Hi, everyone. I'm Amanda Hughes. I'm the founder of a company by the name of Clearest Blue. And I am so honored to be selected as a speaker amongst the company of uh so many powerful women at this global conference.It's very exciting for me and uh I'm here today to talk about navigating some of the complexities that come along when you're evaluating a, an omni channel contact center solution. So before we get started, let's just do a little housekeeping here. Um There is a uh AAA chat that's available and please feel free to, to start chatting. Say hi if you will. Um There's also a Q and A tab, I probably will not um be able to keep too close of an eye on the chat in Q A during the, the bulk of the presentation. But um please add in your questions as they come along if they come up and then we uh we have some time at the end to go through that and, and, and cover any areas where, where you'd like a little bit more um information. So that being said, um let's get started here. So with the agenda that I have today. Um We're gonna first talk about some objectives.

Um And what I want to share with you today is some of the successful and effective strategies that my company has applied when assisting our customers as they evaluate an omni channel contact center solution. Um This can be a really complex purchase. There's got a, it has a lot of moving parts and it's a significant investment in time and resources. So you wanna make the most of your evaluation because it's a long term investment, it's not easy to change. So you wanna make a good decision the first time around. Uh So some of the strategies we're, we're gonna cover today include, we're gonna look at building a successful evaluation team investing in a requirements analysis. We'll go through that. We're gonna talk about how to reimagine the request for proposal, the, the good old RFP um avoid how to avoid the pitfalls of demo fatigue. A real thing that's uh that that occurs. And then finally, we'll wrap it up with some techniques around uh negotiations and, and, and how to make the most of that. So in the end, and, and then finally, we'll wrap up with AAA Q A session. So at the end of our time together, I'm confident that you're going to walk away with insight around how to effectively and efficiently evaluate contact center solutions, how to apply tools and strategies that provide assurance that the new solution is not only going to meet the current needs that you have, but will also grow as you grow with your company, as your business needs change and evolve.

Um We'll talk about how to effectively purchase a solution within the budget that you've allocated and, and get you on the right terms for your contract. And finally, you'll have the tools to develop an internal buzz that creates enthusiasm for change. So, let's start first with my story on how I ended up where I'm at today. Um I've spent the last 20 years uh working mostly working on the vendor side of cloud communications. Uh Long before cloud was a thing. Um I think we were calling it hosted voice back then. So, um it's been a while and over time, um I, I could see that there was a need out in the market. Um So I started my company, which is called Clears Blue because I wanted to create an organization that could be a champion of the client, right? There's so many choices in the market when it comes to cloud based telephony and contact centers. So I wanted to give a vendor neutral perspective that empowers clients to find the right technology with the right service level at the right price. And that's, that's the mission that we've, we've set forth at Clears Blue. So, you know, as you work with these vendors, the sales people, they're always going to tell you all the amazing things that their product offers, what they're not going to disclose to you are the shortcomings.

These are the areas that don't really quite meet the needs of your business objectives. They're just not gonna put it on the table, they're there to do a job and their job is to sell you a product. So, um the value that we bring to our clients is we bring in a vendor neutral approach and help you assess the solutions that are under consideration. Um We help our customers uncover the great, the good, the not so good. Um So that they're able to make an educated decision moving forward. Look, there's no solution out there in the market that's going to be a perfect fit. It just, it just doesn't exist um unless you write it specifically for yourself and then you gotta manage it. But the ability to know exactly what you're buying is so powerful. Uh being aware um really mitigates those uh surprises that can come later down the road after you're already in the full throes of uh an implementation. So, so let's get to it. These are the five strategies that I'm gonna share with you. They are tried and true. Uh These are the tools that we always use when we're assisting our customers in their buying journey. So strategy oops strategy number one, all right, engaging the right team for the evaluation process.

So when clients assemble a diversified team to evaluate contact center solutions. They have the potential to organically drive enthusiasm throughout the organization. As new standards are established for the customer journey, this is an opportunity to create something. So as we all know, most users, they tend to resist change. But when you share a common goal across the divisions of your organization and empower them with a voice of representation, people are more likely to join the party and be on board with the change. Um When you're starting to think about who's going to comprise this team, think about including delegates from various departments, right? Obviously, you're gonna bring in customer service, uh maybe marketing and sales depending on what you're looking to accomplish through this tool.

