A technology advisor is an individual or group of experts that help businesses find the right technology to solve a specific problem or fill a specific need. Usually a technology advisor is a seasoned veteran from the industry that uses his or her personal experience to assist in navigating a complex buying landscape and contractual process.
The most obvious benefit of using a technology advisor is that they're not tied to a specific brand which allows them to be agnostic in their approach to offering solutions. Other benefits include dealing with a single, trusted source rather than multiple sales agents, building a long-term, fiduciary relationship with a company or individual that has your best interest in mind, and the ability to gain access to technology solutions that you may have never heard of.
Many of the solution providers that we represent are available via partnerships that we have with several technology distributors. VocalPoint also has many direct agreements with suppliers that we feel meet specific demands from our customers or fill certain gaps that we have seen in our product and service portfolio. With that said, we will NOT back, or recommend, a solution provider that we don't believe in or that we have had systemic issues with.
An RFP is merely a race to the bottom. Suppliers that answer RFP's are only going to propose the least amount of product or service at the least amount of price in order to satisfy the RFP's requirements. Rarely will an RFP produce a long-term strategic partnership.
If you are a State, Local, or Education (SLED) account or a business that is required to use the RFP process, VocalPoint can help your organization write your RFP. However, we recommend that all organizations not use the RFP process as it, often, produces inadequate results.
We find that most businesses do not read contracts thoroughly. The result is that many businesses have buyer’s remorse but have no choice but to satisfy the length and terms of the contract. Over the many years we've been in business, we have helped our clients to structure Service Level Agreements (SLA's) that are more in line with their business’ expectations. We also focus heavily on "Term & Termination" in contracts and have worked with legal counsel to structure terminology that we can insert into any cloud service contract. If legal council is necessary, VocalPoint has partnerships with legal firms that concentrate on Technology Contracts including Data Governance and Intellectual Property.
No. We will only help broker cloud service contracts. At VocalPoint we firmly believe that businesses can build more scalable, secure, and cost-effective solutions in the cloud.
The cloud provides the ability to run a business without physical phones. However, if your business needs to have physical phones, we recommend that businesses procure them through the cloud service or UCaaS provider since many phones are flashed with software that is unique to the service provider. By purchasing phones from an outside source, your business may run the risk of some phone features being unavailable.
VocalPoint Consulting does not employee technicians. However, we have many strategic contractor resources that can provide onsite technical assistance for VoIP assessments, switch/firewall installation, cable runs, etc.
The experts at VocalPoint Consulting are always available to help your team navigate future technology needs or integrations with your service. VocalPoint will help your business upgrade, procure, and implement technology to keep your business running should any new needs arise. Our team can also assist with escalations of trouble tickets for all our strategic partners.
We let the unique needs of our clients dictate which solution providers we recommend. At VocalPoint, we start by asking questions about your business so that we can understand the desired outcomes of your different business units.
At VocalPoint our team is not schooled in objection handling, nor do we have a quota to retire. If you want us to handle your objections, call in the direct sales team at the telecom and cloud service companies. They'll tell you whatever you want to hear. Comparatively, our team is taught to listen, to be problem solvers, and to meet our clients where they're at. That's how we keep a sober mind grounded in the self-awareness of our mission to "Simplify the purchasing, installment, and use of cloud services".
VocalPoint only sells and represents brands that we trust. Additionally, our contracts with our suppliers are similar to not sway our opinion when it comes to recommending solutions to your businesses. That's not a guarantee that all of the solutions we recommend will perform flawlessly. But, if we find a solution provider is not holding up their end of the service agreement, we can help your business either fix the issue or pivot to a new solution.
