|
The first time I ever spoke to Harry
Newton was back in 1978. My “Awful PBX Proposals” articles had just
appeared in BCR, and Harry called me up in the middle of the night
to see about using them as the basis of a book. He addressed me as
Mr. Goeller, and spoke very deferentially. I knew him, of course,
from his rather flamboyant column that ran as a regular BCR feature,
and I was tempted. But, for one reason or another, the articles
ultimately went into “Voice Communication in Business” from abc
TeleTraining. Years later, when Harry was starting Teleconnect, he
asked me to write a regular column. So naturally, this is what I
started off with in issue No. 1, March, 1983, where Harry renamed it
“A Consultant’s Lament.”
What Happened To
Those “Awful Proposals”?
(A Consultant’s Lament)
Way back in 1978, I wrote a series of
articles in Business Communications Review under the title:
“Those Awful PBX Proposals.” At the time, they kicked up quite a
stir; BCR got letters and phone calls, AT&T reprinted the first of
the series in one of their house organs, and many vendors and
consultants congratulated me. In the articles, I illustrated some of
the things that I, along with many others, had found wanting in
proposals for million dollar PBXs. With all the noise produced by
their publication, I felt very proud of myself as a dragon slayer.
Now everybody would be reasonable, do things my way, and we would
have proposals that permitted a business-like evaluation of
alternatives.
I’m glad I didn’t hold my breath while I
waited for the millennium. Because today, years later, very little
has happened. Most proposals are as vague and unhelpful as ever, and
communication managers and/or their consultants must spend many
hours trying to find out what is actually being offered, and at what
price. A small improvement is the inclusion of the address and phone
number of the vendor’s proposal person, who sometimes knows the
answers to some of the simpler questions, but more could be done.
What am I complaining
about? Well, let’s run through the list. Most proposals seem to be
prepared under the assumption that the most paper (often in classy
leather binders) and the longest feature list will automatically win the job. Further,
it seems to be a standard assumption that financial information need
not be complete, accurate, or even readable. And finally, much more
attention is given to platitudes about how glorious the vendor is
than to exactly what capabilities exist for maintaining the proposed
PBX over its lifetime.
Let’s face it, fellers. Most professionals
know that “modern” user oriented features are either unworkable or
actively dangerous (I have had to take Call Forward All Calls out of
user control on at least three PBXs), and all too often system
oriented features, such as ARS, CDR, Traffic Display, Directory,
Message Center, Inventory, etc., are either not satisfactory, not
workable, not ready yet, or are not included in the price. Further,
a pro is going to run vendor pricing through a computer to do two
things: verify the arithmetic and let a standard spread sheet
program act as a check list for omissions. So it does not make sense
to leave out trunks, power, insurance, EDP and other items, just to
come in with a low figure for initial cost.
And finally, why is
continuing support such a mystery? Biographies of a vendor’s
maintenance force may be more important to the customer than bios of
the president and other salesmen; indeed, the ratio of techs to
salespeople may turn out to be the most important single number the
customer should know. Further, the parts stock-pile may, from the
customer’s point of view, be the most important part of the vendor’s
business investment, even if it doesn’t show up in the vendor’s credit rating. It
is also nice for the customer to know, if the PBX has remote
maintenance capability, who will be on the far end and what that
person will actually do.
After more than fifteen years as a customer
and a consultant, I’m still waiting for a good proposal. But the
thing cuts both ways. The RFPs from customers are sometimes pretty
awful, too. We’ll look at that topic in our next thrill-packed
adventure.
[ Top
] [ Next ] [ Table of Contents ] |