Um It, of course, but always remember, bring in a an executive um for additional visibility and buy in uh you're gonna want enough members to accurately capture the needs of the organization but not so many that it creates chaos. Uh Most of our clients find 7 to 9 committed participants is about the optimal amount that works best for them. So as you're thinking about who are the members that are gonna be on this team? Look for people who demonstrate leadership skills, right? Um Look for them from the varying levels. You, you, you would it's really important to even go down to the agent level and bring in someone who can offer that perspective as well. But choosing people who have demonstrated leadership skills is uh just a, a nice little technique to, to add in there because those people are going to be your ambassadors when it comes time to deploy the new solution. If they feel like they've been part of it, they're, they're gonna be your cheerleaders. So, um and then another tip to consider is you're building this team out of scheduling, right? So everyone is busy getting time on people's calendars can prove to be challenging um with such a diverse group of people. So make sure that when you're doing this plan, your meetings and demos well ahead of time to ensure availability, right?

Once, if you, if you set these forth and decide I'm gonna have the demos over the course of this week or these two weeks and these are the days and these are the times these vendors, they, they will work within the parameters, you give them, they want your business, they want your time, so they'll make it work for you.

Um But you wanna get this set up set aside for your team and then finally, uh you wanna go ahead and schedule that kick off and when you do that, you're gonna provide those key milestones in a well defined timeline. So everyone knows where they're going. This sets the foundation for enthusiasm and alignment within the team. So as you're considering this first strategy of building this team, you might ask yourself, uh why would I engage all of these people it's just gonna slow down the process. It's gonna create complexity. Why bother I could do it faster by myself. But the thing is I can attest, I've, I've watched many of these go through and the success I, I can attest to the success of clients that take the time to methodically build this team, right? The dynamic you create with it, it gives them a sense of empowerment amongst um it, it's in a sense of empowerment amongst the team that in turn are gonna champion change and ultimately create a higher rate of user adoption once the solution has been installed. So it is well worth the time. I promise. OK. So let's go on to strategy number two. Investing in a requirements analysis, this will pay in dividends and II I will get to why as we go through it, but most people never consider exploring a new locale without using a GPS. And the same can be said about evaluating software.

You can't effectively search for a contact center solution without first identifying exactly what you need and want, right? You need to know where you're at and where you wanna go. So while it's not always a crowd favorite this upfront investment of time um well paying dividends later down the road, right? It provides this rich source of data that's accessed throughout the buying and the implementation process and beyond, it becomes your roadmap, your GPS for everything if you will. So the way to start is by defining your business objectives. If they haven't been defined by the company already, you definitely wanna get really clear on it and the focus should be on the overall company goals, right? As well as the experience that you want to create for your customers. Um You wanna steer clear of any content that's real specific to feature functionality. We'll get to that momentarily, but the objectives should simply reflect the end results that you desire. OK? And it's OK to be loose in the first iteration because those will tighten up as you proceed through this process. So next identify all the critical feature functionality in your current and your future environment.

So this is where we get really specific on what are our requirements here and, and um what you want to do is you want to take those business objectives that you've already defined and you wanna marry them into clear and specific functionality that you're looking for in this solution.

So you wanna think about what are the features that are gonna help you become a well oiled machine? It's not as exciting, but it's an imperative to um to document these critical components right that exist today. Uh Too many times, I've seen clients really kind of skip over this and, and then when they end up in the implementation phase and they start really seeing what it's going to offer, there's sometimes there's things that are missing. Um all the major, all the major uh ccas players out there, when I say CCAS contact center as a service, all the contact centers um their offerings are pretty similar, right? But there are nuances that differentiate them. And so you want to ensure that whatever new solution you move towards is gonna have that future parody baseline. And then you also wanna make sure you capture any gaps that are in the current platform and, and, and consider the emerging technologies that are probably you're already excited about and they're gonna help you achieve those business goals that, that you're working towards. So once you've identified all of these requirements and you'll have quite the list you should at this point. Um you want to give them broad categories, right? You, you need to group them so that it helps people stay clear.

