VocalPoint Consulting will meet with the stakeholders of your company in order to determine a solution that meets all of your project requirements. Our goal is to find, source, design, and implement the best solution at the best possible price and terms. Below is a synopsis that outlines our process that we’ll go through with your team and the deliverables that we’ll be accountable for.
Our process starts with a discovery meeting where we take a deep dive into your technology requirements and business drivers. It is critical at this meeting to have all of the company stakeholders involved since each business unit will have different requirements and may use the technology, and the subsequent data and analytics created by the solution, differently. This will help us to create unity within your team to drive toward a common goal. Depending on the size and scope of the project, this phase may take more than one meeting in order to gather all of the necessary information.
We will use the information gathered to create a preliminary Scope of Work that will outline all of your requirements along with our recommendations to achieve the desired results. Depending on the type of project, the SOW may include network analytics, preliminary designs, and an initial list of recommended suppliers that can meet or exceed all of your requirements.
After the SOW is delivered, we will schedule a meeting with your team to ensure that everyone involved is in alignment with the technical requirements of the project. This may include a whiteboard session as well as additional meetings with department leads to gather the final technical requirements. Once we agree on a final solution design, we’ll share this design with engineers of potential suppliers to make sure that they are comfortable with their ability to execute.
VocalPoint will work with your team to run point on vendor meetings and advocate on your behalf. We will help drive demonstrations and discussion around each vendor’s abilities to meet your technical requirements of the project. Our team will make sure that the discussion stays focused and on point.
It’s typical that things will change based on the initial SOW and the information that is gathered throughout the process. This is where we’ll take all of the information gathered thus far along with the solution design and narrow our search to a couple of solution providers that we believe can meet or exceed those requirements. In our final SOW, we will provide a comparison of the vendors based on the information gathered, their demonstrations, and your criteria.
VocalPoint will work with the final one or two vendors to negotiate pricing including available rebates and incentives. We will also look closely at their Service Level Agreements and negotiate any necessary changes and modifications that may need to be made to the SLA. Our team will also provide recommendations on additional addendums that may need to be added to the terms and conditions such as “Performance Clauses”, removal of “Evergreen Clauses” and “Renewal Terms”. If outside counsel is required, we’ll provide access to our attorneys to work on your behalf.
All of the service providers will tell you that they have project managers assigned to each installation. The problem is, these PM’s usually have 10 or 20 other projects at a time and they’re only focused on what their company is providing. What about the other solution providers and vendors that may be involved. How do you tie it all together so that the project is cohesive and no balls are dropped? VocalPoint will overlay our Project Management on every implementation to ensure that deadlines are met, vendors are in communication with each other, and each provider stays on task. We’ll also keep your service provider honest and make sure that your company gets the solution that you paid for and that the solution functions as promised. VocalPoint will make sure that your project goes from visual conception to functional application.
Once the solution is installed and your staff has been trained, VocalPoint will provide ongoing support to your business should any needs arise around escalations and support. Whenever a trouble ticket is opened, we’ll help with escalation support to make sure that problems are solved in a timely fashion.