|
|
|
Avaya, Nortel, NEC Unified Solutions, Alcatel, Cisco and Siemens representatives may also have seats at the table. We as consultants will need to manage these relationships if we want to stay involved, and relevant. It is also no coincidence that many, if not most, manufacturers have established consulting divisions. These groups help place hardware and software, sell services and establish long-term “solution provider” relationships. Indeed, the days of long-term investments in standalone PBX platforms and annual software upgrades are rapidly disappearing in the rear-view mirror. About Relationships - More Than Ever These days, the value chain in Figure 1, which depicts a linear purchasing process in terms of inputs and outputs, is insufficient to describe the business relationships that underlie procurement decision-making in the era of the Internet and IP telephony. In recent years industry pundits such as Andrew White have pointed out that, thanks largely to new communica-tions technologies and business process innovations, 1980s ideas about product and customer life cycles have given way to what should more accurately be called “Return on Relationship Life Cycles” that involve suppliers, buyers and buyer’s customers. Figure 2 depicts how interrelationships now extend from supplier research and development all the way to customer satisfaction and its effect on buyer revenues. |
