It is necessary to assess the proposed solution from an ongoing service perspective.

The critical components of this task are:

• Completing sales handover
• Conducting solution and operational review.

The sales handover, jointly driven by the Engagement Manager (Services) and the Bid Manager, must include:

• Deal review(s) or equivalent
• Contact list(s) and organization chart(s)
• Nature of the Client and Client’s expectations
• Transferring asset list (hardware and software)
• All proposals, presentations, due diligence reports and findings
• Service design and Service Engagement Model
• Delivery opportunities (both transformation and project)
• Outstanding tasks
• Client expressed priorities and expectations
• Topics where the Client required additional input or extended discussions
• Potential “unwritten” commitments that Capgemini may have made to the Client.

The Service Engagement Initiation Lead must review the proposed solution, with respect to all work streams, with Service Delivery Leads to ensure contractual requirements are understood and appropriately planned. The Service Engagement Model should be reviewed to confirm that the requirements can be met. It is also recommended to have a final review with the Client to ensure there is an agreement on what the requirements are, the acceptances of any deliverables, the level of detail to be delivered, the timing, and any other requirements associated with the activities.

The Service Engagement Initiation Lead also needs to walk through the proposed solution focusing on the technical components, the flow of information, and interfaces with other Client and third party individuals and their technologies.

The objective is to identify any risk areas that need early planning and focus such as:

• Old technologies that Capgemini is to assume which may not be under service contracts any more or for which getting license transfers may be difficult
• Technologies that may be challenging to support due to rare skills or set up due to environmental complexities
• Required interface points between disparate technologies or for which the interface was not part of the solution
• Overly complex Client processes in areas such as access, asset management, change management, etc.
• Operational Level Agreements(OLA) with third parties where past issues with the vendor occurred
• New services that Capgemini has not delivered in the past or a Service Engagement Model that has a new combination of services and service delivery locations.

A mitigation plan for each risk area needs to be prepared. Review mitigations with the Client where Client’s support is required and submit any scope change to the change management process.

The Service Engagement Initiation Lead must also collaborate with the Technology And Infrastructure Lead to identify the technology and infrastructure components required for the proposed solution and the service engagement governance at this stage.