So some of the common groups uh that, that we apply when going through this with our customers, um like uh the inbound experience for your customer, the outbound for your agent, virtual agent. What is that the requirements around that? Um the S MS requirements, email chat, quality assurance administration, all of those different components, just categorize where your uh requirements reside so that you can um help your team be more empowered. Um It, it creates a meaningful structure that keeps them more organized and makes the information easier to digest. And then finally have all of the team members individually go through each requirement and give it a, give it a rating on a scale of 1 to 51 being. This is the least important thing for me and five being we can't live without this, right? And then whatever is in between. Uh So you want them to individually do it so that you're capturing what everyone's individual ideas are around it and then go in and, and add a, a formula, get your main and your media and, and see where the outliers are. If you have outliers, which you probably will, you wanna just schedule a brief call to go through, what are those outliers and talk through it? And where should that number really land and agree collectively as a group on that? OK?

I know this strategy can seem a little laborious. So um understand though, it's gonna save you a lot of precious time down the road um to keeping everything organized. So you don't lose sight of those important details that you want to capture. OK. So for this one, for this second strategy here, um in our experience, the clients that take the time to go through this process is tedious as it may seem, they end up saving a tremendous amount of time during later stages of the evaluation. Um This document is not only going to serve as an internal road map, but it can be leveraged for your RFP and it's also going to be a va valuable project plan when it comes time for the implementation or in any subsequent phases that follow. There's a lot of great conversations that happen during the sales process. And unfortunately, if you're not documenting these great ideas that come up, oftentimes when you, when your salesperson transitions you from the sales process and then the signed contract over to the project process, the implementation, some of these details get lost in there and this is where you will be able to track that.

So it's a living and breathing document. Um And you want to refine it as the evaluation process and the implementation process continues. Um And this will, this will help your business to grow and evolve accordingly. All right. So moving on to uh strategy number three, um for this one reimagining the request for proposal, the good old RFP. Uh traditionally, the RFP has been an overly complex and time consuming process, especially when you apply it to the SNB market. Um One of the biggest challenges that that comes with an RFP process is it centers around the solicitation of bids from qualified vendors. So the smaller more niche players that, that have um you know, these emerging tools, maybe they're an up and comer, they may not be equipped with dedicated staff to handle rfps. So they have to be selective in who they're gonna respond to. And um you know, so there could be times where you, you get overlooked for that reason. Um And then for those vendors that do respond. Um There are some that have like a whole department set up for RFP responses, but they've created all of their content ahead of time. It's, it's templated answers that uh they may cover topics that extend beyond the question you're, you're asking.

Uh So furthermore, you're left, you're left going through all of these complex answers that are difficult to compare between solutions. It, it, it just leaves a lot of confusion in there. So based on these challenges, there's an opportunity to create a more efficient and streamlined approach without sacrificing the quality. So the way you do this is uh or the way we do this is um the gathering of information. It's critical, it's a critical component of um writing an uh an effective RFP. And you've done that in the step, the step before this one that we've talked about. This is your opportunity to provide a clear and concise summary of your business, including the company, overview, the project overview, goals, criteria for success. And yes, your key stakeholders, you want to give the vendors as much information as possible because the more information you provide up front, the the the more efficiency you're going to create. So once they're engaged, once you're actually having a conversation with the vendors, they're going to want to go through a discovery process and they're gonna ask all of these questions.

So by including the details in your RFP, you only have to go through this one time, not the 345 times based on how many providers you're gonna meet with. Right. In this way, you're assured that each vendor is receiving the same comprehensive set of data points and they're all working from the same place. So you can get an accurate assessment of uh what they're bringing to the table. So this is a big deal, right? This is where a really big time savings can come into play. If you're meeting with four vendors, that's at least four hours, you get to shave off. So um and be sure that you include documentation of your existing architecture so that the vendors really understand your current environment and the direction that you intend to go in. You know, if they know what the platform is that you're currently on, they know the experience you're having, they're familiar with their competition out in the market. So it's good for them to, to, to have that uh vantage and and really understand that and the good news is you already took care of all of this when you went through your requirements analysis. So it's just repurposing um another useful hack to mitigate the content complexity.

