Death by RFP
by Leo Berz
It's 4:14 on a Friday afternoon and you just received an e-mail containing the RFP you were excepting two months ago. Upon opening it you realize that it is 127 pages long, includes 565 questions, and is due back in 12 business days. Sound familiar; anyone who has ever received one of these is now recalling that all too familiar pit in their stomach and the angst of telling their spouse that their plans for the following weekend have just changed? While some (obviously not those on the receiving end) might ask “what is the big deal, vendors should be happy for the opportunity”, they fail to realize how counterproductive these unnecessary exercises really are. Now don’t get me wrong, there are times, (such as complex outsource agreements) when the RFP needs to be that thorough but the true value of a procurement project is in the actual results, and not the word count or weight of the requirement document.
To Infinity and Beyond: The Changing Telecom Environment
TelecomReseller December 6, 2012 // Leo Berz
While I have no doubt that our friend Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story had something in mind other than Telecom Expense Management (TEM) when he first uttered those now famous words, “To Infinity and Beyond,” I still think it’s applicable to the discussion of telecom. Most of us early TEM adopters who helped shaped the industry in the late 80’s and early 90’s thought that TEM was the end all approach to controlling telecom costs, but we were proven wrong as our world started to change.
Your Network Has A Voice
TelecomReseller March 15, 2013 // Leo Berz
Have you noticed how under-appreciated your voice network is? No one ever tells you that you’re doing a great job and how thankful they are that their phone works flawlessly. But what happens when there is static, garbled voice, low levels, echo, or dare I even mention NO DIAL TONE? You’re likely in for a bad day.
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The value of a Consultant
by Leo Berz
I once heard the definition of a Consultant is “someone who uses your own watch to tell you what time it is”. Like any profession, there are good consultants and bad, ones who do little more that take your money and ones who provide immense value for their services. When it comes to procuring telecom services why use a consultant at all; most companies have been doing fine without one for all these years, right? read more