Rainmaker Solutions

Commercial, financial and procurement services for cloud

Providing commercial expertise to support clients to procure Cloud-based transition, transformation and hosting solutions. Rainmaker will produce business cases to inform optimal business decision making. Rainmaker provide support throughout the whole procurement lifecycle and will ensure clients engage suppliers who will be strategically aligned and contribute to clients' business success.

Features

• Commercial specialists able to develop strategic, outline, full business cases
• Expetise in Cloud procurement through recognised commercial frameworks
• Effective procurements through best practice and tailored client service requirements
• Impart contract management practises for improved contractual relationship(s) and negotiation(s)
• Provide financial management insight in support of business case generation
• Provide end to end support through the procurement life-cycle
• Develop commercial and procurement strategies with accompanying sourcing strategy
• Provide expertise in ICT disaggregation and smart-sourcing
• Commercial and technical alignment for fully integrated change and transformation

Benefits

• Deliver options analysis with demonstrable benefits to support decision making
• Strong market engagement through clear sourcing strategy and soft-market testing
• Realise service and user satisfaction improvements from rapid supplier transitions
• Deliver financial savings from optimal disaggregation and contract management
• Improve client practises to deliver effective contract management
• Deliver flexible, outcome driven contracts with strategically aligned suppliers
• Support supplier negotiations to resolve service or contractual issues
• Provide outcomes that meet clients objectives whilst sharing commercial knowhow
• Integrated change and transformation encompassing technology, process, security and commercial
• Informed assessment of current financial, contractual and procurement landscapes

£395 to £1,800 a unit a day

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at tenders@rainmaker.solutions. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.

Framework

G-Cloud 14

Service ID

100283016511633

Contact

Tenders Department
0330 223 4407
tenders@rainmaker.solutions

Planning

• Planning service: Yes
• How the planning service works: Rainmaker can support you through your whole Cloud transformation journey, our highly experienced Commercial team will work with you to realise the operational, commercial and financial benefits of a cloud implementation.; We will work collaboratively with you to develop commercial and procurement strategies that align with your vision and values and establish roadmaps targeted to achieve your business objectives.; As a result of conducting commercial and financial analysis of your current and future IT estate Rainmaker will be perfectly placed to co-develop a sourcing strategy that enables the procurement of the target Cloud service at the optimal price and quality point, having established an evaluation criteria against which to make that assessment.; We will engage with suppliers during the bid process and commercial negotiations and clearly identify the risks and opportunities of the options available.; Our commercial and procurement method is proven, transferable and integrated with technology planning to enable change to be managed consistently to empower our clients.
• Planning service works with specific services: No

Training

• Training service provided: Yes
• How the training service works: At Rainmaker, we ensure our clients' teams learn a great deal throughout our engagements.; ; Our assignments usually include working in a joint team with our clients. We actively help to coach and train your staff throughout our engagements, through a collaborative and transparent approach. We like to colocate with your staff, and invite any member of your organisation to join our collaborative online workspace to work and create alongside us. We passionately 'work out loud', utilising the latest technology and embedding a co-creative approach within the team. ; ; Often we use a phased workload approach with clients, gradually reducing our team size as we upskill and transfer knowledge to members of your team. Digital literacy assessment is a significant part of our approach and we always ensure we are inclusive when performing training.; ; We help you improve not just your understanding of any given service, its problem, and its solution, but also how to be a digital leader, inspire a digital culture, and promote strategies more broadly in your organisation.; ; Learning doesn't stop at co-working: we also offer more formal training and coaching approaches. We can provide end-to-end training, refresher courses, knowledge banks for training materials, digital tools, and mentorship.
• Training is tied to specific services: No

Setup and migration

• Setup or migration service available: Yes
• How the setup or migration service works: At appointment, Rainmaker will perform a commercial and financial analysis of your IT environment and identify:; • areas of weakness and constraints – where you are not getting best results, ; • areas for improvement - where you may not be utilising the commercial aspects of agreements to their best advantage; • areas for cost saving – where improvements commercially may lead to financial benefits; • areas for change based on market opportunity and competition in SaaS, PaaS and IaaS.; • areas for rationalisation based on simplification and improved competition.; • market marking and market testing opportunities, such as disaggregation of large monolithic agreements; Utilising the analysis, we will propose options to address any findings/opportunities and develop financial models and business cases in support of the recommended direction.
• Setup or migration service is for specific cloud services: No

Quality assurance and performance testing

• Quality assurance and performance testing service: Yes
• How the quality assurance and performance testing works: Rainmaker will provide quality assurance and performance testing using a Service Design approach to accurately understand your business needs, and to align your business – internally and externally - with a value creating, innovative service.; ; Through service design research, insights and use of design-driven methodologies and co-creating alongside the business, we’ll design, test and build robust services that users need. The iterative design and usability testing will be a key integrated ongoing process, which will help your business achieve long-term, lasting, business transformation.; ; Delivering a minimum viable product helps gain consensus on the viability of the product or service, and allows user feedback to define and prioritise future deliverables.; ; We'll establish and manage an appropriate level of testing in terms of quality and capabilities of the service in line with program delivery plans, validation and verification of systems against user and business requirements.

