Utilising our significant experience in procurement and contract management, Cambridge MC delivered £10m of savings on an addressable budget of £80m A large UK online retailer went through a downsizing exercise in the early part of 2023. This caused significant changes in demand, meaning that expenditure in many areas was far more than the business requirement. There were also instances where certain technologies were no longer required, but long-term contracts were in place that needed to be negotiated out. The goal of the project was to review all current vendor and supplier contracts, identify where savings could potentially be made, and then work with the procurement department to reduce the current level of expenditure to meet current business requirements. Our team was given a three-month deadline to make savings to the bottom line. Project Overview Cambridge MC was engaged on a three-month project to perform the following: Perform a deep dive on all vendor contracts against the current business. Establish priority saving areas and launch projects. Challenge demand and specification requirements. Build a cost reduction report. Engage in supplier negotiations in conjunction with the client's own procurement team. Produce weekly reports on cost savings achieved. Our experience in procurement, contract, and vendor management enabled us to completely meet the brief set out by the client which was to deliver significant bottom-line savings in a three-month turnaround. Specific Challenges Client had lost control of spend across the business. They had no awareness of what contracts had auto-renewed. They had signed long-term contracts. Some contracts had recently been extended for 24 months or longer. Due to downsizing, the volume of licenses for certain technologies were way above the actual requirement. Client had an inexperienced procurement team. Recent staff turnover meant that contract owners were no longer in the company. They had no contract management platform in place, resulting in contracts not being readily available. Most vendors were reluctant to renegotiate contracts at a lower cost to the business. Procurement had a process—not price—focus. Solutions Cambridge MC employed a data-driven analytical approach which prioritised target spend and volume data. All existing agreements and contracts were 'fair game'. We challenged what was the actual demand and specification, questioning whether what they have today is still relevant to what is needed now and in the future. After performing a deep analysis of all contracts, we entered into negotiations with vendors where the existing contracts did not meet the business requirement due to downsizing. Approach Vendors were allocated across the Cambridge MC team. Weekly all-day meetings at client's offices. Regular video conference calls to update progress. Engaged department heads as required. Outcomes & Results 1. Cost Savings In excess of £10m savings achieved off the bottom line. 2. Knowledge License requirements reduced to the correct level for the business. 3. Diligence Contracts managed far more closely. 4. Efficiency Procurement team coached to function more efficiently. 5. Commitment All contractual obligations were met.

Ensuring that University of Bristol remains the university of choice for students, academics and partners in a globally competitive market The University of Bristol is a Russell Group University and a leader in many global league tables, including the QS World University Rankings where in 2023 it ranked 9th in the UK. To strengthen its competitive position, the University is undertaking an ambitious digital transformation strategy. As a foundation of this strategy, the Modern Network will deliver a significant increase in capacity, flexibility, automation, resilience, security and experience for all users. Cambridge Management Consulting was selected as the consulting firm to help the University establish and refine the requirements, design the network in collaboration with University of Bristol experts and lead the technical procurement for a Modern Network. Cambridge MC’s technical and commercial expertise helped University of Bristol navigate a complex procurement exercise and deliver the first stages of the transformation programme. The Challenge The current University of Bristol campus network requires significant modernisation to support the University’s Digital Strategy. All staff, students and visitors interact with the University's network every day, whether it's connecting a device to Wi-Fi, emailing a colleague, or running a session on the University’s Digital Learning Platform. The University of Bristol recognised that improving their global competitiveness requires a step change in the digital experience offered to all users and so it launched its Modern Network programme. Key objectives of the Modern Network are to introduce a high-performance network that gives users access to comprehensive teaching and learning resources, as well as specialist equipment, data, and scalable fibre for innovative research. The Modern Network programme also aims to enable students to connect with friends