Case study · Enterprise voice · RFI assessment
Assessing the enterprise voice market for a global bank
An independent RFI and weighted supplier assessment showed that no alternative had yet demonstrated a complete global fit, giving the bank the evidence to avoid a premature replacement decision.
Global financial institution
Challenge
A global financial institution wanted to assess whether its established enterprise voice environment could be replaced by a single global cloud communications platform. Any alternative had to work at exceptional scale while meeting demanding requirements for resilience, security, regulatory compliance, data residency, legacy integration and consistent service across diverse markets. The existing voice backbone also supported contact-centre and trading communications, so replacement could not be treated as a standalone product swap.
The decision affected an estate spanning 60+ countries, 200,000+ enterprise voice users, 25 lines of business and 80+ million voice calls a year. The bank needed an independent assessment of what the market could genuinely deliver and whether external cloud was the right strategic direction. It needed more than a supplier ranking or a compelling product presentation.
Operational scope
Evidence at scale
- 60+
- countries
- 200,000+
- enterprise voice users
- 25
- lines of business
- 80+ million
- voice calls a year
Independent market and requirements assessment
Approach
HiSynergy began with more than 25 structured interviews involving global heads of department and subject-matter experts. These conversations brought together perspectives from collaboration, networks, security and other affected functions to define the bank-wide challenge and reconcile the requirements that any global solution would have to meet. The discovery considered the operating-model and service implications alongside the technology.
Those findings were translated into a structured enterprise voice RFI and requirements framework designed to give suppliers the right context, a consistent response format and fair access to relevant experts. Careful management of questions, shared information and supplier sessions meant that five responses could be compared on a common basis rather than judged through product presentations alone.
The weighted assessment covered functional, non-functional, commercial, service and reference considerations. It included global carrier support, legacy integration, emergency calling, data residency, encryption, reporting, billing, support and performance in low-bandwidth markets.
Evidence-led decision
Outcome
No response emerged from the RFI as a complete, ready-to-select global replacement. Even the strongest proposal would have required a proof of concept and further due diligence before the bank could consider a change.
HiSynergy independently scored the five responses and managed the bank's RFI scoring process against the agreed weighted framework, creating a fair, consistent and auditable record of the comparison.
The assessment narrowed the field and established what would need to be validated if the bank chose to continue into proof-of-concept and RFP stages. No proof of concept or RFP followed. The ultimate recommendation was to retain the existing environment.
The result was a clear, evidence-led decision: replacement was not the right course at that time.
Facing a complex communications or technology decision?
Back to case studiesTalk to HiSynergy about an independent market and requirements assessment.