Client Background
The client is a leading bank in Saudi Arabia whose enterprise middleware carries a very large estate of services connecting its core, channel and surround systems. With its existing integration layer approaching the end of its supported life, the bank launched a programme to move to a modern, containerised integration platform that could support REST-based services, automated deployment and stronger resilience. Midway through sourcing, the scope shifted from a like-for-like version migration to the new containerised platform, which meant the market approach had to be reworked without losing momentum. Cedar was engaged to run a rigorous, transparent selection of the best-fit system integrator and to provide governance through to procurement handover.
Cedar’s Approach
Cedar applied a structured, PMO-led vendor selection methodology built on a composite scoring model that weighted technical solution and commercial competitiveness 60:40, with the commercial scoring conducted independently by the bank's procurement team. The engagement moved through five modules:
RFP Reissue and Market Outreach – After the scope revision, Cedar helped rework the RFP and extend it to four additional integrators, taking the field to seven invited vendors. Five submitted detailed technical and commercial proposals, and Cedar ran clarification sessions with each to resolve technical queries.
Evaluation Framework Design – Cedar defined 11 evaluation areas with 36 sub-criteria and weights agreed with the bank: vendor overview, project experience, delivery commitment, environment deployment, migration methodology, support and DevOps readiness, testing, rollback and cutover, hypercare, team profile and reference checks. A 0–10 scoring rubric set out what excellent, average and poor responses looked like.
Solution Presentations and Consensus Scoring – Vendors presented their solutions to more than ten bank stakeholders across delivery, solution architecture, middleware development, quality assurance, application support, systems and programme management. Scores were agreed by consensus over more than ten hours of sessions and then moderated with bank leadership.
Reference Site Validation – Cedar conducted reference checks with banks that had worked with the leading contenders, testing governance discipline, delivery maturity, onsite accountability and post-go-live support rather than relying on proposal claims.
Shortlisting and Recommendation – Cedar consolidated the technical scores, documented the elimination rationale for each vendor that fell short, and prepared the leadership recommendation.
Strategic Outcome and Way Forward
Two integrators passed the technical evaluation with closely matched scores, clearly ahead of the rest of the field, and Cedar recommended them as preferred and backup suppliers based on their depth in quality assurance, CI/CD and REST enablement, migration methodology and cutover planning. The remaining three were eliminated for documented gaps such as missing rollback and cutover detail, no service classification logic, and deviation from the round-the-clock hypercare model the bank required. The bank gained a defensible, auditable selection record and full visibility of each contender's strengths and delivery risks.
The shortlist was handed to procurement for commercial scoring so the best-fit integrator could be confirmed on the combined score. Cedar advised starting master services agreement drafting in parallel with scope-of-work preparation to avoid delaying the programme, and holding detailed assessment workshops with the selected integrator before accepting the scope of work so that every technical and functional requirement is captured.