As the court succinctly put it, “nothing could be further from the truth.”  According to testimony quoted in the decision, vendors will often choose to break even on equipment cost in exchange for a profitable long-term maintenance agreement.  Economists frequently refer to this as a razor and blade strategy.

      These revenues can be sizable. In fact, according to given testi-mony, in the last 3 years Avaya service revenues have averaged approximately $1.3 billion, of which 95% were attributable to maintenance contracts. 

 

Legal & Regulatory Update

(From Page 4)

      As to where consultants fit in, consider our end user clients who use our consulting services to develop their communications networks. As Figure 2 indicates, if their new best friend for coun-sel and advice becomes Cisco or Avaya, where does that leave us?

End User Customers

      Let’s not forget as well the growing role of end user custo-mers in the new, highly-collabo-rative purchase environment.     As consumers ourselves, there    is a reason why we now find our interactions with online mer-chants and contact centers in-creasingly augmented with requests to provide feedback about our customer experience.

 

 

 

 

       In a fully developed Relationship Life Cycle, the process of gathering these end user opinions, as well as evalua-ting the data that represent those opinions, should become part of our concern as independent consultants who provide effective counsel to our clients.

      The sharp growth in interest among contact center managers  in customer relationship metrics, i.e., the gathering and valid inter-pretation of customer feedback,  is witness to the additional influence of customers on the decision-making process.

How Should We React?

      Our reactions depend on how we present our services. While it is likely there will always be a place for independent consultants in the competitive bidding and  traditional RFP processes, clearly we need to define ourselves

      The submission deadline for   the next issue of LINES is Friday, June 23.

     LINES exists to further the interests of the STC and help create value for its members. We welcome article submissions from members of the STC community that will further the objectives of encourag-ing qualified consultants to join the STC, raising the visibility of the organization and promoting good internal communications.

      At this time, LINES does not carry advertising, and as a matter of policy does not publish promotional articles for telecom products or services.

      Each LINES issue will be posted on the public side of the STC web site and thus will be accessible worldwide through the Internet. LINES will also be pushed out to the STC’s network of contacts in the telecom industry, as well as to the media. The editorial staff will review and respond to each article submitted for publication. Please submit articles in MS Word, to stchdq@stcconsultants.

Note for LINES Contributors

increasingly in terms of strategic advisors who are independent.

From another perspective, we should seek to place ourselves to the left of  the Figure 1 Value Chain.

      Let’s not forget as well that the major suppliers want to cultivate relationships with us. We can help by enthusiastically participating in consultant liaison programs.

      And although we observe ven-dors investing in customer relation-ships, we still have the opportunity to enter projects independently, at the suggestion of involved vendors.

Partnering With Vendors

      Of course, there are cautions to keep in mind regarding involve-ments in project tasks that directly involve vendors, but, as an example, if Avaya recommends me to one of their clients to conduct an indepen-dent assessment of how their contact center’s performance optimization application has affected client-customer relations, then you can bet   I will respond, as long as the client engages me directly, in full accord with the STC Code of Ethics.

Carpe Diem

      Consulting has always been a relationship business. Our revised Practice Management Manual, now called The STC’s Practice Manage-ment Manual For Telecommunica-tions and IT Consultants, is a good place to look for reminders of sound principles of relationship marketing and tips on developing long-term client relationships.

      In particular, STC consultants should find that Dave Peterson’s chapter, “Marketing and Promoting a Technology Consultancy,” describes several key relationship principles.

      If we do not step up to these new challenges, we may find that others, particularly eager, well-financed vendors, have taken our places.

Here Come

“Relationship Metrics”