Um You wanna minimize your open ended questions, you can include some, you, you'll need to include some, but really you can take all of those requirements identified and we recommend use use a yes, no closed style of questioning. And um and then give them an opportunity to add comments if that's something you want. But by leveraging the points that you defined in your requirements analysis, you can quickly build a chart within the RFP that identifies um if the, if the solution is going to fulfill each of those specific needs. So we say keep it simple, right? Create columns like you've got all of your requirements there and then you got a column that says yes, no. And then if it's no, is it on your road map? OK. And then, and then some comments, if they want to make some comments, but it's really clear, it's very objective and they can, they can make comments around the nuances, but you get a concise hard answer to the question. All right. So this produces much more digestible, meaningful content that's easily transferred to a table for a side by side comparison.

When you get all the answers back from your vendors, once you have this comparison chart, now you can take those scores that you had, your team go through all the weighted scores on, on the value of each requirement and you can um use them for the analysis. Um So we typically give any, any vendor that says yes to any requirement, they get 100% of their points. Um If they say no, they get zero and if they say it's on their road map, we give them 25% of the score, right. Um you never want to beg too much on a road map because uh you never know with road maps and it depends on the vendor. Uh And generally we, we want to see it on the road map within a six month period. Uh Anything outside of that can tend to be loose with these vendors. So the end result is this produces an overall vendor score that shows how well each one of them matches against the requirements that you have. OK. Last point on this one consider pivoting from an RFP into an RF I, when you save the financial conversation for a later date, you give your team an opportunity to solely focus on the solutions that best meet your needs. OK? And in general, these contact center solutions out there in the market, they are relatively comparable with cost.

So when you're soliciting pricing up front, um the bottom line is you're gonna have some vendors that are gonna come in and they're gonna give you super deep discounts to catch your attention, right? They, they, they wanna uh make sure that you take a close look at them and and um get wooed by that. There's other ones that are gonna come in with their list price because they don't want to get into that conversation until they're engaged with you. Um But at the end of the day after negotiations are done, they're just not that far apart from one another. So um I would not, I I would recommend you not let that be a driving factor for you and take care of the pricing after the first round of demos, uh They'll have a much better sense of what your needs look like and how their solution will dovetail into your requirements. So, in looking at this, you know, we've seen a tremendous amount of success around this new format. Um It makes both our customers and our vendors happy. The customers have a much clearer understanding of the nuances that are going to differentiate those contact center solutions.

Um And the vendors appreciate the simplicity of it. Um They, they can get through it quickly, they can get those answers for you. And then the real, the real action happens when you get engaged. This is really a way to eliminate uh so many options. OK? And it's a very powerful advantage when you wanna narrow down those choices. All right, let's move on to strategy number four. So avoiding the pitfalls of demo fatigue, it's a real thing. I think, I think we've all experienced this when we're looking at technology solutions.

Um You see so many demos and after a while they, they just start to blend together. Um So to avoid falling into this trap, uh my company has come up with a few ways to mitigate uh demo fatigue. So first and foremost, uh we recommend standardize the demos. So the vendors are following the same agenda and the same format you wanna keep this clear and consistent for your team, tell the vendors exactly what you want included, send them the agenda you're looking for, right, the content and the order in which you want them addressed and define what should not be included, that's really important as well because they'll, they'll, they'll do what they, what they want with it and there's always gonna be some variation but you want to try and standardize this.

So um when I, when I talk about um what content you don't want included? Um An example of this is maybe you want to skip the network architecture conversation and the implementation process during the first round and just simply focus on how the solution solves business problems, right?

