IDC Pricing Evaluation Services

For the IT buyer, demanding workloads and deadlines leave little time for in-depth review of any specific IT investment, and staff turnover limits institutional knowledge of past negotiations. IDC offers the world's leading price benchmarking service that helps IT buyers benchmark best-in-class pricing and drive savings and efficiency in IT investments and partnerships.

Markets and Subjects Analyzed

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• IDC offers comprehensive ongoing support for IT sourcing, procurement, and vendor management professionals. The core mission of Sourcing Advisory Service (SAS): Standard Package is to help clients drive better-performing IT contracts at a reduced cost by providing data and guidance on best-in-class pricing and contract terms for major deals.
• IDC's Sourcing Advisory Service (SAS): Standard Package delivers unique value through customized benchmarking and actionable advice, all delivered directly to the client via teleconference and written content.

Core Research

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• Unlimited top-of-mind inquiry related to vendor pricing, sourcing strategy, contracting best practices, and so forth
• Deal reviews: Five single-vendor assessments with written feedback and/or analyst call
• Online tool: Three user licenses
• Price index: Two products/configurations, pricing in U.S. dollars with biannual update

In addition to the insight provided in this service, IDC may conduct research on specific topics or emerging market segments via research offerings that require additional IDC funding and client investment.

Key Questions Answered

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1. How do I ensure that we are getting the best-of-breed pricing when negotiating with IT vendors?
2. How can we measure savings and document our deals for stakeholders?
3. What benchmarks can help drive cost containment and spend reduction in an uncertain economy?
4. What are the key contractual levers when negotiating?
5. How do we avoid vendor lock-in and maintain leverage with vendors?
6. How are sourcing professionals contributing to long-term spend optimization?

Value and Differentiation

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IDC's Sourcing Advisory Service (SAS): Standard Package provides unprecedented access to actual customer deal data that creates a clear benchmark of a client's deal combined with actionable intelligence on best practice for driving better deals and reducing costs. Each engagement is a customer-intimate exercise where sourcing and vendor management professionals will interact with expert IDC analysts and receive written feedback that can be used to drive transparency in guiding sourcing strategy and vendor negotiations. What sets IDC apart?

• Clients are supported by a dedicated client relationship manager (CRM) who shall serve as a single point of contact for all requests and oversee all throughput and ensure rapid response. Compared with a call center, IDC's CRM can act as an extension of the client's research by guiding the IDC response while anticipating the client's needs.
• IDC provides written content with each deal review and inquiry. Rather than providing top-of-mind feedback and dialog on a call, IDC provides tailored benchmarking data and actionable advice in written format, which can be critical in guiding internal discussions and showcasing success to management.
• IDC's rigorously defined data and benchmark to peer deals provide an excellent means of calculating and documenting savings from sourcing engagements.
• IDC offers comprehensive labor rate cards for IT professional services
• IDC's flexible approach allows multiple sourcing professionals to make requests and access content; IDC does not restrict SAS coverage by user.