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This is my first chance to write to you this year. I trust that you've had a great start to 2008, and with January under your belt' you're set for a successful year despite what the doom-mongers say!
At CVL we celebrate the start of our tenth year of trading. We've worked with a crowd of exceptionally talented business people over the last decade (you know who you are, we appreciate all your efforts and we are especially flattered that you choose to keep recommending us to your colleagues and industry contacts as it's been a key part of our success).
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We believe that our unchanging values stand on the side of the client, do the right thing, be innovative and always honest have served CVL, our Expert Network and most importantly our clients, very well indeed.
At a time of fundamental change in the structure of business and society, we feel proud and exhilarated to have earned our place at the heart of the UK plc's most innovative projects. We've been busy with e-commerce (nice to be part of our first billion pound online operation), logistics (literally, some of Europe's largest), media (we love Video on Demand) and acquisitions (£700m and counting). And Retail Financial Services? Here we come!
 Looking a little pasty-faced by Christmas, many of the team took a well earned rest over the break during which they travelled to the four corners of the earth. Well known for their sense of adventure, they didn’t disappoint and we welcome them back from adventures in Africa, Australia, America, New Zealand, Canada and Namibia (speak to Ray for stranded-in-desert story) and, of course, Whitby. Rob was more nervous driving to Whitby than Ray was driving across the Namib desert – you’ll have to ask him why!
Thanks to all who responded to our gaming challenge and competed in our light-hearted CVL ‘Pong’ online Tennis Tournament. Congratulations to lunchtime-playing, champagne winners Tony Pett (BT), Andrew Harber (Samsonite) and Mark Watson (Entertainment UK), as well as mature student Styve Chevalier who gave the competition a truly international dimension. The game will return in time for Wimbledon!
In this edition we're looking at Selecting the Right Technologies a crucial topic when choosing new solutions that are the most appropriate, flexible, scalable and, above all, the best value for your organisation.
I hope you find the content useful. If you have comments or would like to talk about any of the issues raised, call me on 020 7907 0200 or
e-mail: simon.clark@cvluk.com. We’ll include any helpful (or amusing) comments about your experiences of Technology Plans and RFPs in our next newsletter.
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All the best,
Simon Clark |
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‘Technology Plan’ may sound like more management jargon, but it is a vital component in the future success of your business.
Get it right and the personal and organisational rewards will be enormous. Get it wrong and it could be the most expensive mistake you’ll ever make. (And possibly the last you’ll make in that role).
Technology planning will save money; you will buy what you need and use your technology – be it IT infrastructure, online system or logistics platform – to accomplish your organisation’s mission effectively.
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Think through what you need and how you will meet that need, based on the relevant bit of your company business strategy. Plan the project stages against a timeline, taking into account the team members and resources you’ll need. Finally, implement the plan analyse tenders, meet vendors, whittle down the shortlist and select the best.
There are five key elements within the technology plan:
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Understand the underlying business strategy that relates to the project
- Identify the key requirements
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Investigate the market
- Write a Request For Proposal
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Select and negotiate with the chosen vendor
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“Remember: Properly done, an RFP can mark the start of a long and profitable partnership with a service provider.”
Writing better requirements
The RFP process is not entered into lightly. It needs the commitment of a dedicated team and support from your key players. Strong leadership is required throughout from senior business sponsors who provide the necessary resources and directly benefit from the end solution.
Without these the process is frustrating, protracted and inefficient. |
 There is an apocryphal story often told to illustrate the following: ‘Get the project specification right and the solution falls into place’. NASA, it was claimed, spent squillions of dollars developing a pen to work in zero gravity and withstand the rigours of space. The Russians used pencils.
Although the story is false, (see ‘Useful links’ for the whole story) we wish it were true for its elegant simplicity.
We’ve also sourced a box of the very Space Pens that the US company, Fisher, developed for NASA (Yes! It contains thrixotropic ink!). If you’d like one, just email us with your favourite RFP disaster or silliest acronym. Alternatively, if that all seems like too much work, just email us and we’ll give them away on a first-come first-served basis!
In the process of writing an RFP, the smallest error can lead to an enormous problem. Here we summarise the most commonly-committed mistakes:
- Poor understanding of the requirements and no agreement on the important issues
- Keeping information from the vendors in the mistaken belief they will use it against you in negotiation
- Lack of time to develop the requirements
- Delays which make the requirements obsolete by the time the RFP is published
- Lack of structure and coherence so the vendors don’t understand your needs
 We can’t delve any further into the RFP process without introducing the infamous ‘tree swing’ project cartoon.
There are myriad versions of the cartoon in existence, all of them teaching the lesson that poor specification of the requirements, combined with badly managed customer expectations and general lack of communication will end in disaster.
By virtue of being both genuinely funny and painfully accurate the tree swing project cartoon even has its own website where you can design your very own version – see ‘Useful links’ at the end of newsletter.
Start by aiming for a long list of six to eight vendors. You may already be working with a Preferred Suppliers List (PSL) or you may be building the shortlist from scratch – if the latter, then there are several ways to search for your dream vendor:
 Google for potential vendors using keywords within your proposal- Discover who your competitors are using (and who they have rejected)
- Join relevant newsgroups and online forums
- Read trade journals and attend seminars and exhibitions
- Stay with us on this one look at potential vendors’ websites to establish who their strategic partners are; check those strategic partner websites to find out if there are other potential vendors that they have worked with
- And here’s a classic – search around for analyst industry reports for free. They are often found on the websites of companies that have been featured positively in them, and are full of information about other players in the sector.
Here's an example, with Sophos proudly announcing the publication of a Gartner report on IT security products: http://www.sophos.com/security/topic/gartner.html
Remember, technology options are becoming ever more complex and diverse. From buy or build; to buy, build or rent; to buy, build, rent or secure from open source.
And – coming soon every conceivable combination of the above!
“Once you’ve chosen perhaps four vendors, set a close date for response (never less than 2-3 weeks) and when they ask detailed questions try sharing your answers (de-sensitised first) with all the vendors.”
Once you have decided on a vendor the heir our advice is to ensure the next best vendor the spare is primed and ready if negotiations with the chosen vendor don’t go as planned.
Be open and honest with all the vendors; you might need to work with them again. People have long memories and will remember your name and company if you have not played fair with them. It is a competition so vendors will always try and gain an advantage. They will be desperate to see who their rivals are. One line of thought suggests that you should tell them! It’s useful to bear in mind that the reflected glory of your brand name and other operational considerations (like using the contract to break into a coveted new market sector) can mean as much to the successful vendor as the immediate financial gain.
It’s worth putting the legwork into this stage negotiating from a properly researched position will ensure you receive the best value and leave your vendor in a strong position to deliver – a true win/win situation for both organisations.
Tree swing project cartoon generator http://www.projectcartoon.com
See the pen that NASA took to the Moon http://www.spacepen.com
The real story of the pen NASA took to the Moon http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/s/spacepen.htm
Update on our Facebook theme from last quarter – it’s all a CIA plot! http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jan/14/facebook
We'll be publishing our newsletter again next quarter. If you know anyone who would like to be on the receiving end of our genius, please ask them to forward their e-mail address to newsletter@cvluk.com. As well as receiving our thanks for your referral, we’ll try and rustle up a little something for your efforts – perhaps one of those Soviet pencils that served the cosmonauts so well?
CVL, 5 Clipstone Street, London, W1W 6BB : Phone: +44 (0) 20 7907 0200 : Fax: +44 (0) 8702 200 874 |