Security testing

• Security services: No

Ongoing support

• Ongoing support service: Yes
• Types of service supported:
  • Buyer hosting or software
  • Hosting or software provided by your organisation
  • Hosting or software provided by a third-party organisation
• How the support service works: You may follow up this procurement advice support with Rainmaker's ongoing procurement and contract management support, ensuring that new services and suppliers selected can fully engage and bed into your organisation and operating procedures. We can help embed an open and collaborative multi-supplier culture, running or assisting with regular contract reviews, supply chain management strategy, encouraging continuous improvement from suppliers and helping to resolve any cross supplier pinch points.; We are always happy to talk with any client we have worked with on an ongoing basis to advise them of support of the wider estate.; Our support offering includes incident and problem management, capacity and demand management, service catalogue and request fulfilment, and service level monitoring.; ; We are always happy to talk with any client we have worked with on an ongoing basis to advise them of support of the wider estate.

Service scope

• Service constraints: NA

User support

• Email or online ticketing support: Email or online ticketing
• Support response times: We will determine an SLA that matches user needs in each case. Our minimum response time is 30 minutes and this applies 24/7/365.
• User can manage status and priority of support tickets: No
• Phone support: Yes
• Phone support availability: 9 to 5 (UK time), Monday to Friday
• Web chat support: No
• Support levels: We provide a range of support levels tailored to user needs. Support is available up to 24 hours, 7 days a week with minimum response time of as little as 30 minutes. ; ; We provide a Technical Support Manager to operate your contract and ensure our service levels are kept, and that you have regular dialogue with our team to ensure you are getting the service you require.

Resellers

• Supplier type: Not a reseller

Staff security

• Staff security clearance: Other security clearance
• Government security clearance: Up to Developed Vetting (DV)

Standards and certifications

• ISO/IEC 27001 certification: No
• ISO 28000:2007 certification: No
• CSA STAR certification: No
• PCI certification: No
• Cyber essentials: Yes
• Cyber essentials plus: Yes
• Other security certifications: No

Social Value

• Social Value:

  Social Value

  • Fighting climate change
  • Covid-19 recovery
  • Tackling economic inequality
  • Equal opportunity
  • Wellbeing

  Fighting climate change

  Rainmaker doesn’t operate fixed offices, meaning we are able to keep our core environmental impact to a minimum. We cement this through a series of sustainable decisions throughout our business operations, to ensure we look after our communities.; ; We offer all colleagues access to a Cycle2Work scheme, encouraging them to reduce carbon emissions wherever possible. We also promote remote working to reduce our carbon emissions from commuting and business travel. Where travel is unavoidable, we commit to offset carbon emissions either directly with the travel provider or through a third party scheme.; ; We have also actively chosen to extend the operating life of all technology devices, rather than replacing them on a regular cycle. By replacing only at the point of need, and not maintaining surplus hardware stock, we are reducing the consumption of new devices. When devices do need replacing, we return factory-reset devices to the manufacturer for recycling.; ; As members of CarbonNeutralBritain we are also actively seeking ways to minimise travel with our clients to reduce our climate footprint, and dramatically reduce the number of in-person meetings.

  Covid-19 recovery

  Our Covid-19 response included supporting people and communities to manage and recover from the pandemic’s impact, as well as establishing new ways of working and delivery of physical and mental health support services. Rainmaker provided critical, urgent support to organisations and businesses to manage and recover from the impacts of Covid-19 through expert advice, guidance, and tooling set up for a number of local authorities to enable remote and hybrid working, and supported the rollout of digital tools for organisations impacted internationally.; ; We have demonstrated this through both client engagements and our company culture:; - For Surrey Heartlands, we worked with CCGs, trusts, healthcare providers and charities to develop a portal for organisations to publish, market and track attendance to virtual wellbeing services, connecting vulnerable residents with critical mental and physical health services.; - Our chosen charity, The Buffalo Foundation, has supported communities severely affected by food shortages, furlough/redundancies, and changes in living conditions.; - Publicly released Remote Working Guidance in April 2020 and made this available publicly, enabling others to adopt a more flexible approach to working location to protect staff.; - Internally, we increased our support of staff through additional confidential calls, giving staff the opportunity to discuss worries and concerns related to the pandemic with additional support from independent HR Advisors.; - We also regularly remind staff to look out for each other in terms of stress response to the pandemic and continually consider their own mental, as well as physical, health; - To support a distributed staff network, we introduced changes that improve remote working and foster collaboration and community across the company. These include Monday check-ins, regular socials, virtual Rainmaker days, and guidance on using digital tools effectively.

