(The Art of Buying) RFP/RFQ Building Blocks Presented by: Emily Nielsen, President

Outline Who is Nielsen IT Consulting Inc? Current Market Place What goes wrong with RFP/RFQ’s? Preparation: Strategy and outcome Organize your thoughts/requirements Mandatory Requirements Legal and procurement policies One envelope or two? Pricing separate Current State Proposed State Vendor Background Support Criteria

Nielsen IT Consulting Inc. Established in 1999 Independent Consultants Professional Buyer Specialize in Voice Services-IP Telephony/Wireless/Contact Centre/IVR……… We offer A to Z professionals services Assessments to Project Execution. Assessments lead to RFP/RFQ’s

Current Market Conditions In General - tough 10 years Y2K /Internet Bubble Bust/ Slow adoption to VoIP- UC…..to Recession strong sales-analogue to digital-voic Recession: US recession –Businesses are not purchasing new systems US impact on Canada Few private sector organizations are making significant investment in infrastructure improvements-unless EoL notification Majority of work is public sector Healthcare- Infrastructure Ontario Program Summer Boost of Sales-HST 5% -13%

Current Market Conditions strong sales-analogue to digital-voic ,500 Employees World Wide ,000-Frank Dunn’s Staff reductions Stock dropped $124 share to $.47 Jan 14, 2009-filed protection from Creditors

Current Market Nortel Bankruptcy Flurry of activity - do basic upgrades in order to get system to current release Wait and see No new applications - status quo Vendors: Nortel practices for years – take on new project offerings – Cisco, Mitel, Shortel Avaya message has been confusing - Nov 3rd

Result Many bids – mixed results Sales have been slow – vendors are less picky Traditional Nortel vendors are proposing new products with no experience or references Open bids without prequalification will result in mixed responses

The Perfect Storm Slow Sales past decade year old equipment Dominant Player Gone- Nortel UC is no longer a luxury – basic requirement Shortage of resources

What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong! Starts with a poorly prepared RFP/RFQ Many RFP/RFQ’s are simply too open, too loose Therefore, the responses are too broad and are hard to compare Apples to oranges, not apples to apples Impact, causes delay and create confusion with vendors and clients Ontario College: No quantities, no description of what they currently have. Futures – Vendors are unclear what are real opportunities or simple inquiries.

What Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong! Many RFP/RFQ’s are simply too open, too loose (con’t) Why? Evident that author is inexperienced to process and technology/services they require Public sector – outsources purchasing process to organization that is skilled commodity procurement not strategic acquisition Result costly mistakes/disappointing results

Organization Have your thoughts organized. Requirements/Pricing/Support….. Demonstrates professionalism Shows vendor respect Hospital: 80-+ separate attachments/documents-extreme case Everything should be in one document. Other doc’s such as “Submission, NDA, Network diagrams, etc.” should be embedded in the master document

Current State: Visio Voice Network Diagram – high level Detailed inventory listed Including inventory/telecom rooms Visio Network diagram for data environment. Provide environment description – i.e. flat network, VLAN’s, QoS, PoS, etc WLAN- high-level building diagram showing existing coverage and areas needing additional coverage

Proposed Sate Provide network diagram showing end state With description Be accurate with your quantities. i.e. price 50 UM licenses / 50 concurrent agents licenses/ 700 voic licences/ 16 port auto attendant Include a growth factor – 5% Be clear what is a future verses today’s needs. Define short term and long term strategy/goals i.e. Virtualization, Green Strategy

Mandatory Requirements Be very clear Example: References: Must demonstrate experience in same technology and similar scope. Unionized Staff Identification of sub-contractors Relationships between partners must be defined. Insurances, etc. Not following the proposed RFP format. Question: Do any of these items give cause for “non- compliant” bids?

Procurement Policies 1. Sometimes you need to challenge current policies if it doesn’t make sense! Commodities verses strategic acquisition Latex? Read through your procurement templates/wording.

Procurement Policies 2. Internal Approval Process – required for project plan schedule. Don’t get caught short here and expect the vendor to rush the project in order to achieve deadline. i.e. occupancy for new building Be prepared for questions whose goals are to add clarification for senior management/steering committee Communicate to senior management during the entire process in order to minimize delays

Procurement Policies 3. Know your budget What are you able to afford Clearly define exact needs verses futures Capital verses “lease” Identify all cost – many elements not included in bid, such as construction cost/cabling, training budgets, etc.

Procurement Policies Single envelope verses two Pricing is final envelop? What if you simply can not afford it? What have you accomplished?

Vendor Background Do they have experience working in your vertical? Do they have experience working on the application that they are proposing? New to Canada – Investment? Client base? Sole source - or do they depend on partners? What level of dependency?

Support Be very clear on your needs What level of support can you depend on your own internal resources. Tier 1, Tier 2 or fully managed? What are you prepared to pay for training? How many staff can you afford to support your network? - Voice Application specialist. Technician – on site 2 hours? Or around the world 24/7? What type of sparing model will you use? Redundancy verses resiliency?

Thank you! CORPORATE NETWORKS 2011 MARK THE DATE! Jan 27, 2011 Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville For IT/telecom/operations/administrative/finance managers and executives. To discuss strategic, supplier, tactical, financial, technology issues. To move forward in the right direction. REGISTRATION OPENS NOVEMBER 1