With well over 120 commercial VoIP providers in legal existence (meaning: they are accounted for, not working out of their garage, & paying their bills most of the time), it is nearly impossible for an IT Manager or CTO to make an educated decision on which vendor will best support their company.

Many teams are left with months of research and analysis by paralysis, only to be left with questionable market data.

The perceived Business VoIP leaders typically tend to be the Hosted VoIP companies with the largest advertising spend and market share. However, this has no bearing on whether a commercial VoIP product will be the best fit for your company.

Many companies (and yours is most likely no different), have a need for either multiple APIs, contact center features, niche software integrations, and ongoing support that is not a group of technical pretenders practicing their english.

Communications & cloud technology has placed a growing research burden on teams to decipher relevant product information.

82% of companies polled in 2017 say man hours spent related to procuring technology has increased drastically.

Aside from great presentations, skewed market data, and finely polished sales reps… There are five common mistakes that directors make when upgrading telecom systems.

Any clue what they are?

Mistake #1: Paralysis by Over-Analysis.

Going down the proverbial rabbit hole of provider research.

Directors can spend months here and at the end of the day you still don’t know what you don’t know, so how can you properly judge and sift valid information?

Have someone do this for you, don’t play around on google, asking your friends, searching Reddit… you need someone who knows the space and is “Carrier/Vendor Agnostic”. How do you really know who is unbiased?… long discussion for another time.

Mistake #2: Post Vendor Mismatch Leaves Managers with Tedious, Slow and Untechnical Support.

The Telecom world has probably one of the best trained sales forces in all of business. Even the most average, mediocre sales rep in telecom has been taught a deep understanding of human psychology and advanced sales models.

Going in without a plan and not understanding the presentation process can prove to be painful for years to come.

Map it out!

Mistake #3: Not Testing Enough & Ending Up With QOS Problems.

Never… Ever… Ever… Never Ever purchase without a POC. 

Test considerably. 

Ping Test, MOS scores, Latency, Trace Routes, from your network…

Mistake #4: Bad Quarterbacking.

Unforeseen Poor Project Management (Due to No Fault of Your Own) Creates Long Term Pain and Stalls Career Growth.

Mistake #5: Forgetting the End Users.

Struggling with END USERS and Failing to Gain Their Engagement, and Adoption of new technology is one the toughest and most neglected areas prior to purchase.

On top of these FIVE MISTAKES there is all the usual challenges:

▶︎ Which interfaces have easy to self-manage interfaces so you can move/add/change users on the fly?

▶︎ Which platforms are most upgradeable, have functioning APIs, and who will truly interoperate with your systems?

▶︎ Who is going to support your team the best, with fast technical support in minutes not days?

▶︎ Who is going to meet your compliancy requirements now and in the future with flexible user licensing?

▶︎ What about network preparation, ensuring Quality of Service, and properly layering voice applications?

▶︎ How do you confidently ensure a smooth cutover and avoid going in with your fingers crossed?

▶︎ How do you negotiate all the legal ramifications and FCC regulated SLAs that affect your terms & conditions?

▶︎ How do you know what your end users are thinking and how do you deal with explaining technical to people a thousand times?

▶︎ And Even if you have all this down… What do you do if you have LIMITED TIME to research, evaluate, and confidently plan a Network Communications upgrade that will surely impress your key stakeholders.

▶︎ Where do you get started in an ocean of vendors?

▶︎ Which provider mix is going to best fit your company’s culture, versus just asking your peers who they use?

Oh but there’s more…

Even if you eliminate all of the challenges and balance all these plates at once…

Even if you are given an endless budget to fix all problems know to IT …

What is left? (hint: security, lol)

Certainly not time, and most of us don’t have the luxury of an endless budget.

Well, THREE SECRETS to be exact… and I could probably dig up a few more, but I’m boiling this down into some Vermont, Grade A, Light Amber Maple.

Let’s go ABOVE & BEYOND what many fail to do already:

… Beyond the holistic Solutions Oriented Approach, (which you should be doing).

… Beyond network engineering

… Beyond industry benchmark lowest pricing.

… Beyond direct access to executive leadership at all of the providers.

… Beyond Telecom Brokerage.

… Beyond massive savings.

… Beyond common sense.

Let’s call it Provider Management 2.0 with extensive benefits.

What would it mean if you could get 3 months of work done in 3 days?

How about some proof?

What are things like right now?

Let’s imagine this crap storm below.

Does this project look like a 1 hour project?

Well… it can be mapped out in 1 hour and save you 3 months of research.

The secret is in doing more with less, and the single most important factor is the right partnerships.

Who do you know?

Who can help you?

The IT manager on this project above did nothing but say, “this is what I want.”

The crazy thing is that he got everything he wanted and freed up his budget.

Anyone could look at the mess above and say, “Hell yeah, I could fix that!”

But do you have the time amidst competing priorities and supporting end users?

Could you do it and save money?

The secrets:

#1 – Create your special teams & long term support strategy:

With the right team, unheard of things can be accomplished.

If you have friends on the inside, know the right engineers, and have a deep understanding of vendors revenue models then you can leverage all kinds of “done for you VIP support”.

Things like… network design… network testing… Visio drawings… discounts… escalation paths… and much more.

#2 – Secret Money. Play the game… don’t get played.

Yes it exists and all you need to do is ask. Telecom companies are known for buying awards, spending big money on advertising and press releases…. why not throw a little money your way for a steller rollout in exchange for a “REAL” case study and social media shout out. What if we could see in “REAL TIME” how a company’s install is going play by play (just a thought). It’s a great idea, don’t you think? My point is… get creative with your Quid Pro Quo.

#3 – Survey your end users from Day 1

This cannot be stressed enough.

I do this for all of my customers free.

I even go as far as to pick out key words and drill down on particular user language.

If an IT Leader can demonstrate active listening to his entire end-user culture… well… I find that to be just heartwarming.

What if you knew exactly what your end users were thinking… Before you rolled out the wrong product to them? I know right, but how many of us actually take this step first and then NAIL IT.

NAILED IT!!!

In summary… avoid the 5 mistakes by creating the right partnerships with the right people, win the game, and listen to your end users… before you make any changes.