolution, transaction restructuring and re-engineering of global operations, driving down costs and optimizing operating and service delivery models across diverse industries, suppliers and transaction types.
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We represent companies of all sizes, including large multinational companies, Fortune 500 companies and startup enterprises, in sourcing services for complex technologies, and customer service and business processes involving critical systems and operations in a wide variety of industries. From strategy through execution, we provide informed advice covering:
- Design, Build and Implementation
- Delivery architecture
- Sourcing strategy
- Supplier evaluation and selection
- Due diligence support
- Contract negotiations, renewals and renegotiations
- Transition support
- Restructuring and re-engineering
- Mergers, acquisitions and spinoffs
- Advisory & Transactions Guidance
- Software licensing, maintenance and development
- Technology acquisition and licensing
- System implementation and integration
- Market data acquisition
- Application development and maintenance outsourcing
- Infrastructure outsourcing
- Managed cybersecurity services
- Cloud computing (SaaS, IaaS, PaaS)
- Colocation agreements
- IT outsourcing
- Telecom transport and networking
- ERP implementation and sourcing business processing outsourcing, including finance & accounting, procurement, HR and claims processing, among other services
- Business-process-as-a-service (BPaaS)
- Real estate/facilities management outsourcing
- Logistics outsourcing
- Privacy, cybersecurity and data protection
- Application service provider issues and agreements
- Website and Internet-based contracts
- Telecommunications issues and agreements
- Professional services and consulting arrangements
- Industries
- Biotechnology and pharmaceuticals
- Energy and utilities
- Financial services
- Health care
- Manufacturing
- Public sector
- Real estate
- Retail
- Technology
- Food & drink producers
- Insurance
- Mining & metals
- Telecommunications
- Transportation
- Travel & leisure
- Utilities
Representative Experience
- Led the negotiation and execution of a $1.7 billion BPaaS master services agreement between a large health care insurer and Cognizant Healthcare Services, LLC and the insurer’s sale of certain hardware assets to Cognizant.
- Represented NTT Data International in its $3.06 billion acquisition of Dell Inc.’s IT services division, NTT Data’s largest acquisition ever.
- Advised a leading banking and investment firm on a series of transformative transactions to enable it to enter the online consumer lending arena with respect to global facilities management outsourcing.
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- Health Care
- Advised Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island in a business process function outsourcing transaction with Transaction Applications Group (a Dell, Inc. affiliate later sold to NTT Data).
- Handled the negotiation and execution of a $1.7 billion outsourcing transaction that will transform how a client health insurance company does business and will save it $100 million per year over a seven-year term.
- Represented a leading health insurance company in connection with a critical business process outsourcing transaction involving claims; data, provider and infrastructure operations; payment integrity; contact center; Medicare; and pharmacy services.
- Helped Inova Health Care Services close a facilities management transaction with ABM Healthcare Support Services, Inc., covering facilities management services for critical facilities and negotiating new performance standards.
- Insurance
- Negotiated a nine-year, roughly $100 million master services agreement for a client insurance company with a consultancy services company to take over certain IT functions previously managed by our client.
- Represented a leading insurance company in a strategic transaction to transition its “on premised” licensed Microsoft and other third-party functionality for U.S. employees and related data to Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 service.
- Supported an insurance company in connection with a software license for a new claims processing system and a services agreement with a system integrator for that solution.
- State and Local Government
- Advised the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) on a strategic P3 outsourcing transaction involving rail and station operations and maintenance for WMATA’s new Silver Line.
- Advised City of Minneapolis regarding large-scale potential outsourcing of all major infrastructure and application support functions, developed delivery and sourcing strategies, and handled RFP preparation and competitive procurement down-selection process.
- Advised the Wyoming Department of Transportation in the procurement and implementation of an upgrade to an ERP system in addition to the sourcing of hosting operations for its ERP platform.
- Advised a major U.S. city in procurement and integration of a new e911 system for its police and fire departments. We are developing service scope, performance terms and negotiating supplier agreements.
- Utilities
- Served as the transactional lead counsel on two, second-generation outsourcings for a public utility client, including a multitower ITO and a multitower BPO, with different suppliers.
- Assisted a public utility client on four ITOs and BPOs involving the transition and support of a new ERP system, RFP preparation, supplier solutions, proposal evaluation, BAFO preparation and contract package negotiation.
- Completed a cybersecurity assessment as part of our client utility company’s annual report to its board of directors on the state of cybersecurity within the organization.
