sla

Aug 12 2009   4:01PM GMT

Improve IT service levels at little or no cost - Microsoft’s Spotlight on Costs

Posted by: Troy Tate
cost reduction, cost savings, best practices, infrastructure management, technology services, service level agreement, sla

Microsoft has released a video & whitepaper series on optimizing an organization’s core infrastructure. This series reviews 31 best practices that can improve IT service levels at little or no cost. It seems to me that the series is obviously Microsoft solution-centric but the series may still be of use to your organization. Take some time and at least look through the 29 page whitepaper and see if the suggestions will help improve the top or bottom line at your organization.

How about leaving some tips or feedback here for other ITKE readers. Let us know what works and what didn’t in your organizations to improve service levels and/or reduce costs.

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

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 »