By Dan Baldwin, TA Executive Director, 951-251-5155 email
As many of you know, in addition to running TA I'm also an active agent. Late last year a business person I know personally and through LinkedIn contacted me to see if I could help him consolidate 200 phone bills he was receiving at his 38 locations. He'd recently gotten the job of the Director of IT. I told him I certainly could because TA has at least 6 vendor members that specialize in multi-location/POTs consolidation that would likely be interested in earning his business. After going through several boxes of phone bills I determined he was spending over $40,000 per month on the services he wanted to consolidate.
I interviewed my friend a couple of times to determine his most important needs which were:
1. Get just one phone bill . Their monthly phone bill spend was pretty stable but having to handle 200 phone bills a month by an accounting staff not trained to screen phone bills seemed like an improper use of his resources.
2. Have the bills properly reviewed. He inherited the phone and data design when he got the job. To simply authorize payment month after month for telco/data designs he was not involved in creating was easy but maybe not totally proper.
3. Save money. Interestingly enough, saving money for savings sake was not at the top of his agenda. He understood he needed to pay for the services of outside contractors that would invest resources to help him outsource a labor-intensive job. He did not want savings guaranteed, he kind of assumed that if the bills were being properly reviewed and streamlines then savings would naturally and appropriately follow.
So while I've not been involved in a whole lot of multi-location consolidation deals I had a pretty decent idea of how I'd go about getting bids for him. I'd put together a "mini-RFP" (request for proposal) and send it out to all the vendors I thought were experts in the multi-location space. Sending out RFPs though is a tricky business because as most telecom salespeople know, if you're not involved in writing the RFP, your chances of winning it are pretty low.
So how do I get six or more TA vendors to bid on an RFP? Offer them a shot at editing the final RFP. Following is the "totally neutral" RFP I created based on interviewing the client a couple times. (I honestly couldn't "spin it" if I wanted to because I've not been involved in closing alot of these deals.)
Invitation to Submit Proposal
Overview
Client is seeking to consolidate the 200+ phone bills it receives for its 38 locations and invites you to submit a proposal for "POTs consolidation" and ongoing management. To help us select a vendor to contract with, client is woking with Dan Baldwin an independent telecom broker through ATEL Communications and the Executive Director of Telecom Association. Below is information about our current situation and what we're looking for.
What We Have
Client currently pays just over $40,000 per month for their "POTs phone services" above and beyond what what their primary CLEC telecom provides. Client is reasonably happy with current CLEC (an integrated T-1 to each of the 38 locations) so that is not currently "on the table". Each location has its own phone system that was inherited or installed. Each location has a management engineer that is available to help understand what voice and data design is in each location and why.
What We Want
1. Invoice payment. Attached you will find a consolidated spreadsheet of our 38 locations noted with the various phone bills received by each location. We estimate that we pay over 200 phone invoices a month. The current invoice payment approval process is not standardized. We desire to have a single entity receive, document and pay all invoices or prepare and present us with a single invoice for payment. We would like to have an online customer portal so that we can review what has been received and paid.
2. Invoice review. We would like to know that each invoice is "scrubbed" for irregularities such as "cramming", unauthorized orders and/or services no longer needed. We want to feel confident that we are only authorizing payment for services we need, have properly ordered and are still actively using. We need the service find, claim & track refunds.
3. Centralized Help & MACD desk. We need a single location to field help requests and to log, follow-up and resolve trouble tickets for all services under management. We'd also like a centralized point of management for all move, add, change and disconnect orders. This centralized desk will work with client management to establish standard procedures for service procurement. On average, MACD orders amount to a couple dozen a year in total.
4. Centralized wire inventory, management & dispatch. We need to inventory and label all the voice and data wiring in all our locations. We need to order changes to our wire inventory and cabling plan through a central point of management. Most sites are very simple while others are not.
5. Regular design review. We need to review our current and installed voice and data designs against other design solutions that are available or coming onto the market to ensure that we are in and migrating to the most efficient and effective voice and data solutions.
Decision Making Process
Dan Baldwin will organize the proposals, field questions and provide requested information to the various vendors wanting to bid on our business. From the vendors that appear to be the most serious candidates we will request contracts. We will receive Dan Baldwin's guidance and then make a decision. We prefer to not sign an agreement longer than 2-years and will not sign an agreement requiring a personal guarantee. Our preference is to pay a monthly fee for services rendered as opposed to "shared savings". We have no specific preference about being with a bill management service or a CLEC. We want the management company to handle "all the bills", not just some or most of the bills.
What We Want from Prospective Vendors
Please share which of the five services above you'd like to provide, how you do it, and what your charge is for these services. Please schedule demonstration of any web-portal solutions with Dan Baldwin. Please also provide reference information for other customers that have similar needs to ours. We will look at the submitted information and then tighten up our final selection process. Once our final selection criteria is decided we will request agreements to review.
This mini or "Starter RFP" is being provided to TA's vendors that specialize in multi-location consolidation with the invitation to help upgrade its neutrality or even "spin it" in their direction. Part of knowing how to write a good RFP is knowing how to spot "spin" or how to add it.
The TA vendors invited to participate in this case study due to their known expertise in multi-location & POTs consolidation are BullsEye, EnTelegent, Ernest, Granite, MicroCorp, TeleSource & WCS.
If you're a TA member or vendor with expertise in multi-location and POTs consolidation, and you've got a good upgrade or "recommended spin" to this RFP above, please share it with a comment below and we'll be sure and give you 15 minutes of fame.
Dan, not an official member, but I can share what I would do to earn the business. First I would get a signed LOA and verify all of his services with each carrier. Second I would call every number to make sure they are in use and working. Third I make sure his rates are correct to the contract and USOC codes. I would also assit with architecture and design of more efficient network. Once we agree on technical design I would then custom write the RFP with many things we offer that are unique. I would get his bills straight on a single provider and reduce costs.
Posted by: Jeff Ott | 01/14/2011 at 01:04 PM
Dan, CRA is a perfect fit for all of his needs.
1. Their are many Carriers that will be able to provide a single invoice and an excellent portal. This is the easiest piece.
2. We would create an inventory to be used as a benchmark. This would be derived from the bills, CSRs, current agreements and physical site surveys.
The invoices would be scrubbed and any refunds owed we would pursue and collect.
3. Our internal helpdesk would take responsibility for all MAC and repair work.
4. We would provide on-going monthly auditing, quarterly technical design reviews etc. This can be done by yourself or our group..whatever works best for your client.
Our standard model is fee based, not "shared savings".
Again, this is an easy, common application for CRA's experienced staff. This is what we do.
Laura Bernstein
President
CRA Inc.
Posted by: Laura Bernstein | 01/14/2011 at 11:37 AM