Premium NetworkING Solutions
Our Strategic Consulting and Project Management services are designed for small to medium sized companies
(25 to 300 employees) requiring sophisticated
networking solutions requiring an extensive consultation and project
management process. Our complete offerings come as part of a 3 phase solution
including:
To see how we charge for this solution click
here.
Phase1:
Strategic Consulting Services Overview
Phase
1 is the strategic consultation undertaken by Precision Networks.
The
aim of this process is to understand your company's networks requirements with its unique strategy,
operations, products and current IT capabilities. And to develop a
business solution involving the right
networking infrastructure that fits your company's unique
circumstances.
Overview
of Strategic Consulting Services Offered
This service is
useful when your company
is unsure of its exact IT networking infrastructure requirements, but has either
identified an area where a potential change/improvement can
be made to the company operations. For example, your company is planning
to install a new ERP application that will have a significant impact on your existing networking infrastructure. Or your company has experienced significant
growth and the networking infrastructure is no longer meeting its requirements. Precision Networks will develop and recommend networking solutions
designed specifically to meet your company needs.
Pre
Consultation:
Initially we will hold meetings with you to build up a working relationship.
These meetings will allow us to get an initial understanding of your company's
networking infrastructure requirements and also answer all your questions about
how we can best add value and benefit your company's future IT investment
plans.
Strategic
Consultation: Once
your company agrees to undertake a Phase 1 strategic consultation, this process
will consist of the following:
-
Data
Collection:
Appropriate data will be collated about your company so that we can design
suitable networking infrastructure business solutions that are customised to
your requirements. This will include data about your company's current
networking infrastructure and capabilities.
-
Analysis: The
collated data will be used to do a full business analysis of your company
and may cover (among other things) your business strategy, operations,
products and current IT capabilities.
-
Design
of Customised Networking Infrastructure Solutions: Several
networking infrastructure business solutions will be designed and customised
around your company's business needs using a structured business approach
based on the latest networking technology. Solutions may include some of the
following, dependent on your company's needs:
Data and voice converged solutions
Routers, Switches, Hubs and Firewall networking products
Wireless network planning, installation and security
Managed network administration and security solutions
Virtual private network (VPN) solutions
Internet connectivity (DSL, Cable)
IT policies and procedures (Internet Usage, Email etc)
-
Business
Impacts, Value and Risk Analysis: For
each of the recommended solutions, the financial and non-financial business
impacts will be assessed using appropriately selected value metrics. This
will allow us to highlight the value, benefits and risks associated with
each of the recommended solutions to your company.
-
Presentation
of Findings: At
the end of the consultation period, a summary of the recommended solutions
will be presented to your senior management team and any other appropriate
stakeholders.
-
Report: You
will be provided with a detailed report outlining our process,
recommendations and conclusions about the consultation.
At the end of the Phase 1 strategic consultation, your company will have the
choice of implementing any of our recommended networking infrastructure
solutions using our Phase 2 Project Management Services and strategic partners
or through your existing IT networking suppliers and support.
Phase
2: Project
Management Services & Solution Implementation Overview
Here your company has a clearly defined
networking infrastructure requirement, but needs a Project Management resource
to oversee the actual implementation of the solution. For example, your company
wishes to start utilising VoIP across several of its office branches or is
undergoing an office move and needs a new LAN/WAN network. This service
requirement could have been identified independently by your company or as a result of a
Phase 1 strategic consultation.
Precision
Networks will provide the project management service ensuring that the right
networking solution is implemented according to your company
circumstances and requirements in a professional and timely manner.
Pre
Project Management Service Commencing: We will hold initial meetings to allow
us to get an understanding of the type of networking infrastructure project you
have in mind. This will also allow us to answer all your questions about how we can best add value
to your company's IT investment
plans. Should the your project management requirements be the result of a Precision
Networks Strategic Phase 1 Consultation, then the meetings will cover details for
implementation based on the networking infrastructure recommendations from the consultation process.
Possible
examples
of typical networking infrastructure project management services we could offer
include several of the following projects:
Project
Management: Once
your company agrees to undertake a project management service, this process will
involve coordinating the following management
knowledge areas throughout the project's lifecycle:
1.
Scope Management:
Involves
defining
and managing all the work and processes required to complete the project
successfully throughout its lifecycle. This ensures that the project team and
all your company stakeholders will have the same understanding of what the end
result of the project will be, as well as the processes that will be followed to
achieve the desired end result. The scope management process includes:
-
Scope
Initiation: Getting commitment throughout your company for commencement of
the project.
-
Scope
Planning: Documents that provide the basis for future project
decisions, including the criteria for determining when a project has been completed
successfully.
-
Scope
Definition: Subdividing the major project deliverables into smaller more
manageable components thus creating a task breakdown schedule.
-
Scope
Verification: Getting formal signoff and acceptance from your company
stakeholders for the project objectives.
2.
Time Planning:
A
project plan with appropriate time schedule will be developed and to ensure the timely completion of the project.
This will include:
-
Task
Definition: Identifying the specific activities that the project team
members and stakeholders must perform in order to produce the project deliverables.
This will include each task's expected duration, cost and resource requirements.
-
Task
Sequencing: Identifying and documenting the relationships between the different project
tasks.
-
Schedule
Development: Analysing activity sequences, activity duration estimates
and resource requirements/conflicts to create a workable and realistic project schedule.
-
Schedule
Control: Managing changes to the project schedule as the project progresses
throughout its lifecycle.
3.
Cost Estimation:
This
will require preparing
and managing the budget for the project including:
-
Resource
Planning: Determining what resources (people, equipment, material) the project team
will use to perform the project tasks and the quantities needed for each resource.
