CASE STUDY
Improving Productivity Positioning in Outsourcing RFPs
How a global IT services provider recalibrated productivity commitments against market deal outcomes to bid more credibly, and more sustainably, in competitive RFPs
Industry
IT Services
COMPANY SIZE
Global Enterprise
GEOGRAPHY
Global
TIMELINE
8-10 weeks
01. Executive Summary
A global IT services provider engaged HEX Advisory Group to evaluate whether its productivity assumptions across multiple service towers remained competitive in the evolving outsourcing market. HEX benchmarked productivity assumptions against market deal outcomes, identified structural drivers of operational efficiency, and developed a maturity-driven framework that strengthened productivity positioning in future RFP bids while protecting delivery margins.
Up to 40%
Productivity uplift identified across two service towers
8-10
Weeks from kickoff to
insight delivery
5
Service towers benchmarked against market deals
HIGHLIGHTS
- Identified up to 40% productivity uplift opportunity across compute and SOC towers, with weaker uplift potential in storage, network, and application services
- Established automation maturity, platform standardization, and operational stability as the primary structural drivers of productivity differentials between providers
- Delivered a maturity-driven productivity framework enabling tower-specific commitments calibrated to deal environment, separating effort productivity from price productivity to protect delivery margins
02. The Opportunity
CLIENT BACKGROUND
A global IT services provider competing for large infrastructure and application outsourcing deals across multiple geographies. The client regularly participates in competitive RFP processes and operates at a scale where productivity assumptions baked into commercial proposals materially shape both win rates and downstream delivery margins.
THE SITUATION
Increasingly aggressive productivity commitments from competing providers were enabling lower pricing in competitive RFP bids. Automation-led infrastructure operations, standardized platforms, AI-enabled security monitoring, and mature DevOps practices were reshaping market expectations for productivity improvements. The client faced growing uncertainty around whether its current productivity assumptions remained aligned with market deal outcomes, and whether the gap was a pricing problem or a capability problem. Without a defensible answer, every bid carried the risk of either losing on price or winning on commitments the delivery organization could not sustain.
WHAT WAS NEEDED
- A structured assessment of how internal productivity assumptions compare with productivity outcomes observed in market outsourcing deals
- Analysis of the operational, automation, and architectural factors that influence productivity across infrastructure, security, and application service towers
- Actionable insights to support more competitive productivity positioning in future RFP bids while maintaining delivery feasibility and protecting margin
03. The Solution
OUR APPROACH
HEX applied a three-phase approach combining market benchmarking, operational driver analysis, and productivity model evaluation. The team reviewed productivity improvements observed in recent outsourcing deals through proprietary HEX Index® market intelligence, compared internal assumptions with market outcomes, and assessed the relationship between operational effort reductions and the commercial pricing commitments embedded in those contracts. A maturity-driven productivity assessment framework was used to evaluate productivity potential across all five service towers, with environment maturity scored across four dimensions: platform complexity, operational stability, tooling and automation depth, and cloud and hybrid environment readiness.
WHAT WE DID
- Benchmarked productivity assumptions across compute, storage, network, SOC (security operations), and application development and maintenance towers against market deal outcomes
- Separated effort productivity from price productivity to distinguish operational efficiency improvements from commercial pricing reductions embedded in outsourcing contracts
- Developed a maturity-driven framework scoring environment complexity, operational stability, tooling and automation depth, and cloud readiness for each service tower
- Assessed cross-tower productivity patterns to identify consistent drivers and structural differences in achievable productivity levels, isolating the towers where uplift potential is highest
WHY THIS APPROACH
Productivity in outsourcing deals is often treated as a single pricing lever, but actual delivery outcomes depend on environment maturity and operational capabilities. By separating effort productivity from price productivity and grounding the analysis in environment maturity drivers, HEX enabled the client to build productivity commitments that are commercially competitive and operationally sustainable. The independence of HEX’s advisory model and the depth of HEX Index® market data allowed the team to surface findings that would not be visible from internal benchmarks alone.
04. The Impact
The study delivered a structured, evidence-based view of productivity positioning across the client’s major service towers in 8 to 10 weeks, directly informing the commercial approach to active and upcoming RFP bids.
RESULTS
- Up to 40% productivity uplift opportunity quantified in the highest-maturity towers, enabling more competitive and credible commercial proposals against aggressive competitor commitments
- Tower-specific productivity commitments calibrated to deal environment maturity, replacing uniform assumptions with differentiated targets defensible to both bid teams and delivery leadership
- Sharper alignment between effort productivity and pricing commitments, reducing the risk of margin erosion from over-promised glidepaths while maintaining bid competitiveness
BEFORE
Productivity assumptions were set from internal benchmarks without systematic comparison to market deal outcomes. Limited visibility into competitor commitments meant bids could be priced uncompetitively or, worse, won on terms the delivery organization could not sustain.
AFTER
A maturity-driven productivity framework grounded in market benchmarking, with tower-specific commitments calibrated to environment maturity and a clear separation between effort productivity and commercial pricing reductions. Bid teams now have a defensible answer to where productivity glidepaths can be aggressive, and where they cannot.
“Productivity in outsourcing deals is treated as a single pricing lever. The work is to separate what the operating model can actually deliver from what the commercial model is willing to commit, and to know which towers can carry the difference.”
From the engagement findings, HEX Advisory Group
05. Lessons Learned
Several insights from this engagement are broadly applicable to IT services providers competing for large outsourcing deals in markets where automation and platform standardization are reshaping productivity expectations.
SEPARATE EFFORT PRODUCTIVITY FROM PRICE PRODUCTIVITY
Competitive pricing pressure can drive providers to commit productivity glidepaths that exceed what operational improvements alone can deliver. Separating effort-based productivity gains from commercial pricing reductions helps providers set sustainable commitments that protect delivery margins.
GROUND PRODUCTIVITY COMMITMENTS IN ENVIRONMENT MATURITY
Achievable productivity levels vary significantly with platform standardization, automation depth, and operational stability. A maturity-driven framework allows providers to set differentiated targets that reflect the actual characteristics of each deal environment, rather than applying uniform assumptions that win some bids and break others.
AUTOMATION MATURITY IS THE DOMINANT PRODUCTIVITY DRIVER
Across compute, storage, network, security, and application services, environments with strong automation adoption consistently demonstrate higher operational efficiency. Providers should invest in automation capabilities and use demonstrated automation maturity as a differentiator in competitive bids, not as a generic claim.
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HEX Advisory Group is an independent sourcing advisory and benchmarking firm. We bring practitioner-led expertise, conflict-free advice, and proprietary market intelligence through the HEX Index®.