Don’t have time to take on another major project?

 

Is it time to replace your existing phone system?

 

If you’re like other IT professionals that we have worked with, you are BUSY!

There are always more projects than you have time for.  And changing out your voice communications technology is one of those highly visible projects that impacts all of your users.

You have to get it right. 

But how are you going to find the time to do the research needed? Or document your requirements? 

And writing an RFP (Request For Proposal) will take a lot of time and effort. 

Even if you find a template on the internet, can you trust it?  Who knows the expertise of the person who wrote it?  What did they leave out?  Is it biased towards a particular solution?

 OR

Skip the research project. Don’t worry about creating documents. Instead, use the fast lane.  Engage an unbiased advisor who knows the marketplace and already has created the tools your need.

We have done hundreds of similar projects, successfully.

We can save you tons of time, because we know the marketplace and what capabilities are currently available.  We know the players and what they have to offer. So you don’t have to spend time doing research.

We have developed and refined documents and tested our processes repeated. We make improvements as technology and the marketplace changes. You don’t have to create them from scratch.

Let us do the heavy lifting for you

 

Swartz Consulting offers independent advice from experts who never sell you any products. We help you find the right solution, and make the process easy for you.

We have worked with many clients to sort through the sea of solutions and find the right one for them.  And we often serve as project managers through the implementation process.  We know how the solutions work and their strengths and weaknesses. 

How can Swartz Consulting make things easier for you?

• You don’t have to do a lot of time-consuming research.
• You don’t have to develop
  • Tested documents
  • Proven processes
  • Knowledge and experience
• When you invest in our services, we bring these things to you.

Using Our Processes and Documents

Without Us

Meet with our team to mutually create a plan Fill out our Current Environment document Schedule meetings with key stakeholders and users to determine new system requirements Review the Needs Analysis document that we prepare to ensure that we are correctly stating your requirements Answer questions we may have as we create the RFP for you Review the RFP document that we created Attend the bidder’s meeting that we conduct for you Answer any questions from vendors that we cannot answer on your behalf.  We gather everything and send out the answers to the vendors for you. When proposals are submitted, we will evaluate them and provide a comparison of the options for your review If additional information is needed we will contact the vendors and obtain it Review the 5-year pricing comparison we have created for you

Do an internet search and grab some documents Review docs and choose one for a template Start trying to fill in with your stuff, until something doesn’t make sense or you don’t have the info needed. Get stuck. Do some research—what do these terms mean? What solutions work well now? Who are the players? Figure out what you need in a new system. Who do you talk to?  What do you ask? Figure out what’s available in new systems.  Do you ask the vendors and then endure a sales pitch? How many do you have to see before you know enough to keep going? Revise what you need Get phone and license counts What kind of phones do you need? What kinds are available? Each vendor is different. How do you get counts? What is included in the various types of licenses? Again, each vendor is different. How may do you need of each type? Does your company have any standard terms and conditions to include? If not, what should you put in to protect your organization? How should pricing be submitted to get something to compare? (more web research—are there forms out there we can use?) Write the RFP. What should you include? How much detail? Send out the RFP. Which vendors should you send it to? Who should you avoid? Conduct a bidder’s meeting Gather questions from the vendors, answer them, and send out the answers to all vendors Receive proposals. Read and evaluate them.Compare and contrast proposals—how do they stack up? Was anything left out? Prepare questions for vendors if needed, send them out, track responses. Add new information to update comparison Prepare 5-year pricing analysis

 

 

Put our knowledge to work and save precious time.

 

How can you be sure that Swartz Consulting is truly vendor agnostic? 

We demonstrate our independence through membership in the Society of Communication Technology Consultants (SCTC), the premier organization of ethically based, professional, independent communications technology consultants. Members are required to be independent and are prohibited under the SCTC Consultant Code of Ethics from selling any product or service other than independent services.

You can find our statement of ethics here. 

How do you know that Swartz Consulting is qualified to guide you?

As veterans of hundreds of projects, we have the experience required to guide you through your phone system replacement project. Melissa Swartz has presented at Enterprise Connect on topics such as:

          Staying Clear of Cloud Migration Land Mines

          Avoiding the "Gotchas" in a Cloud Migration

          Practical Advice for Navigating SIP Trunking

          Top 4 Pitfalls to Avoid When Implementing SIP Trunking

 

            

Regular Contributor                                        Expert speaker                            Member of the elite

            to NoJitter                                           at Enterprise Connect                 BC Strategies experts