-
Cost
Estimating and Budgeting: Allocating the overall cost estimate to each task item.
-
Cost
control: Using tools like revised cost estimates, budget updates, corrective
action and estimates at the project's completion.
4.
Quality:
This
process will ensure that the project end deliverables satisfy the initial
project objectives and will include:
-
Quality
Planning: Identifying which standards are relevant to the project and
how to satisfy those standards. For example, in a networking infrastructure project, quality
standards may include allowing for system growth, planning a reasonable response
time for network requests or ensuring that the system is reliable.
-
Quality
Control: Monitoring specific project results to ensure that they comply
with the relevant quality standards while identifying ways to improve the
overall quality.
5. HR:
This
process requires making effective use of your company's people involved with the
project, including:
-
Organisational
Planning: Identifying, assigning, and documenting project roles,
responsibilities and reporting relationships.
-
Staff
Acquisition: Getting the needed personnel assigned to and working on the
project.
-
Team
Development: Building individual and group skills to enhance project
performance.
6.
Communications:
This
process involves generating,
collecting, disseminating and storing project information and overlaps with many
of the services offered in the Phase 1 Strategic Consulting Service including:
-
Communications
Planning: Determining the information and communication needs of the
stakeholders (who needs what information and when). Also, how will the
information be given to them.
-
Data
Collection: Should your company not have undertaken the Phase 1 Strategic
Consulting Service, then appropriate company data will be collated
so that we can design the right networking infrastructure solution, customised to your company's
requirements. This will include collecting data about your company's current networking
infrastructure and capabilities.
-
Information
Distribution: Provided information available to project
stakeholders in a timely manner.
-
Performance
Reporting: Collecting and disseminating performance information,
including status reports, progress measurements and forecasting.
-
Administrative
closure: Generating, gathering and disseminating information via suitable
documentation.
-
Presentation
of Findings: At the end of the project, a
summary of the project achievements and progress will be presented to your
senior management team and any other appropriate stakeholders.
-
Report: You
will be provided with a detailed report outlining our process,
recommendations and conclusions coming out of the networking
infrastructure implementation.
7.
Risk:
This
process will involve identifying,
analysing, and responding to risks related to the project with the objective of
minimising potential risks and maximising potential payoffs and value to your
company, including:
-
Risk
Management Planning: Deciding how to approach and plan the risk
management activities for the project. For this you can review work breakdown
structure, roles and responsibilities, stakeholder tolerances and organisations
risk management policies.
-
Risk
Identification: Determining which risks and uncertainties are likely to affect a project,
and documenting the characteristics of each.
-
Qualitative
Risk Analysis: Characterising and analysing risks and prioritising their
effects on the project objectives. Probability of each effect is also evaluated.
-
Quantitative
Risk Analysis: Measuring the probability and consequences of risks and
estimating their effect on the project objectives. From this a risk response
plan can be developed.
-
Risk
Response Planning: Taking steps to enhance opportunities and reduce
threats.
-
Risk
Monitoring and Control: Monitoring the known risks, looking out for new
risks, reducing risks and evaluating the effectiveness of risk reduction
throughout the project. Updating the risk response plan.
-
Business
Impacts, Value and Risk Analysis: Evaluating the financial and non-financial business impacts
using appropriately selected value metrics. This will allow us
to highlight the value, benefits and risks associated with the implemented solution to your company.
8. Procurement:
Your company
will have the option of implementing the required networking infrastructure solution, using products from
strategic alliance partners
such as 3Com and First Technology or alternatively using your own preferred
equipment hardware supplier such as for example Cisco.
Should
you choose our strategic partners, this process will
involve:
-
Presentations
to your company by our strategic alliance partner, explaining the impact to your
company during the implementation and installation of the networking
infrastructure solution.
-
Physical
installation of networking infrastructure by our strategic alliance partners
under the project management supervision of Precision Networks.
Phase 3: Ongoing Technical
Support and Maintenance
After
any solution implementation using equipment from either one of our
strategic partners (3Com and First Technology), they will provide your company with all necessary ongoing technical support and maintenance
by agreement. Or ongoing support would be provided by Precision Networks
directly in certain circumstances.
Premium Consulting Solution Prices
Strategic
Consultancy Fees
Precision
Networks endeavours to provide the best value for its customers. Thus,
the strategic consultancy fee will be based on mutual agreement as to the value of the work
to be carried out by Precision Networks during the consultancy phase, broken
down into separate agreed stages as shown in the example diagram below. Our
innovative pricing model is designed to keep your costs low, while giving you
the time to asses the value that the consultancy will bring
to your company.
Your company will be invoiced at different
stages of the analysis/implementation, with a bias towards charging smaller percentages of the final amount
of work at the start of the process and
weighting the final deliverables more heavily further into the process. The advantages of this method,
for you, is
that your company can engage Precision
Networks initially with very little
upfront risk and have the option to terminate the contract in the early stages,
should you feel that the consultancy is not right for your company at this
stage.
Also
as an added bonus, should your company decide to implement Phase 2 of the
solution using our project management services and strategic partners, the consultancy fee will be discounted
into the costs of the implementation phase.
Project
Management Service Prices
Your company will be
invoiced based on the difficulty and scale of the project to be implemented.
Precision Networks is an independent consultancy company and
therefore will always look for the most appropriate solutions that fit your
company's requirements. We have to charge you for our services in order to
remain independent since we dont get kickbacks, revenue splits or retainers
from suppliers. However should you use our strategic partners to implement our
project management solutions, then the project management fees will be
discounted into the networking hardware costs.
Strategic
Partner Technical Support and Maintenance
Ongoing
technical support fees would be negotiated with our partners.
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