How do you select a good, reputable telecom vendor?

The decision of who your vendor will be is as important as the decision of which hardware solution you will choose. Long after the sale is over, you will deal with the consequences of your selection of a vendor. Here are some recommendations that you should consider:

Every  telecom salesperson presenting an equipment solution to you  will claim outstanding service post install. You need to consider asking specific questions that are similar to those that you would ask a job candidate in the hiring process. 

Who are the vendor's client references? Are they companies or organizations like yours? Are they of equivalent size and complexity? Don't just get a list of references- call them like you would call those references of a job applicant!

Who does your vendor have on staff for training?

What is the procedure for dispatch on service calls? What is the response time? How much is a service call? 

Some of the most crucial questions you have to ask concern resolving problems with service providers. You need to make sure that your telecom vendor is concerned with solving the problem. Operative words: SOLVING THE PROBLEM. Too many vendors are concerned with assigning blame. A reputable vendor will act as your advocate. A reputable vendor has experience problem solving, relationships with carriers, diagnostic  tools,  and most importantly a reputable vendor knows that not all problems are carrier based or all customer equipment based. The important questions concern something called an "escalation procedure". Who will be called? When? Who gets called afterwards? If there is no immediate resolution, who else is notified? An escalation plan with your vendor is part of your business continuity plan!

Now, here is the scary part:

Would you buy counterfeit dollars? Would you buy bootleg software? If you answered yes, you're wasting your time reading this. Log off and surf the web.

However...If you are a truly a professional, you understand the implications of infringing on intellectual property and the dangers that presents for your business. Nortel, Avaya, Cisco among others are moving to a license structure for the software bundled with systems that is similar to Microsoft's on PCs. As such, they will be enforcing their intellectual property rights. If you are using an illegal copy of software - whether you purchased it knowingly or not- you may find yourself in costly litigation. Make sure that you buy legitimate licenses, that you keep the keycodes and certificates of authenticity.  Typically, this is  assured when you buy  your system from an authorized reseller.

Click here to read more about the dangers of the grey market