Contact centre leaders
Platform selection judged on what it does to handle time, agent experience and customer effort.
IT leaders and CIOs
Architecture, integration, security posture and the migration risk that lands on your team.
Operations leaders
Service continuity through a change, and what the new platform does to the way work flows.
Finance leaders
Whole of contract cost, what the commercial terms commit you to, and where the renewal traps sit.
The pattern
One person decides, or the four questions get asked
A platform is judged on service levels by one person, on integration risk by another, on disruption by a third and on whole of contract cost by a fourth. How many of them are in the room decides how the decision ages.
When one person decides
The evaluation reflects whatever that person is measured on. A contact centre manager buys capability and inherits an integration nobody scoped. An IT leader buys architecture and inherits a platform the operation will not adopt. A finance leader buys a rate and inherits a five year term with an uncapped uplift. Each is a reasonable decision made with a quarter of the information.
The gap shows up in year two, not at signature
When all four questions get asked
The requirement covers service levels, integration, continuity and commercial terms before a shortlist exists. Disagreements happen during evaluation, which is when they are cheap, rather than during rollout, which is when they are not. This takes a few more weeks and it is the main reason a decision survives contact with production.
Slower to choose, considerably cheaper to live with
The process
How we work across the four
Five stages, run with everybody who has a stake in the outcome rather than with whoever raised the project. You sign directly with the vendor you choose, and the advisory service costs you nothing.
We collect the requirement from all four perspectives
Service levels and daily work from the operation, architecture and integration from IT, continuity from operations, and the commercial constraints from finance. Written down in one document rather than negotiated informally over three months.
We shortlist across the whole market
Relationships across more than thirty vendors mean the shortlist starts from what fits the combined requirement. Three or four options usually survive, and each stakeholder is told where their concerns sit with each of them.
We script demonstrations that answer everybody
The demonstration covers the operational scenarios, the integration questions and the administrative reality, in one session rather than in three separate meetings six weeks apart.
We negotiate the terms as well as the rate
Tier mix, commitment, uplift caps, renewal notice, professional services scope and exit. The commercial terms are where a decision that looked good at signature turns into a problem at renewal.
We stay through implementation
Build, migration, parallel running and go live, with the vendor held to what was sold. Every stakeholder gets the same view of what is actually happening, which removes most of the arguments that come later.
Due diligence
The questions each of the four needs answered
Eight questions, two for each perspective. Most evaluations answer four of them properly and discover the other four in production.
Will it improve the numbers we report?
Contact centre. Tested on your own contact data during evaluation rather than accepted from a reference customer.
Can our own people change it?
Contact centre. What a supervisor can adjust without raising a ticket, proven on a real change during the sales cycle.
What does the integration actually do?
IT. Which objects, which direction, at what rate limit, and who supports it when it breaks between two vendors.
Where does the data live?
IT. Australian residency confirmed in writing, at rest and in processing, including backups, logs and AI features.
How does the service keep running?
Operations. Migration order, parallel running period and the rollback trigger, agreed before a go live date is announced.
Who owns it after the project?
Operations. Named and trained before selection, rather than assumed to be somebody in IT.
What is the three year total?
Finance. All in, including migration, overlap, training and every uplift written into the agreement.
What does leaving cost?
Finance. Termination charges, data extraction fees and the notice window, negotiated while you still have room to move.
Common questions
Asked when several people share a decision
The questions that come up when a technology decision has more than one owner, answered without a qualification call first.
Who should be involved in a platform decision?
Whoever is accountable for the service, whoever inherits the integration and support, whoever manages the teams through the change, and whoever signs the contract. Four perspectives, and a decision that skips one of them usually pays for it in year two.
What if the four disagree?
That is the useful part, and it is much cheaper during evaluation than during rollout. Our job is to surface the disagreement early, make the trade-off explicit, and give everybody the same information to argue from.
Do you replace our internal team?
No. We run the market comparison, the evaluation and the commercial negotiation, and we stay involved through delivery. Your team keeps the decision and holds the vendor contract directly.
How much of our time does this take?
Expect a workshop of a few hours to build the requirement, a session per shortlisted vendor, and a short review after each. Most of the work that would otherwise fall on your team is the part we do.
What does it cost us?
Nothing, at any stage. We are funded by the vendors through the same margin they would otherwise retain, so our involvement does not add to your price. You sign directly with the vendor you choose.
When is the right time to bring you in?
Six to nine months before a contract end date, or as soon as a project is being considered. Involving an advisor after a shortlist has been built means inheriting somebody else framing of the question, and most of the value sits in how that question is framed.
We are vendor funded and completely free to your business. Always focused on the right outcome.
One decision, four sets of questions
A platform change is judged on service levels by one person, on integration risk by another, on disruption by a third and on whole of contract cost by a fourth. We work with all of them, which is usually why the decision holds together.
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