and family, and socialise online from wherever they are on campus, at any time, day or night. The new network will enhance the Wi-Fi coverage and capacity to give users the best digital experience round the clock. The University realises that a significant increase in network performance is needed to support data intensive activities, including centralised and de-centralised computing, large scale sensor networks, media rich applications like augmented and virtual reality, data intensive instrumentation and modelling. The architecture designed is going to be more flexible, highly scalable, adaptable and evergreen. Security will be improved to cope with the continuously evolving threat landscape and to enable Modern Network users to safely perform their activities from any location in the world, with a consistent, hassle-free experience. The Modern Network will deliver a reliable platform with world-class operational capabilities, making the services easy to consume, monitor and manage. The Strategy Cambridge Management Consulting used its expertise and knowledge to quickly establish a comprehensive set of requirements and to test market appetite to deliver a Modern Network via an RFI. Requirements Management used a structured approach based on a Cambridge MC requirements catalogue. This accelerated the process of engaging University of Bristol stakeholders to validate requirements and helped to shape the University’s procurement process. An efficient and comprehensive stakeholder engagement process also saw the development of multiple personas that were used to explain how the Modern Network would deliver capabilities for students, academics, researchers and professional services colleagues. Cambridge MC, in conjunction with the university, then helped to shape a structured procurement approach. Modern Network capabilities were put into 3 main procurement categories to provide purchasing and transformation flexibility. Cambridge MC led the Procurement technical dialogue. Working in partnership with experts from the University of Bristol, a highly scalable, flexible, secure and resilient target state network was designed. The design is modular and makes use of multiple technical patterns. This provides a repeatable, standardised way for the University to deliver capabilities that can have customised performance service and levels. To assist the Procurement activities, Cambridge MC also created a Model Modern Network. The Model allowed a consistent financial assessment to be made at each stage of the Procurement, including providing a detailed estimate of the transformation milestones and payments. The Cambridge MC team also shaped the Modern Network programme. It was broadly shaped into mobilisation, discovery, design, prove, pilot and deploy phases. Cambridge MC are providing support in the early transformation phase to help the University of Bristol deliver the ambitious programme. The resulting Modern Network will be a high performance, flexible, resilient and secure platform. It will introduce self-service and automation, such as zero touch deployments and autonomous networks for research activities. It will leverage programmatic control and AIOps to improve the digital experience and inclusiveness, sustainability and the global competitiveness of the University. A technical modernisation like this requires a similar shift to a world-class operating model. Cambridge MC supported the service management redesign throughout the procurement phase. Using comprehensive requirements structured around ITIL, the team co-designed the enhanced set of service capabilities and are now helping University of Bristol to introduce these services. The new service management approach will provide full end-to-end visibility of the network, formal SLAs and SLA management and enhanced fault, change, configuration and knowledge management. This will complement the new technical capabilities and provide significant benefits to the University. The Team Cambridge Management Consulting provided procurement, commercial, technical business analysis and service management expertise. Cambridge MC also provided expertise for the procurement and post-procurement implementation activity. Cambridge MC worked exceptionally well with the University's digital and procurement teams to ensure end-to-end success for the University. Not only did the Cambridge MC team help support, but they also provided extensive knowledge transfer to, the University to minimise the future need for external support, minimise future costs for external consultants and help further develop the in-house ICT and procurement capabilities. Outcomes & Results 1. Cambridge Management Consulting's attention to detail ensured there were clear winners of the Procurement lots, with no challenges or disaffected potential suppliers. The winners of the three lots were all world-class organisations with a desire to support the University with its ambition to deliver a first-class service. 2. Cambridge MC have since assisted the University with other aspects of their Digital Strategy and continue to be engaged to help University of Bristol transform.

