02The worked example: TLM Nexus
This is the finished story, exactly as it would go live. Read it alongside section 03 to see each move of the template doing its job.
Marine · TLM Nexus
Two renewals, no failed KPI: how TLM Nexus held a UK defence contract through open competition
| At a glance | |
|---|---|
| Vertical | Marine |
| Business unit | TLM Nexus |
| Engagement | Long-term managed software and consultancy partnership |
| Relationship | Active since 2020, currently in a renewed multi-year term |
| Assets managed | Aircraft structural, systems and engine information for a UK defence customer |
What does TLM Nexus do for this customer?
TLM Nexus built and maintains the information management system that tracks structural, systems and engine data across the customer's aircraft fleet.
The system replaced an older setup running on mainframe technology that had reached the end of its life and was not flexible enough for the customer's secure network. It covers fatigue management, airworthiness and safety in one place.
The original build delivered around two thirds of what the customer wanted, limited by what was affordable at the time. Once they saw what the tool could do, they expanded it. Engine data sat outside the system at launch and is now fully inside it.
Why did the customer renew instead of switching suppliers?
They wanted continuity and a supplier they trusted to deliver, and when the contract went to open competition no other bidder offered the same capability.
The existing agreement sat on GCloud 13 and came to an end. The customer chose not to single-source the replacement. They ran it competitively on the basis of what suppliers put forward on GCloud 14, and TLM Nexus won a three year term with a further one year option.
That took around nine months of discussions to land. It is also the part of this story that carries the most weight with a defence buyer, because a competitive procurement outcome is harder to argue with than a testimonial.
What results has the customer seen?
Uninterrupted availability, one place for all of the data instead of parallel spreadsheets, and reporting the customer can run themselves.
On availability, the system has not gone down outside notified downtime across the life of the contract, and the team has met every SLA and never failed a KPI. For a system carrying aircraft structural fatigue and airworthiness data, that record matters more than any feature.
On consolidation, all aircraft structural elements, systems and engines now sit in the one system. The spreadsheets that used to track engine data separately have been turned off.
On reporting, the reports have been honed to the point where the customer no longer raises a request to get what they need. They pull daily, weekly or monthly reporting themselves. The result is less maintenance on their side and fewer queries than the old system generated.
What makes TLM Nexus different from a large prime contractor?
Size and access. A specialist provider can be reactive and proactive at the same time, with a flexibility that a prime contractor's structure makes difficult.
The relationship runs across every level of the customer's organisation, from commercial contacts through to the end users on the squadron, rather than sitting at contractual arm's length with the engineering team only.
Consultancy and software development sit together, which means the operational problem gets understood before anyone writes code. Ex-forces people on the TLM Nexus team shorten that further. A traditional software company would spend considerably longer with analysts to reach the same understanding.
How does a long-term contract avoid standing still?
Regular customer reviews and a change management module built into the tool itself, so improvement requests come from the people using it.
Reviews run monthly and quarterly. End users are invited to speak about their own experience directly rather than everything passing through a management representative. Change requests are filtered before they reach development, so the genuinely useful ones get through and the rest do not consume the roadmap.
Both the platform and engine sides of the system have been through three rounds of change on that basis, and the reporting capability was rebuilt so the customer could self-serve. The next phase covers structural and systems enhancements the customer has already specified, plus safety factoring that applies an adjustment factor to unmetered sorties where a meter has failed, so fatigue life can be assessed retrospectively.
Customer quote: pending sign-off. No customer-attributed quote exists in the material on file. This block stays empty until TLM Nexus supplies one and the customer approves it. Do not substitute the TLM Nexus team's own reflections on the relationship and present them as the customer's words.
Related: [Marine vertical page] · [TLM Nexus business unit page] · Last updated: [publish date]