Jun 25 2009   3:37PM GMT

Tips for negotiating a managed services contract - the vendor selection process

Posted by: Troy Tate
managed services, contract negotiation, strategy, management, support, cost reduction, vendor management, vendor selection, sla, service level agreement, negotiation, rfp, proposal, request for proposal, project management, project work breakdown schedule, wbs, technical requirements, technical vendor management, evaluation, vendor evaluation

You have now received back the proposals from the vendors based on the RFP that you built according to the RFP anatomy described previously.

Maybe you forgot the steps before the RFP. You can go back and review:

The first post in this series covered two questions: Where are you? and Where do you want to go?

The second article in the series described the calendar of events or how many shopping days do we have?

This third article in the series covered the actual RFP (request for proposal) anatomy and contents.

This final posting will discuss the vendor selection process - planning for the wedding (or engagement).

Let’s get talking about vendor selection and awarding the contract! Continued »

Jun 24 2009   2:00PM GMT

Tips for negotiating a managed services contract - anatomy of an RFP

Posted by: Troy Tate
managed services, contract negotiation, strategy, management, support, cost reduction, vendor management, vendor selection, sla, service level agreement, negotiation, rfp, proposal, request for proposal, project management, project work breakdown schedule, wbs, technical requirements, technical vendor management

The first post in this series covered two questions: Where are you? and Where do you want to go?

The second article in the series described the calendar of events or how many shopping days do we have?

This third article in the series will cover the actual RFP (request for proposal) anatomy and contents.

The fourth article will discuss the vendor selection process - planning for the wedding.

Hopefully you are now ready to dive into the RFP itself. Continued »

Jun 15 2009   8:45PM GMT

Tips for negotiating a managed services contract - how many shopping days?

Posted by: Troy Tate
managed services, contract negotiation, strategy, management, support, cost reduction, vendor management, vendor selection, sla, service level agreement, negotiation, rfp, proposal, request for proposal

The first post in this series covered two questions: Where are you? and Where do you want to go?

This second article in the series will describe the calendar of events or how many shopping days do we have?

The third article in the series will cover the actual RFP (request for proposal) anatomy and contents.

Continued »

Jun 12 2009   2:29PM GMT

Tips for negotiating a managed services contract - where are you and where do you want to go?

Posted by: Troy Tate
managed services, contract negotiation, strategy, management, support, cost reduction

IT is not the first business of a manufacturing company. Nor is it very high on the list. Having said that, a lot of manufacturing (and other organizations) use various managed IT services. I will be writing a short series on how to negotiate managed IT services for your organization.

This first posting starts with two questions. Continued »

Feb 25 2009   2:30PM GMT

Did you see this? - The Cheapskate’s Infosecurity Toolbox

Posted by: Troy Tate
information security, infosecurity, tools, toolkit, management, research

This may be a couple of years old, but the need for infosecurity tools and requirements for cheap solutions has not changed. This was first published in the CSO magazine in 2006. The tools have only gotten better since then. Hope you can find some use for the tools that it recommends in these trying budget & resource times.

The Cheapskate’s Infosecurity Toolbox

Thanks for reading & let’s continue to be good network citizens!