Our Procurement as a Service allows your internal resources to focus on what they do best essensys is a leading global software and technology company designed to solve the complex operational challenges faced by landlords and flexible workspace operators. essensys was using its sales & delivery teams to additionally procure services for their clients. This took resources away from what they do best: getting requests, chasing quotes and managing ordering & termination processes. As the inventory of services grew the client was missing out on the cost opportunities of procuring at scale. Rather than recruiting an in-house team, essensys turned to Cambridge Management Consulting for help with the procurement of their connectivity services from quotation to inventory management. The Challenge The initial contract was to help essensys meet pricing requests for ‘last mile’ connectivity enquiries from their Sales teams. To date this had been done through their Technical Delivery team and pre-sales engineers. The problem was that this took those specialised resources away from important core duties performed by the sales teams. Our pricing analysts took over quoting, originally for the UK and then for the US, supporting the essensys sales team and comparing the costs from suppliers with pricing from other clients. Pricing for essensys customer sites requires two diverse lines with different suppliers, providing as much resilience as possible to ensure a maximum uptime for essensys’ customers. Our team’s knowledge of suppliers and their networks ensures that maximum resilience is offered with each pair of quotes provided to the essensys team. Scope As essensys looked to expand their operations into the APA Region, we were asked to provide regulatory support establishing their operations in Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Once their PoPs were built, we supported these new markets by developing the supplier strategy for data centre space, access and IP Transit. We then helped the quote team expand their scope to include supporting sales enquiries for these new markets. When Sales started enquiring about connectivity in markets other than where essensys had operations, our PaaS practice located and introduced essensys to a partner organisation that would operate as their virtual PoPs, rapidly increasing the number of markets that essensys could cover while maintaining internet quality and client experience of the essensys platform. In 2023, essensys' relationship with our PaaS practice increased its scope again, supporting essensys in all elements of the procurement life cycle including all elements of inventory management (raising orders, submitting cancellations and ensuring that the inventory data is up-to-date) as well as supporting essensys in meeting their cost management targets. All of these services are supplemented with our PaaS contract management and end-to-end procurement strategy across their telecoms and data centre spend. The Team The team is led by Eric Green (Senior Partner) and Elisabeth Simao (Partner) who between them have over 60 years of experience in running telecoms procurement teams for some of the largest names in the industry including AT&T, Level 3 (now Lumen), COLT and SITA/Equant (now Orange Business) Backed by a team of analysts and calling on a roster of procurement specialists, the team is able to scale up and down to meet the changing needs of essensys as the project grew How Paas Works Our Procurement-as-a-Service team shares resources and knowledge with the Carrier Club (part of the Cambridge MC family of companies and focussed on telecoms operators). The team uses its view of aggregated spend across all clients to calculate what the right market price should be and then leverages this when negotiating new pricing We also benchmark suppliers and can manage all aspects of our clients' inventory management, proactive cost management and supplier management requirements Our clients effectively share a team of procurement specialists with decades of experience. This improves the decision-making process and gives you the edge over a traditional in-house procurement model

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Cambridge Management Consulting (Cambridge MC) and Falklands IT (FIT) have donatede £3,000 to the Hermes/Viraat Heritage Trust to support the learning and development of young children in the Falkland Islands.

What’s your organisation’s type when it comes to cyber security? Is everything justified by the business risks, or are you hoping for the best? Over the decades, I have found that no two businesses or organisations have taken the same approach to cybersecurity. This is neither a criticism nor a surprise. No two businesses are the same, so why would their approach to digital risk be? However, I have found that there are some trends or clusters. In this article, I’ve distilled those observations, my understanding of the forces that drive each approach, and some indicators that may help you recognise it. I have also suggested potential advantages and disadvantages. Ad Hoc Let’s start with the ad hoc approach, where the organisation does what it thinks needs to be done, but without any clear rationale to determine “How much is enough?” The Bucket of Sand Approach At the extreme end of the spectrum is the 'Bucket of Sand' option which is characterised by the belief that 'It will never happen to us'. Your organisation may feel that it is too small to be worth attacking or has nothing of any real value. However, if an organisation has nothing of value, one wonders what purpose it serves. At the very least, it is likely to have money. But it is rare now that an organisation will not hold data and information worth stealing. Whether this data is its own or belongs to a third party, it will be a target. I’ve also come across businesses that hold a rather more fatalistic