Sprint: Expanding Leadership through Applications Management Outsourcing
Due to Sprint’s success in the ever-growing telecommunications market, it decided to outsource specific areas of its business to Capgemini, increasing its speed and flexibility in the marketplace.
As a result, with more time to focus on its core competency, Sprint has been able to increase its flexibility and speed in the marketplace. Working with Capgemini provided Sprint with less risk, increased efficiency, and higher speed to market, giving it more flexibility in meeting its customers needs.
Client Profile
Sprint is a global communications company serving more than 26 million business and residential customers in over 70 countries. With approximately 80,000 employees worldwide and more than $26 billion in annual revenues, Sprint is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying state- of-the-art network technologies, including the United States’ first nationwide all-digital, fiber-optic network.
Sprint’s award-winning Tier 1 Internet backbone is being extended to key global markets to provide customers with a broad portfolio of scalable IP products. Sprint’s high-capacity, high-speed network gives customers fast, dependable, nonstop access to the vast majority of the world’s Internet content. Sprint also operates the largest 100-percent digital, nationwide PCS wireless network in the United States, already serving the majority of the nation’s metropolitan areas, including more than 4,000 cities and communities.
Sprint comprises the FON Group and the PCS Group-representing the company’s wireline and wireless businesses. The FON Group operates Sprint’s core wireline telecommunications operations, which include long distance; local telephone and product distribution; and directory publishing businesses.
Sprint announced a series of key strategic initiatives to continue to build Sprint PCS into a wireless powerhouse and transform Sprint’s FON Group into a data-centric operation.
Business Issues
The telecommunications industry is constantly evolving, and customer demand and technological innovation require the leading players to adapt and respond quickly.
Sprint’s management recognized that its expanding leadership within the industry, coupled with rapidly rising consumer demand, meant that Sprint no longer selected to manage all aspects of its business internally.
At the same time, various business growth initiatives created a need within Sprint’s Long Distance Division to engage the services of an outside supplier. Capgemini was selected to rapidly expand the development of software, support production, and complete capacity testing.
A primary requirement of this engagement was to free up key members of the leadership team to allow them to focus on Sprint’s core competencies.
Solution
Capgemini’s solution was to provide Sprint with onr million project hours to address the following:
Technology Infrastructure and Operations: Support Sprint’s technology infrastructure on a 24x7 basis to effectively deliver the required capacity. Additionally, establish an efficient management structure to address administrative support, operations staffing, financial management, and facilities management.
Real Estate and Facilities: Leverage Capgemini’s proven experience with Application Development Centers to design and build specific facilities that will foster a high performance environment-creating space on Sprint sites for business expansion.
Human Resources: Structure Capgemini’s staffing according to Sprint’s competencies to promote adaptation and growth, in tandem with technologies and business needs. The focus was on retaining employees and developing subject matter expertise to be able to offer staff with specialized skill sets.
The service packages provided were varied, but encompassed the entire systems lifecycle, including: analysis, design, development, testing, implementation, as well as post-implementation and production support, technology transfers (new hardware or software platform), and supplemental resource staffing.
These center-based services are being delivered primarily from Capgemini facilities in Chicago and Irvine, Calif., which are connected to Sprint’s infrastructure. There is also an on-site component that includes resources working within Sprint facilities in Kansas City and Dallas.
Capgemini successfully deployed 520 dedicated staff to the established development centers in less than nine months, and completed more than 200 client assigned projects in the first 12 months of the five-year project.
Benefits
The successful transition of applications, accompanied by consistent delivery, has provided Sprint with the ability to reposition its own critical resources to pursue strategic projects within its core competency.
The structured staffing approach enabled Sprint to increase its flexibility and speed in the marketplace. Having the ability to exchange resources meant that experts could be staffed quickly with no extra cost.
Access to special skills at Capgemini has supported the transformation of Sprint-providing less risk, increased efficiency, and higher speed to market.
So seamless was this operation that Capgemini was recognized by Sprint as an extension of its organization.
As customer demand increases Sprint is well positioned to seize market share across many industry growth sectors. Sprint’s confidence in Capgemini’s ability to manage and improve elements of its business enables Sprint to retain a sharp focus on this demanding, yet exciting, marketplace.
Written in co-operation with Sprint Communications Company L.P.