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Procurement of video conferencing systems is typically an area where few people on corporate staffs have any deep experience, since the wide use of this technology is rather new. Features such as High Definition Video, computer desktop sharing, sound tracking cameras, and multi-point bridges need to be considered and evaluated. Our consultants manage the review, selection and contracting of a video conferencing systems suppliers. This eliminates the waste of dozens of hours of your staff time that can be spent meeting with salespeople and trying to decipher their varied proposals which often will contain what THEY think you need, versus what you REALLY need.
BCC is in the unique position to provide an unbiased function to manage the entire procurement process to help your company avoid being swayed by the sales skills that vendors can often utilize to motivate customers to buy “more than they need” with the resultant needless overspending.
The procurement of video conferencing systems can be outsourced to BCC in order to manage a careful and detailed analysis of your requirements as they pertain to the products and suppliers that are available in the market. When the selection is finally completed, BCC can also provide project management services to manage the installation and implementation locally or worldwide.
Your staff has more important things to do than to waste of dozens of hours:
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Determining your exact requirements |
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Soliciting proposals |
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Determining whether all your requirements have been addressed |
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Uncovering unnecessary line items being quoted |
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Normalizing data from various quotations for comparison |
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Obtaining industry benchmark data to be able to have a real negotiation of rates and terms. |
The deliverables are:
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Detailed description of your video conferencing requirements, both today and long-term to obtain quotations from vendors. |
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Analysis of internet bandwidth available at all locations that will use video. This includes average and peak bandwidth usage and total capacity. This is vital to determining whether you need to budget for additional bandwidth. |
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Presentation of the pros and cons of using present internet circuits versus provisioning dedicated bandwidth for video. The vendors will always want to sell you dedicated bandwidth, but you might not require it. |
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Creation of an implementation plan for video conferencing roll-out. This includes more than the technical aspects, but the training components so that the systems are utilized and a method to measure your reduction in travel expenses that result from use of this technology. |
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Management of the quotation and proposal process. This ranges from creating an RFP from your requirements to receiving the responses, normalizing results so they are comparable to meeting with vendors to judge their support capabilities. |
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Presentation of competitive quotations selected from those received by BCC. We present a concise document to give you all the information you need to make an informed decision for your company. |
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Analysis and recommendations regarding a single vendor versus multi-vendor solution. Your purchase decision should not be based solely on the bottom line price. Depending on the geography that will be covered by your system installations, it may be appropriate to utilize multiple suppliers. But you will never hear that from any supplier. |
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Analysis and recommendations regarding multi-point conferencing. It may be less expensive to out-source multi-point conferences, but many vendors will propose selling you the hardware to do this internally. |
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Recommendations as to the pros and cons of any potential vendor. Did you know that breadth of firewall expertise is as important as video conferencing expertise? |
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Final pricing negotiation and facilitation of contracts with the selected vendor(s) using BCC's proprietary benchmark database of pricing. |
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Participation in teleconferences with vendors to facilitate provisioning of circuits and new services. Project management with your company and its vendors regarding implementation of lines to assure a smooth and transparent process. The details of the execution are vital to success.
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