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Sveriges Ingenjörer – a winning concept
The challenge
Historically, the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers managed its IT operations using its own staff, but from 2005 this was handled by SACO IT-Service AB using temporary operations staff. However, in 2015 it was time for a change and a procurement was carried out to outsource the IT function to an external party. The winning supplier was Dicom, which became Nordlo following a merger. Cost was the primary reason for the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers deciding to procure its IT services rather than managing them in-house.
Helped by external procurement consultants, SACO IT-Service carried out a procurement exercise, and the overall conclusion at the end of the procurement was that Nordlo was the best supplier. The decision was largely due to Nordlo being able to provide just the right individuals and competence for the procurement meetings. “This meant that as a potential customer we felt we were a priority, and also that few questions had to wait for answers. Nordlo’s representatives at these meetings were able to explain their solutions at all levels, so the majority of questions we asked them could be answered there and then. Other positive aspects during the procurement were that the suggested solution they presented was transparent, and that there were concrete, factual reasons behind their choice of solution, together with advantages for our everyday administration processes”, says Daniel Milovan, IT Manager for the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers.
“Why change a winning concept? We’ve been totally satisfied, both with the deliveries and our partnership with Nordlo.”
The solution
The solution for the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineersconsists of complete outsourcing, i.e. it includes everything from workstations and support to servers in data centres. Nordlo works with unbroken chains in its deliveries, regardless of whether this relates to a workstation’s life cycle or a contract, which means that Nordlo takes responsibility for the entire process. One such example is life cycle management, from purchasing computers to decommissioning computers according to the best technical, environmental and ethical principles.
The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers exploits the available technology in a broad and detailed way to support its activities, both on an everyday level but also during projects and member activities. This means a high level of activity, which sets demands on Nordlo in terms of an agile way of working. In addition, Nordlo has a delivery model based on the CSI (customer satisfaction index) result, making it possible for the customer to terminate the contract if they aren’t happy.
The solution was designed by Christian Robertsson, who was also responsible for the contract with the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers, and who ensured that the contract was extended.
“The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers are a challenging customer for us – in a good way. They don’t demand that we wait on them hand and foot, but we aim to do so anyway because we want to deliver a consistently positive experience of their IT systems. I think it’s in the nature of engineers to be curious and to want to know what’s going on at a more detailed level than normal, so this has led to us developing our internal procedures and processes. I thoroughly enjoy working with the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers”, says Christian Robertsson, contract manager for Nordlo.
Customer value
Thanks to stable deliveries and a good partnership, the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers has chosen to extend the contract this year. The collaboration has given the union greater flexibility, predictable costs, higher reliability and a more qualified environment in purely technical terms.
“Why change a winning concept? We’ve been totally satisfied, both with the deliveries and our partnership with Nordlo. They constantly show that we’re important to them as a customer, and during previous contract periods they’ve developed a really good understanding of our business. When we need to run a project or make changes, they’re quick to get onboard, to give us their input and then to carry out the necessary work as planned. In every business you run into problems, and that’s when a good supplier can really make the difference. That’s what Nordlo have done. To summarise our partnership in just a few words – it’s great fun to work with Nordlo”, says Daniel Milovan.
About the Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers
The Swedish Association of Graduate Engineers is a Swedish union and interest group for graduate engineers within Saco, the Swedish Confederation of Professional Associations. The union is the largest within Saco, today representing approximately 153,000 members. Read more about Sveriges Ingenjörer at sverigesingenjorer.se.