Below is part two. Do you have part three and part four Apollo Tech Solutions Case Study Part Two The deadline for submitting proposals was 8 April 2012 and Arnott was looking forward to receiving three submissions from the consulting firms. He cleared his diary and arranged the meetings for the following two weeks. Ferguson & Co and EuroComms Solutions came back immediately with dates to present their initial proposals to him; however, ITL seemed very reluctant to agree to time. Finally, Arnott was contacted by the Senior Partner in their Strategy Division with some unwelcome news. ITL had decided not to bid for the project. Even though Arnott had negotiated what to him seemed like a large budget, ITL were not prepared just to do the first stage. They would only be interested in the project if it included implementation, and thus a budget of about three to four times larger. Although disappointed, Arnott understood their decision and appreciated their honesty. So he was left with two to choose from. Arnott wanted the two consultancies to have credibility in the ICT sector, including detailed market knowledge and evidence of effective strategy development programmes, which were critically evidence based. First up was EuroComms Solutions that brought an impressive list of former and current clients in the ICT sector around Europe across a broad range of functional areas. They continually emphasised that their market knowledge was second to none but said very little about the impact that their projects had had on their client businesses. This made Arnott a bit suspicious about their ability to deliver the competitive advantage sought from this project. Ferguson & Co, on the other hand, were well prepared. They offered key insights into the ICT market and the use of their dedicated Knowledge Centre to provide quick and detailed market analysis. They also clearly demonstrated how they had helped companies define and implement new strategies. Arnott was impressed with them, particularly when they appeared to offer a success fee in the form of a payment based on profit growth. They also came in on budget for the project, which was to last six to eight weeks based on a core team of six from their side and an internal team of four from Apollo. There was just one slight niggle in the back of Arnotts mind. Ferguson & Co had presented this as the first stage in a process with the clear implication that they would continue on with the implementation. He also later learnt that their apparent appealing offer of a success fee was dependent on Ferguson & Co doing the whole project. Like ITL, they said this would be in the order of three to four times the original estimate.