It took two months, but your rep was able to hammer out a three-year deal with a much sought-after local school district. It’s late June, and this pact really punctuates what you feel will be a successful summer heading into the final quarter of the calendar year.
Now’s not the time to celebrate, however. The installation entails several different schools within the district, and the agreement calls for everything to be ready to roll once classes kick off following Labor Day in September. That amounts to a 10-week window. Fortunately for your dealership, you’ve assembled a crackerjack install team led by a grizzled project manager who can work minor miracles. Any delays can make for some anxious moments come the dog days of August, but experience and intuition—knowing where all the potential pitfalls could exist—will help anticipate and mitigate the potential breakdowns in the process.
In this week’s installment of our State of the Industry report on contractual success, we surveyed our dealer panel to explore the coordination of major installations and the potential hazards during the process.
“A deal with multiple facilities takes working as a team,” notes Rich Brandenburg, senior vice president of sales for Donnellon McCarthy Enterprises (DME) of Cincinnati. “Not only with the customer but also with your logistics and service teams. You must have a plan in place before you make the delivery and installation. The rep and project manager are key to a smooth implementation and a great experience for both your customer and you.”
After DME puts the finishing touches on a major installation, the team holds a debriefing to evaluate customer feedback and discuss any ways in which the project could have run smoother. A key takeaway the dealership garnered is the need for access to training guidelines for the client following the main training period.
“We put together an in-depth welcome packet that now has links to all training for gear we place, so they now have it at their fingertips,” Brandenburg added.
Ducks in Row
The multi-site installations certainly raise the degree of difficulty in ensuring a major takedown not only has a positive experience but is more likely to continue and grow beyond the scope of the initial pact, according to Kyle Elliott, president of Spectrum Technologies in El Paso, Texas. He cited one commercial enterprise account that was in need of a complete refresh of all its PCs, including desktop deployment and connectivity services.
“Our chief technology officer, who crafted the scope of work and created the SLAs, steered the ship, assigned an internal project manager, and together coordinated third-party service organizations—coupled with our staff—for a successful rollout of over 1,100 devices across 70 locations,” he said. “There’s no substitution for smart, ultra-competent people.”
There’s also something to be said for forging solid relationships with dealers in states well beyond your own backyard, which can help make a multi-facility installation possible, notes Dawn Abbuhl, president of Repeat Business Systems in Albany, New York.
“I’ve been in business for about 35 years, and I have people I know in every state who can help us,” she said. “We had a great opportunity to secure a national contract with a client located out of our region. They needed someone in Hawaii, which we were able to do, so the clients said yes to all the terms and conditions.”
The Fine Print
Every installation provides a learning opportunity, notes Larry Weiss, president of Atlantic Tomorrow’s Office. The Big Apple dealer has long since learned that many of the specs the client provides in the bid process end up being erroneous—in fact, most of the language in the RFPs has a disclaimer to that effect, especially when thousands of machines are in play. That’s why a thorough, full-fledged assessment is so critical.
“It comes down to leveraging technology, having the manpower and a great implementation plan,” Weiss said. “Almost always, you can call upon additional software; every one of these deals will need to have PaperCut or Canon uniFLOW. And if you don’t present that, you’re really putting your company at a disadvantage. You can turn to document management and drive down their costs even further. But during the bid process, you don’t have enough knowledge of the environment to really present it. You’d also be surprised at how many competitors don’t have the technology.”
On-site surveys often reveal impediments that need to be addressed prior to the installation, according to John-Austin Shepard, vice president of sales for Nauticon Office Solutions of Gaithersburg, Maryland. This can range from the lack of proper electrical outlets to chronic network drops.
“Since implementing site surveys—especially when placing production devices—we’ve been able to minimize headaches during implementation,” he said. “For several of our large clients with multiple locations, contacts and devices, our vice president of operations—Sue Michaelis—and her team do a great job in communicating with customers on delivery scheduling, real-time ETAs, schedule changes and making sure we carry out our vision of service-first.”