perspective. Most of us are aware of the regular reports of nation-state attacks that are attempting to steal intellectual property, causing economic damage, or just simply stealing money. Recognising that you might face the full force of a cyber-capable foreign state is undoubtedly daunting and may encourage the view that 'We’re all doomed regardless'. If a cyber-capable nation-state is determined to have a go at you, the odds are not great, and countering it will require eye-watering investments in protection, detection and response. But the fact is that they are rare events, even if they receive disproportionate amounts of media coverage. The majority of threats that most organisations face are not national state actors. They are petty criminals, organised criminal bodies, opportunistic amateur hackers or other lower-level actors. And they will follow the path of least resistance. So, while you can’t eliminate the risk, you can reduce it by applying good security and making yourself a more challenging target than the competition. Following Best Practice Thankfully, these 'Bucket of Sand' adopters are less common than ten or fifteen years ago. Most in the Ad Hoc zone will do some things but without clear logic or rationale to justify why they are doing X rather than Y. They may follow the latest industry trends and implement a new shiny technology (because doing the business change bit is hard and unpopular). This type of organisation will frequently operate security on a feast or famine basis, deferring investments to next year when there is something more interesting to prioritise, because without business strategy guiding security it will be hard to justify. And 'next year' frequently remains next year on an ongoing basis. At the more advanced end of the Ad Hoc zone, you will find those organisations that choose a framework and aim to achieve a specific benchmark of Security Maturity. This approach ensures that capabilities are balanced and encourages progressive improvement. However, 'How much is enough?' remains unanswered; hence, the security budget will frequently struggle for airtime when budgets are challenged. It may also encourage a one-size-fits-all approach rather than prioritising the assets at greatest risk, which would cause the most significant damage if compromised. Regulatory-Led The Regulatory-Led organisation is the one I’ve come across most frequently. A market regulator, such as the FCA in the UK, may set regulations. Or the regulator may be market agnostic but have responsibility for a particular type of data, such as the Information Commissioner’s Office’s interest in personal data privacy. If regulatory compliance questions dominate most senior conversations about cyber security, the organisation is probably in this zone. Frequently, this issue of compliance is not a trivial challenge. Most regulations don’t tend to be detailed recipes to follow. Instead, they outline the broad expectations or the principles to be applied. There will frequently be a tapestry of regulations that need to be met rather than a single target to aim for. Businesses operating in multiple countries will likely have different regulations across those regions. Even within one country, there may be market-specific and data-specific regulations that both need to be applied. This tapestry is growing year after year as jurisdictions apply additional regulations to better protect their citizens and economies in the face of proliferating and intensifying threats. In the last year alone, EU countries have had to implement both the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and Network and Infrastructure Security Directive (NIS2) , which regulate financial services businesses and critical infrastructure providers respectively. Superficially, it appears sensible and straightforward, but in execution the complexities and limitations become clear. Some of the nuances include: Not Everything Is Regulated The absence of regulation doesn’t mean there is no risk. It just means that the powers that be are not overly concerned. Your business will still be exposed to risk, but the regulators or government may be untroubled by it. Regulations Move Slowly Cyber threats are constantly changing and evolving. As organisations improve their defences, the opposition changes their tactics and tools to ensure their attacks can continue to be effective. In response, organisations need to adjust and enhance their defences to stay ahead. Regulations do not respond at this pace. So, relying on regulatory compliance risks preparing to 'Fight the last war'. The Tapestry Becomes Increasingly Unwieldy It may initially appear simple. You review the limited regulations for a single region, take your direction, and apply controls that will make you compliant. Then, you expand into a new region. And later, one of your existing jurisdictions introduces an additional set of regulations that apply to you. Before you know it, you must first normalise and consolidate the requirements from a litany of different sets of rules, each with its own structure, before you can update your security/compliance strategy. Most Regulations Talk about Appropriateness As mentioned before, regulations rarely provide a recipe to follow. They talk about applying appropriate controls in a particular context. The business still needs to decide what is appropriate. And if there is a breach or a pre-emptive audit, the business will need to justify that decision. The most rational justification will be based on an asset’s sensitivity and the threats it is exposed to — ergo, a risk-based rather than a compliance-based argument. Opportunity-Led Many businesses don’t exist in heavily regulated industries but may wish to trade in markets or with customers with certain expectations about their suppliers’ security and resilience. These present barriers to entry, but if overcome, they also offer