- Pharmaceuticals
- Provided ValueChain consulting to a drug development company on the insourcing of a data center, server management, network and telecommunication services from IBM.
- Advised a pharmaceutical company on the renegotiation of its global finance and accounting services deal. The deal brings three legacy contracts concluded between the client and supplier over five years.
- Advised a global biopharmaceutical company on its divestiture of a leading drug to a global pharmaceutical developer, manufacturer and distributor and negotiated the transaction, which involved provision of interim transition services.
- Banking and Financial Services
- Advised American Express regarding its OptBlue program under which it outsources merchant acquiring, processing and customer service functions to large processors in the U.S. and Canada, and structured and negotiated related transactions.
- Represented ZB, N.A., negotiating all terms of a new agreement with First Data Corporation covering credit card processing and production output services for all credit cards issued by ZB and its subsidiary banks.
- Advised Paladin on creating and negotiating standard core vendor service agreements and terms to serve the Golden Contract Coalition, a group of financial institutions teaming together to negotiate better terms from core vendors.
- Served as a worldwide financial services holding company’s lead counsel, negotiating a global outsourcing services agreement with Verizon and two discreet statements of work for managed network and managed security services.
- Served as the strategic adviser to a global financial services firm on cutting-edge outsourcing and technology transactions involving managed mobility offering, international archiving services, and help desk services as part of a cost-savings initiative.
- Advised a leading global banking and investment firm in a global facilities management outsourcing transaction involving over $100 million per year in services in all regions in which it operates (Americas, EMEA and APAC).
- Advised a leading global financial services firm in a complex, large-scale, potential outsourcing of unified communications functionality involving more than 265,000 users in more than 60 countries.
- Assisted a professional services firm in negotiating a vendor agreement to provide tax and statutory accounting for its client’s corporate entities in more than 80 countries worldwide.
- Renegotiated a consumer financial services company’s supplier relationship with First Data for credit card account processing and production services to update and extend the relationship through 2032.
- Advised a U.S. bank holding company on a license, implementation and maintenance deal to replace its legacy core banking solution with TCS’s proprietary and state-of-the-art BaNCS product.
- Education
- Provided advice and handled negotiations for a world-leading educational institution regarding a series of strategic transactions with IBM involving Watson, smart campuses and IT outsourcings.
- Represented a private nonprofit educational testing and assessment organization in a new 10-year supply chain outsourcing contract. Helped the client design and negotiate the contract to improve service and pricing.
- Assisted an educational client with a strategic joint venture for the development and operation of a technology platform that will be used to support core business operations.
- Integrated Telecommunication Services
- Advised a connectivity solutions company on global outsourcing transactions for infrastructure, network, service desk, applications and security, including strategy, suppliers, organizational change management and service integration.
- Assisted a media conglomerate with evaluating proposals from IBM, Microsoft and Tata Consultancy Services for a global transition to outsourced hosted email services and negotiated the contract with the selected supplier.
- Food Distributors
- Assisted a food and beverage distribution sector client in renegotiating its primary strategic IT infrastructure relationship to streamline its delivery model and reduce operating costs.
- Advised on the restructuring and renegotiating of Royal Ahold’s IT outsourcing contract with a new seven-year contract. The new contract substantially revised the technical solution with improvements in service delivery.
- Advised an international supermarket chain on the conversion of existing staff augmentation agreement for infrastructure support to a managed services agreement.
- Retail
- Represented a retail company in a full scope IT outsourcing, including data center, network (voice and data), end-user computing, store support, web hosting, applications development and maintenance services.
- Represented a retailer in the renegotiation of an existing outsourcing contract with EDS to provide mainframe support, midrange and Teradata computing platforms, storage management, print and report distribution, and network management.
- Advised an electronics retailer on a number of areas relating to outsourcing and technology, including a scoping and cost analysis for IT services.
Practice Area Highlights
- Chambers Global, Chambers UK, and Chambers USA have repeatedly recognized Pillsbury’s Outsourcing, Information Technology as among the best globally, and The Legal 500 U.S. named Pillsbury as a leader in sourcing.
- The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals has consistently named as one of the “World’s Best Outsourcing Advisors”.
- Pillsbury partners made BTI’s 2016 Client Service All-Star List for Global Sourcing.
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- Recipient of the European Outsourcing Association’s award for the Best MultiSourcing Project of the Year for a project that streamlined a client’s global supplier base from 300 to three.
- Touted for having “strategy and structure that really facilitates transactions in this space . . . and the capacity and resources to deliver on complex transactions” in Chambers USA client quote.