Um You're gonna get to these points later in the process, but um you know, keeping it to an hour and a half, two hours at the most in that first round, there's a lot of content to cover it. So it's really, the solutions are really complex. So um I this is the approach I recommend. Um Next, I would also recommend you use an internal chat solution as you're going through the demo, whether you're um remote or you're sitting in the same room, have a chat going so that you guys can interact and have those sidebar conversations throughout the uh the demo um and make sure that you are able to save the transcription of this chat for reference later.

I, I can't tell you how many times um I've had clients that go back and reference it just to jog their memory because these things really they, they do blend together. So, um so you know, have that stored, create a folder for each vendor and keep all the content in there. So it's easy, easy to access. Uh But this by doing this chat, you can keep the team more engaged. It keeps people on their toes and it helps promote ideas that that come up. Uh There may be a new concept that that's not familiar to the team and, and, and some ideas come out of it and it's good to just put a pen in that and then go back to it later. Um But that way, um no ideas are, are left behind. Next, I would say use a vendor scoring system, create a game out of it, right? So ahead of time, set up a uh shared, shared uh spreadsheet or a shared uh workbook and go in and, and create uh an area for each person, each team member to during the course of the demo, add 2 to 3 things that they really liked about the solution and 2 to 3 things that they find concerning.

Um And then at the end of the demo, make sure that they give them an overall score, maybe uh 1 to 10, right? 10 being they knock their socks off one being kick these guys to the curb. Ok. And before before the demo gets started, you can use that, that nice chat that you have going to remind them. Hey, pop into this sheet. Make sure that you're putting this together. People need to be reminded, they're busy. So, uh, definitely, uh remind them about that. And then the last point I'll make on this, um, is, it's important to have a post demo discussion while it's fresh in people's minds. Um Schedule it ahead of time as soon as the vendor is out of the room or off the call, you have an internal conversation where you go through and you talk about these points. It can be 15 minutes, it could be 20 it could be 30. Just make sure you have that in that moment. It will really help you understand where everyone's at and, and what you agree on and where the differences are. It's, it's really, really helpful. So, and this one, this one is so important to me. Um So in our experience, we've observed that the solutions that are under consideration, right? They do blend together over time. Clients will often go with a gut feeling rather than making a methodical choice. And this risk is compounded.

If you're dealing with a really savvy account rep that's selling a subpar product or on the flip side, maybe you're dealing with a, a new account rep or an inexperienced account rep that has a pretty great product. Right? It's, it could go either way. But when you apply these strategies, you're mitigating the possibility that you're gonna get steered in the wrong direction. Um, too many times, I've, I've seen people just really uh love their salesperson. Right. And, and that can be, that can be a little misleading if, if you're not careful.

All right. So let's move on to our final strategy. Uh, strategy number five. And that is negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. All right, this is, this is it. So this is the moment when you have all the power, right? It's all in your hands. Anything post signature is gonna leave you at the mercy of the vendor. So it's really important that you consider all of your needs upfront. First of all, you wanna look at costs beyond the obvious ones. So of course, you're gonna, um, you're gonna want to, uh, you're gonna want a reduction on the, on the license cost. You're gonna negotiate that. Um, no problem. But you want to think about other things like, um, what are the other products that may, maybe you're not gonna install all the products right now. Maybe you're gonna have a phased approach. Uh, oftentimes our clients will, um, because, because us typically they're upgrading from maybe, you know, just a, an app contact center into something far more robust. Uh, so they might do, they might take a crawl walk, run approach, um, where they roll out some things get used to the new system and then subsequently add more and more functionality down the road. It also helps them go live faster.

So when you're doing that, um you want to think about what are those other products that we really like that? We know we're gonna add later. Um If you know that it's coming, this is an opportunity to ask the vendor to commit to reduce pricing in the contract, but you gotta ask for it up front. You can't, you can't sign and then ask for it later. It just doesn't work that way. Um All right. So you also, um, wanna think about the professional services that come along with the be, uh, building out a contact center, they can entail some pretty hefty fees. Um, and generally there's like a estimated number of hours and then they have a, uh, an hourly rate tied into it or a daily rate tied into it. Um You wanna negotiate that rate, it's always, always negotiable, but lock it in, ask them to commit to that rate for the duration of your contract. Um That way if you are going to be developing further down the road, you know what your pricing is gonna be and it, it's not gonna just skyrocket when you get to version 1.1. So, and then, um, another thing to think about are seasonal swings.

