Where does the commercial rigour come from when the deal actually matters? Deliver XP keeps your technology running. Our sister company, Xavient Partners, works on the other half of the problem: the contracts you sign, the prices you pay, the suppliers you renew with year after year, and the business cases you take to your board.
Xavient Partners is a Wellington based commercial advisory firm founded by Deliver XP co-founder Alan Jennings. It delivers independent commercial advisory, strategy and deal structuring for businesses across New Zealand and Australia. Because Xavient sits alongside Deliver XP rather than inside it, the commercial advice stays independent of whoever ends up delivering the work.
What’s included
Commercial advisory and negotiation
Senior commercial support for the deals that carry real risk. RFP development and management, commercial review and scoring, contract negotiation, pricing strategy, commercial risk assessment and deal structuring, drawn from experience negotiating more than $1bn in contracts across enterprise, government and startup environments.
Business case development
If the numbers do not stack up on paper, they will not hold up in the boardroom. Board ready business cases for technology investment, capital expenditure, new products and market entry, with the commercial rationale structured and the financial modelling behind it.
Virtual Chief Commercial Officer
Ongoing senior commercial oversight for growing businesses that are not ready to hire a full time CCO. Pricing strategy, contract and vendor oversight, commercial risk, deal structuring and executive decision support, on a monthly retainer.
Cost and IT expenditure review
A structured review of what you spend across IT, telecommunications, software licensing, energy, insurance, fleet and more. Spend is benchmarked against the market, options are put in front of you, and Xavient negotiates on your behalf. The engagement is performance based, so the fee is drawn from a share of verified savings. No savings means no fee.
IT vendor and procurement advisory
Independent advice on technology procurement decisions: vendor assessment, RFP development and management, contract review and negotiation support, managed service provider benchmarking, and procurement strategy. Useful when you are choosing a platform, committing to a multi year licence, or wondering whether your current arrangement still stacks up.
Governance, risk and certification
Board level governance without the full time hire. Virtual CISO and information security governance, ISO 27001 support from gap assessment through to certification audit, AI use and risk governance frameworks, and business continuity and incident preparedness including tabletop exercises for leadership. Where implementation is needed, Deliver XP delivers it.
New venture advisory
Commercial foundations for startups and new ventures. Entity and commercial model structuring, founder and stakeholder frameworks, go to market strategy, and early stage pricing and negotiation support, working alongside your legal and accounting advisors.
How an engagement works
- Discovery. One to two weeks understanding the pressure you are under, what has already been tried, and what success looks like at six, twelve and twenty four months.
- Analysis and market intelligence. Your spend benchmarked against the market, or your commercial landscape mapped for risk and leverage.
- Strategy and recommendation. Options and a recommendation in plain language, not a hundred page document.
- Execution and negotiation. Advice without execution is just opinion, so Xavient stays in the room for the negotiation and the implementation.
- Verification and handover. Savings are verified independently before any fee is calculated, and the outcome is documented so it stays embedded.
Cost optimisation work typically runs three to six months. Advisory and negotiation projects usually complete within four to twelve weeks.
Advisory
Xavient Partners is led by Alan Jennings, co-founder and director of both Deliver XP and Xavient Partners, and a Principal Consultant with ERA Group APAC. Alan is a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants trained finance and commercial leader who has negotiated more than $1bn in contracts and structured multi million dollar deals across enterprise, government and startup environments.
Before founding Xavient Partners he spent six years as a business partner for strategy, finance and policy at Kāinga Ora, where he led technology project reviews and cost optimisation initiatives that freed up several million dollars in cash flow across fleet, technology services and support services. Earlier he led the commercial function at Vodafone, supporting RFP and bid processes. Through ERA Group he draws on a global network of specialists covering more than 60 expense categories.
Alan works directly with every client from discovery through to delivery, and every engagement has an agreed scope, milestones and success criteria set on day one.
Read more at xavientpartners.com, or go straight to the full range of Xavient Partners services and how they approach an engagement.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is this different from Deliver XP’s IT strategy and vCIO service?
Our vCIO service plans your technology: what you need, when you need it, and what it will cost. Xavient Partners works the commercial side of the same question, whether you are paying the right price, whether the contract terms serve you, and whether the business case holds up. The two work well together, but either can be used on its own.
What does no savings, no fee actually mean?
On cost optimisation engagements there is no upfront cost and no budget required. Savings are verified independently and the fee is a share of what is actually saved. If nothing is found, you pay nothing. Advisory work such as business cases, negotiation support and governance is quoted separately as a project fee or a retainer.
Do we need to be a Deliver XP client?
No. Xavient Partners works with organisations whether or not they use Deliver XP for their IT. Equally, if a review identifies a change that needs delivering, Deliver XP can pick up the project management and implementation.
What size of business is this for?
Cost optimisation tends to suit organisations spending upwards of $100k a year across one or more supplier categories. Commercial advisory and new venture work scales from first time founders through to enterprise and government.
Get in touch to talk about where the commercial opportunities sit in your business.
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