obstacles to competition. The expectations may be well defined for a specific customer, such as DEF STAN 05-138 , which details the standards that the UK Ministry of Defence expects its suppliers to meet according to a project’s risk profile. Sometimes, an entire market will set the entry rules. The UK Government has set Cyber Essentials as the minimum standard to be eligible to compete for government contracts. The US has published NIST 800-171 to detail what government suppliers must meet to process Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). Businesses should conduct due diligence on their suppliers, particularly when they provide technology, interface with their systems or process their data. Regulations, such as NIS2, are increasingly demanding this level of Third Party Risk Management because of the number of breaches and compromises originating from the supply chain. Businesses may detail a certain level of certification that they consider adequate, such as ISO 27001 or a System & Organization Controls (SOC) report. By achieving one or more of these standards, new markets may open up to a business. Good security becomes a growth enabler. But just like with regulations, if the security strategy starts with one of these standards, it can rapidly become unwieldy as a patchwork quilt of different entry requirements builds up for other markets. Risk-Led The final zone is where actions are defined by the risk the business is exposed to. Being led by risk in this way should be natural and intuitive. Most of us might secure our garden shed with a simple padlock but would have several more secure locks on the doors to our house. We would probably also have locks on the windows and may add CCTV cameras and a burglar alarm if we were sufficiently concerned about the threats in our area. We may even install a secure safe inside the house if we have some particularly valuable possessions. These decisions and the application of defences are all informed by our understanding of the risks to which different groups of assets are exposed. The security decisions you make at home are relatively trivial compared to the complexity most businesses face with digital risk. Over the decades, technology infrastructures have grown, often becoming a sprawling landscape where the boundaries between one system and another are hard to determine. In the face of this complexity, many organisations talk about being risk-led but, in reality, operate in one of the other zones. There is no reason why an organisation can’t progressively transform from an Ad Hoc, Regulatory-Led or Opportunity-Led posture into a Risk-Led one. This transformation may need to include a strategy to enhance segmentation and reduce the sprawling landscape described above. Risk-Led also doesn’t mean applying decentralised, bespoke controls on a system-by-system basis. The risk may be assessed against the asset or a category of assets, but most organisations usually have a framework of standard controls and policies to apply or choose from. The test to tell whether an organisation genuinely operates in the Risk-Led zone is whether they have a well-defined Risk Appetite. This policy is more than just the one-liner stating that they have a very low appetite for risk. It should typically be broken down into different categories of risk or asset types; for instance, it might detail the different appetites for personal data risk compared to corporate intellectual property marked as 'In Strict Confidence'. Each category should clarify the tolerance, the circumstances under which risk will be accepted, and who is authorised to sign off. I’ve seen some exceptionally well-drafted risk appetite policies that provide clear direction. Once in place, any risk review can easily understand the boundaries within which they can operate and determine whether the controls for a particular context are adequate. I’ve also seen many that are so loose as to be unactionable or, on as many occasions, have not been able to find a risk appetite defined at all. In these situations, there is no clear way of determining 'How much security is enough'. Organisations operating in this zone will frequently still have to meet regulatory requirements and individual customer or market expectations. However, this regulatory or commercial risk assessment can take the existing strategy as the starting point and review the relevant controls for compliance. That may prompt an adjustment to security in certain places. But when challenged, you can defend your strategy because you can trace decisions back to the negative outcomes you are attempting to prevent — and this intent is in everyone’s common interest. Conclusions Which zone does your business occupy? It may exist in more than one — for instance, mainly aiming for a specific security maturity in the Ad Hoc zone but reinforced for a particular customer. But which is the dominant zone that drives plans and behaviour? And why is that? It may be the right place for today, but is it the best approach for the future? Apart from the 'Bucket of Sand' approach, each has pros and cons. I’ve sought to stay balanced in how I’ve described them. However, the most sustainable approach is one driven by business risk, with controls that mitigate those risks to a defined appetite. Regulatory compliance will probably constitute some of those risks, and when controls are reviewed against the regulatory requirements, there may be a need to reinforce them. Also, some customers may have specific standards to meet in a particular context. However, the starting point will be the security you believe the business needs and can justify before reviewing it through a regulatory or market lens. If you want to discuss how you can improve your security, reduce your digital risk, and face the future with confidence, get in touch with Tom Burton, Senior Partner - Cyber Security, using the below form.