Find news and information for the executive corporate security director, CSO, facility manager and assets protection manager on issues of policy, products, incidents, risk management, threat assessments and preparedness.
Issue link: http://sdi.epubxp.com/i/246277
YOUR BUSINESS also has the benefit of removing the common causes for customer dissatisfaction. 1 Fix Faulty RFPs and Invitations to Bid It is not unusual for RFPs and Invitations to Bid to be flawed. This can be a special challenge in a competitive bidding situation, if the flaws are omissions the project needs. It may be likely that some competitors will omit the items in bid proposals in favor of submitting change orders later. If your business practice favors informing the customer up front to help avoid change orders, request that the omitted items be included via formal notice or RFP addendum to level the playing field. With the time constraints facing customer these days, it is not uncommon for customers to reuse specifications from previous projects using the cut and paste method, or take a "boilerplate" approach. It is critical that every RFP and Invitation to Bid be reviewed for applicability and completeness. 2 Clearly Capture Quality and Performance Requirements Often, some of the project requirements fall through the cracks in the handoff between sales and installation. This is common for negotiated sales, but is still true for projects where customers are following a formal purchasing process — whether competitively bid or not. Each requirement should be expressed in a way that makes it easily testable by inspection or demonstration: has the requirement been met or not? Where requirements have been provided by an independent consultant, be sure to review them simultaneously with the customer and the consultant to ensure that your interpretation of them matches customer expectations as well as the consultant's. Clarify or correct requirements as needed; don't accept verbal explanations that are not already self-evident in the written verbiage. When a specific product or system is selected by the customer, a common unexpressed 48 customer belief is that no further specifications are required; but nothing could be further from the truth given the complexity and configuration options of today's technology. Typically, when quality and performance requirements are not obtained in clearly written language, the amount of installation and commissioning work that has to be redone increases, driving project labor costs up and schedule out. Quality requirements such as appearance issues include finish work that may not be common for integrators to perform, such as painting conduit and fixtures. When dealing with a customer-provided network, there may be cable management standards or practices to comply with, including for cable labeling. Failing to account for such items initially can be a significant cost estimation error depending upon the size and/or complexity of the project. 3 Identify Installation Challenges and Their Solutions It can be critically important to identify installation challenges as part of bid development. Verify the feasibility of each device's physical installation point. Walk through the buildings and grounds to verify power and network provision points, cabling installation requirements and technician access to cable run areas. Verify that lifts can be used where expected and that any special scaffolding requirements have been communicated. Obtaining written verification helps ensure that customers perform their own requirements in support of the project, and keeps any such failure from being framed as a failing of the integrator. 4 Prove that Systems and Equipment will Meet Requirements Unless the currently shipping product version is field-proven in a previous project to meet each requirement, prove it out yourself. Perform bench testing and field testing as appropriate to prevent being caught in a labor-escalating trial-anderror commissioning scenario. Culprits in such scenarios include any device or system www.SecurityInfoWatch.com | SD&I; | January 2014