  Tackling economic inequality

  Since our inception Rainmaker has remained committed to transforming economic inequality. ; ; We’ve done this at the very heart of government; Rainmakers were involved in the creation of GCloud - the open, transparent marketplace for Government to buy digital products and services - that disrupted the public sector procurement landscape, significantly reducing procurement costs and offering increased agility, value and achievement of outcomes. Over 4,200 suppliers are listed on GCloud, with £7bn+ services bought to date.; ; We have been advocates of supporting innovation, disruptive technologies and driving the adoption of new solutions to deliver better value for money and higher quality services for over a decade.; We have also earned an enviable reputation for helping organisations become genuinely adaptable and enabling, through disaggregation and disruption of monolithic silos, introducing transformed supply chains that bring lower cost, greater diversity amd or higher quality goods and services to clients including MHCLG, IOPC, FSA and Birmingham City Council. ; ; Furthermore, we know that the strength of any collaborative supply chain comes from shared values and principles not just at a commercial level but also between staff, customers and end-users.; ; Our long history of collaboration with other organisations as prime or sub-contractor to solve challenging problems has resulted in robust processes, values and principles that guide our engagement with clients and partners and outline how we collaborate throughout the engagement and beyond. Our experience includes:; - GDS’ Global Digital Marketplace, working as equal partners in a multi-supplier contract ; - London Borough of Croydon, leading five other suppliers to develop and transition to a new service model. ; ; Ultimately, Rainmaker exists to make a difference. We recognise and activity play our part in tackling social inequality wherever we can.

  Equal opportunity

  Since our inception, we have been committed to creating opportunities that truly transform lives and outcomes, whilst bringing brilliant minds into our workforce.; ; In the UK our current focus is firmly on unlocking the incredible resilience and thinking of our children looked after within our care systems, and enabling better opportunities to enter the workforce with skills in user research, service design, policy reformation and digital service delivery.; ; In South Africa, our focus remains on tackling the inequality that forces many young people to become stuck in a cycle of violence, crime and drugs. Through our academies, we actively intervene with education and sporting at key times to divert the course of the young person’s life and create new generations of brilliant minds in our industries. We do this through our active support of The Buffalo Foundation, a charity established by our founders and for whom we cover all operating expenditure.; ; Beyond our charity work, we actively support all Rainmakers involved in mentoring young people from disadvantaged backgrounds with opportunities to place mentees into secondments and contract roles, whilst also influencing staff, suppliers, customers and communities through the delivery of the contract to support disabled people by leading by example, ensuring our teams demonstrate the brilliance that enables diverse teams to deliver exceptional outcomes.; ; Finally, as signatories of the Tech Talent Charter, continuing to use (and contribute to) the Open Playbook to increase inclusion and diversity in the tech workforce, we're promote and advocate equal opportunity within our own workforce. We are also members of the Disability Confident scheme, ensuring we eliminate conscious and unconscious discrimination from our recruitment and supply chain practices.

  Wellbeing

  Rainmaker is committed to supporting the wellbeing of staff, associates and our clients throughout engagements. Our supportive, enabling culture is incredibly important to us and healthy team members are firmly at the heart of this. Mental health is openly discussed throughout the organisation, ensuring that staff feel able to take time off work to address mental health challenges. If the need arises, we support individuals to access services to address specific concerns. We have also introduced regular (weekly) online meetings to check in with and see how life - not just work - was going, to preserve our feeling of camaraderie and connectedness.; ; We encourage participation in charity challenge events which, as well as doing good in communities we support, has the additional benefit of promoting physical health and wellbeing amongst staff. We provide access to coaching and training plans to support staff that wish to take on a physical challenge. Such large challenges aren't always for everyone though, and we regularly promote the benefits of getting outdoors and staying physically active - especially with a distributed, remote workforce.; ; Whilst Rainmakers are used to working from any location and all capable of working from home, the impact of working alone is something we keenly monitor and mitigate. We've actively introduced opportunities to physically get together to refresh the bonds between individuals by providing opportunities for co-working days to encourage staff to meet up. We run regular all-staff 'Rainmaker Days' where we encourage participation from teams across all of our clients.

Pricing

• Price: £395 to £1,800 a unit a day
• Discount for educational organisations: No

Service documents

• Pricing document

  PDF

• Service definition document

  PDF

• Terms and conditions

  PDF

Request an accessible format

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need versions of these documents in a more accessible format, email the supplier at tenders@rainmaker.solutions. Tell them what format you need. It will help if you say what assistive technology you use.