So if you're one of these businesses that you have to scale up during your busy season and then you scale back down. Um You absolutely want to uh talk to them about pricing flexibility and make sure that you understand how that works and what the terms look like. Um Ideally you want to be able to scale up and down with little or no penalty. So be sure you think about this ahead of time. Um because again, after you sign these things just become difficult conversations, they're, they're just not as flexible. Um And then one other area, uh that's a really good one to negotiate is usage. So really important, make sure you walk in knowing exactly what your average call volumes look like. Uh Generally if you can't pull it off the system that you currently have, you can go to your carrier, they can usually help you with that. You can ask for those types of reports, get several months worth of data. So you really understand, especially if you're seasonal. Um, so that you really understand, what are those charges gonna look like because they're not gonna be, they're not gonna show up in your, uh order form, right? Uh They'll have the rates on there but you don't, you don't actually know what that looks like until you get your first bill.

And um it can have, it could have a really like, you know, just a point or two could have a really huge impact on, um, on the cost that you're spending each month. So make sure that uh you understand what that is and then negotiate from there. Uh I, I rarely see any push back on that. Usually the vendors are quick to reduce their uh cost around that or their price around that. The rates. Ok. So price is important, but it's just the beginning. Um We gotta talk about the Ts and CS here. So some of the things that you wanna look for, um look for the fine prints, uh e especially around a business downturn. So as as much as we're all in it to grow, right? If you're, if you're making an investment like this, you're probably on a growth trajectory and uh that's the expectation but things change as we know, you never, you never know what's around the corner. So you wanna plan for the ability to uh turn down some of your services should uh should something occur that, that, that would require that. And as of late, I'm seeing more and more often that these vendors are not including it in their terms they used to. And now, now it's suddenly disappeared. Uh But if you ask for it, they're almost always willing to uh add it back in. I've never been turned down for that.

And so um we typically recommend our clients start ask, start at 25% ask for 25% downturn, meaning you can turn down 25% of your licenses without penalty you won't get that. That's ok though. It's a good place to start and then you negotiate down from there and, uh, and, and then find a happy medium that works for everyone. Um, you also want to take a close look at these slas, make sure that they apply to all the channels, not just the voice channel, but, uh, your S MS, your email, your live chat. Uh, just, just one of those gas that, that can uh catch people off guard. And the last thing I'll mention here and it's more tied to the statement of work is um making sure that you have enough trading hours um included. So, um last but not least timing is everything. So when you are uh thinking about going live, you want back into that date, um target a signature by the end of the fiscal year or even better, um or the end of the fiscal quarter or even better of the year. That's where you get your power.

And um and uh that's where the rates start to drop. I just realized I'm almost out of time here. So one consideration I'd say in this strategy is just consider, consider working with a, a contact center specialist. We love working with our clients. Um It, when you work with an outside side party on this, you've got someone that's guaranteed to really be looking at driving this forward and um handling all the aspects uh whether you work with us or someone else. It's fine. Um Just look for someone who's vendor neutral and that they have a strong background in project management or program management. Um, that, that'll make a big difference down the road. So I really appreciate it. I wanna make sure I've left enough time. Um I'm just checking to see if any questions have popped up. I don't see any here but, you know, um some of the things that, that we get asked at times, um, like what's a good timeline for going through an evaluation like this? And what we have found is, uh, our clients will generally, um, uh, allow for six months if they can. Um, I've even seen them take up to nine months for this process. That being said these vendors will be flexible and they'll move with you quickly. So if you have like, uh, uh, a 11 or two months to do the evaluation, it's a little hairy but I know you can do it.

So, um, anyway, if you would love to, uh, if you would like to continue this conversation or, or engage with us, um, please feel free to reach me at the contact information that I provided here. Um You can use the QR code to get to the website, schedule a meeting with us. We'd love to meet you and, uh, thank you so much for your attention today. I, I really appreciate it.