Fixing The Broken Fence

Have you ever taken the time to ask yourself, “What is the largest complaint you have about your technology vendor? It might not seem like a question anyone would ask regularly but it becomes vitally important if you are in the middle of a network outage or other business networking struggle. The best scenario would be to avoid network struggles, network outages, and maintain a healthy relationship with your IT vendor. So how does a business accomplish this?

Define Effective Communication for Your Project

The answer is in the concept of communications itself. If I were to ask the question “How do you win a game of chess” you might get all technical on me and begin to explain 150 different ways to move the pieces around the board but the simple answer is “Play the other player’s move”. Put yourself in their position and find your strengths and vulnerabilities. This is the relationship required for an IT company to successfully design, implement, and manage a corporate data network. All too many times the most important business application details are left undiscussed and undiscovered in the early parts of the vendor selection discussions. This is not the singular fault of one party or the other. The fault lies on both sides of the broken fence.

Define Project Expectations

The first expectation in any technical solution should be asking many deep and sometimes hard questions. It is the answer to the hard questions that blaze the trail to a successful technology solution. So many times, the IT salesperson is afraid to ask difficult questions for fear of imposing and the potential customer lacks the industry knowledge to expect a series of questions they may have not previously considered and may need to invest a fair amount of time investigating to find the answers. The first sign of an inadequate data network solution is a lack of qualified and difficult questions.

Over a period of years, CT Solutions has created a six (6) step technology process. The first step in this process is “DEFINE”. “DEFINE” is a thread that weaves through the entire technology design and solution process. “DEFINE” is a brick in the infrastructure of a flexible, reliable, secure, and cost-effective data network. “DEFINE” will either be the glue that brings the buyer and the vendor together or the fence that separates the customer’s desires from the vendor’s abilities.

Define The Value of Your Project

To provide some examples of the “DEFINING” process, customers may specify “I want a surveillance camera here or there” within their business location. Some may think this defines the customer’s need but it lacks drastically. My response is “Don’t tell me where you want a camera, tell me what you want to protect” This approach digs deeper into the expected outcome of the purchase. It allows the buyer to state “I want to see the driver’s face” or ” I want to be able to see the value of the currency coming in and leaving the cash register”. It opens the conversation to identifying the real value and purpose of the product or service being purchased.

As mentioned earlier, the “DEFINING” process is a thread that weaves through the entire design and implementation process. To acquire a flexible, reliable, secure, and cost-effective data network, the buyer will need to answer several questions that step into their individual business philosophies. The answers to the philosophy questions are categorized as the buyer’s purchasing posture. Here are some examples of philosophical purchasing questions you may want to note:

• What value do you place on the security of your business data network?
• What type of growth do you expect over the next five to ten years?
• Are you looking to purchase-based on a capex or opex budget?
• What is your plan of action if/when your business internet fails?
• What value do you place on the customer’s experience when interacting with your business?
• Business communications technology is defined as business telephone systems, voice and web conferencing, and company website.

Although I would love to have the ability to cover every possible angle of describing the need to clearly “DEFINE” what you want to and need to accomplish, it is not possible. Every business and every data network is unique. This is what makes this aspect of a “Technology Architecture” solution so elusive and yet so important. And why it is so important to play from both sides of the table when in the process of identifying and negotiating with potential solutions providers.

Define Your Investment

It has been stated that time is the most valuable asset we have. If we choose to consider the time we will spend in “DEFINING” and building the business data network, we need vs. the potential lost time of dealing with a failed data network it is easy to say it costs less to build it right to begin with than to have to rebuild later. The ultimate goal of accurately “DEFINING” the wants and needs of your business data network with the solution provider is a long-lasting and solid business relationship. Who knows, you might even become friends.

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