Nationwide Building Society: Maximizing value with the Microsoft commercial marketplace

Nationwide Building Society (Nationwide) is the largest building society in the world and the largest retail bank in the UK, with over 16 million members. With its headquarters in Swindon, England, Nationwide is the seventh largest cooperative financial institution globally which means they are run by their members, rather than corporate shareholders. Throughout its 141-year history, the Society has prioritized their members over profits and have actively worked to improve their community through initiatives that include fair housing, volunteering, and rewarding members with share payments.

As members themselves, procurement managers Christopher Duffy and Hannah Foote are keenly aware that the funds they manage in IT belong to members. Their primary challenge is to deliver best-in-class services quickly, while optimizing the value of every pound spent. With a requirement to consume cloud-based solutions, they partnered with Microsoft, signing a significant Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) over three years. This strategic contract helps them forecast budgets effectively and enables Nationwide to meet its contractual obligations while maximizing their cloud investments by purchasing Azure-eligible solutions through the Microsoft commercial marketplace.

The marketplace has become an indispensable tool for Nationwide to track their cloud portfolio. With comprehensive usage visibility across various software solutions running on Azure, the marketplace tracks Azure solution consumption, providing team members with a real-time overview to determine where new budget allocations may be necessary. “Without the marketplace we would be considerably behind on our forecast,” said Christopher Duffy.

In the event cloud usage drops below forecast, Nationwide can purchase Azure-eligible solutions on the marketplace that contribute toward their Azure consumption to help fulfill their cloud commitment and earn them discounts on their Azure infrastructure. For example, Nationwide is targeting a high-value contract worth approximately £9 million. Previously, they purchased directly from this supplier. However, by acquiring the solutions through the marketplace, they benefit from reducing their Azure commitment by £9 million, keeping them aligned with their forecast. Additionally, by negotiating directly with suppliers through the marketplace, procurement managers can execute contracts at the speed of business. 

Because Nationwide are the custodians of their member’s money, their reputation is paramount, making it a financially risk-adverse institution. When buying directly from third-party suppliers, they conduct rigorous background checks before entering into any contractual relationship, to ensure they meet their high standards. The process is arduous, taking up to 12 weeks. The marketplace mitigates this risk because every supplier is pre-vetted by Microsoft. Now, IT and procurement can choose from thousands of suppliers available in the marketplace catalog and move forward with confidence, knowing every vendor is a Microsoft partner. Pre-vetting not only ensures high standards but also saves valuable time, allowing Nationwide to operate more efficiently and effectively. “The marketplace eliminates painstaking supplier onboarding process, significantly enhancing risk management,” said Hannah Foote. 

Nationwide estimates that the marketplace cuts down the end-to-end procurement process by over 25%

Transacting through the marketplace eliminates the need for individual purchase orders (POs). This all-in-one, easy-to-use platform accelerates the buying process by removing administration time from both procurement and accounts payable, accelerating time to value. According to Nationwide’s procurement team, the time saved from vendor search to solution delivery is at least 25% throughout the entire procurement process. The ability to track all their different solutions in the marketplace means procurement managers can find synergies across solutions and understand where to make cost savings or reductions.

Harnessing the marketplace for innovative AI solutions

As technology continues to evolve rapidly, the marketplace enables Nationwide to procure the latest AI innovations from Microsoft partners. At the beginning of their AI journey, they turned to their Microsoft account team and the marketplace to identify leaders in the AI space to find solutions that would drive business value. By shopping the vast catalog of suppliers, procurement was able to pinpoint the top performers who could support their internal AI initiatives. For instance, when Nationwide needed assistance with cleaning up their data portfolio, they discovered an AI partner with the perfect solution available through the marketplace. This partnership was a win-win scenario because it not only helped them fulfill their Azure consumption commitment but also completely transformed how Nationwide uses data and AI internally. This new partner has evolved into one of their key strategic relationships today. And Nationwide is now utilizing Azure OpenAI to explore more advanced solutions to better serve members.

“I feel extremely fortunate to be able to work for a company whose mission is to improve people's lives,” said Christopher Duffy.  “The marketplace enables us to spend our members’ money wisely. It is central to every purchasing conversation. Procurement actively promotes this message across all IT departments. Whether it is purchasing new software, renewing existing contracts, or initiating new high-value agreements, the marketplace is the go-to method. It has become essential to our daily operations.” “I’m always looking for new opportunities to transact on the marketplace.” Christopher Duffy, Procurement Manager, Nationwide Building Society.

Hannah Foote emphasizes the growing opportunity of the Microsoft commercial marketplace, noting the increasing number of third-party suppliers onboarding to the platform. “Suppliers are proactively approaching us to transact in the marketplace to close deals faster,” she said, adding, “Personally, working at Nationwide is special because in our day-to-day roles we support people all over the UK and give back to the community. We'll continue to explore the Microsoft marketplace to deliver innovative banking solutions to our members. Its usage will only continue to grow in the future.”

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