Bristol Council asks Cambridge MC to review an existing Concession Agreement
Combining years of procurement expertise with legal advice to get the expected returns
The Council had placed their extensive telecoms duct infrastructure into a formal Concession Agreement with the expectation that the revenues due the Council, would power the city’s growth towards being ‘a city of hope and aspiration where everyone can share in its success’.
A few years into the agreement, the Council felt that it wasn’t getting the returns it had expected under the Agreement or that the Concession was delivering on the promises made to the Council at the time of the tender process.
The Council were looking for a review to confirm or allay their concerns, as well as assistance and guidance on managing any issues found.
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The
Strategy
In early 2018, the team brought its years of procurement and contracting knowledge to bear on the challenge by providing:
- A review of the Agreement and an assessment of the Concessionaire’s performance against its obligations under the Concession Agreement
- Advice for the Council’s legal team that, commercially, there was a challenge to be made against the Concession Agreement. The Council chose to issue a Notice of Default against the Concessionaire
- A concise calculation of monies owed to the Council by interpreting the terms of the Agreement and matching that back to the records of activity on the network
- Support for the Council throughout the review meetings with the Concessionaire, providing technical and commercial knowledge to the discussions and advising the Council on possible resolutions
- Stakeholder management by providing inputs and reviewing reports to the Council’s management team and in briefings to their legal team (both internal and external)
- A model for an industry-based method and level of charging for the Council’s fibres, used by the Concessionaire outside of the Concession Agreement
Knowledge & Skills
- Contract interpretation and understanding of contract law
- Understanding of the Government Tendering process
- Understanding of the UK regulatory regime for telecoms
- Knowledge of the telecoms infrastructure (duct and fibre) market in the UK
- Cost Management and financial interpretation of contracts
- Contract negotiations
- Stakeholder management both within the Council and with the Concessionaire
Outcomes & Results
01
Clear road map
While the process to resolve the issues with the Concessionaire are still ongoing, the Council has a clear road map as to how to proceed and a plan for what may eventuate.
02
Continue to support
Cambridge MC’s resources continue to support our client through the process.
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Industry insights
We were approached by a global networking systems, services, and software company that specialises in optical and routing solutions. Their technology helps carriers, enterprises, and governments build more efficient and scalable networks, particularly for high-bandwidth applications like 5G, cloud computing, and AI-driven networking. Africa is a key strategic market for this client. They are also playing an active role in advancing outlined 5G technology on the continent, emphasising a focus on routing and switching aggregation components, network slicing, and monetisation. The Opportunity The client engaged Cambridge MC to provide external insight and support to augment and accelerate the progress of their Go-to-Market plans for Africa. We proposed our in-house rapid Strategy Stress Test that delivers key insights across areas of your strategy using a 1–5 health-scoring matrix. The client's aim is to grow market share in the region with a precisely focussed strategy that targets their market with key propositions and solutions. We were engaged to review this strategy and their plans for the region, identifying critical opportunities and gaps with a quick turnaround. Approach We used our Rapid Strategy Stress Test methodology which provides: Target geographies, opportunities, and partners for resource effectiveness and success maximisation Assessment of client's Go-to-Market Strategy including identification and testing of key assumptions Identification of new opportunities and any gaps in the strategy Recommendations on how best to capitalise on the market and accelerate their route to success This included carrying out target addressable and client-addressable market sizing by country for the Optical, Data Centre Interconnect, Routing and Switching portfolios; competitor market share analysis; analysis of current and planned data centre build in the target countries; future trend analysis, including Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental trends by country. We put their GtM strategy and plans through our Stress Test framework, scoring capabilities against best-in-class – across 11 parameters such as Market Potential, Adaptability to Local Needs, Pricing and Marketing & Demand Generation. Recommendations were made against each of the 11 areas relating to opportunities to accelerate their GtM strategy. In order to support effective targeting of resources into key countries, we developed a country prioritisation framework across 15 parameters, such as GDP growth, energy supply, stability of regulatory environment, and ease of doing business. This quantitative assessment was supplemented with the real world experience of our Africa experts.
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