Staying Connected

If you have an ICT contract that hasn't been scrutinized in the past four to five years, it is time to pull out that contract and take a good look at all the clauses. As a result of your review, you'll likely find that there are several important provisions in the contract – some that might be daily pain points for you – that were not focused on during your last negotiation.

In this 12-minute podcast, Laura McDonald, a Partner at LB3, and TC2's Joe Schmidt highlight five key provisions that every enterprise needs to be aware of and include in their next contract negotiation.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Information Technology Advisory Services and Success Stories webpages.

It's important for enterprises to periodically competitively sourcing their ICT because over time, a company's needs change and so does its strategy and long-term plan. This also holds true on the supplier landscape.

In this 7-minute podcast, Brent Knight, a Senior Consultant at TC2, and Joe Schmidt discuss the five steps you'll want to take if you plan to strategically source your ICT using a request for proposal, or RFP.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Strategic Sourcing and Success Stories webpages.

Engaging with supplier account teams is always an interesting exercise and one that is constantly evolving. Economic pressures including inflation, interest rate hikes and talk of a looming recession is having a material impact on how supplier account teams are reacting to various sourcing activities.

In this 9-minute podcast, Larry York, TC2's Executive Director and Tony Mangino look at the latest intel on how to effectively engage with supplier account teams, what to expect and how to drive value on existing network services spend and transformational activities.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Strategic Sourcing and Success Stories webpages.

When your negotiations have concluded, the commercial deal can be handed over to the lawyers for drafting. But how can you be sure that the terms, conditions and pricing that you fought so hard for will actually make it into the final contract as intended?

In this 10-minute podcast, Larry York, TC2's Executive Director and Sara Crifasi, Counsel at LB3 discuss with Tony Mangino how planning for the complexity of transitioning your deal from commercial agreement to final contracts is key to a successful outcome.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Network Services Transactions and Success Stories webpages.

Saving money is always a top priority for enterprise buyers of information communication technology (ICT). Sometimes you must competitively source your services in order to achieve meaningful cost reductions, but sometimes just a few simple moves can add up to big savings.

In this 10-minute podcast, LB3's Laura McDonald and TC2's Joe Schmidt give you five moves you can make right now that will deliver savings to your company.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Network Services Transactions and Success Stories webpages.

Text messaging is an increasingly popular way for businesses to communicate with their customers, but its ease of use and attention-grabbing alerts have made it a prime target for scammers. The recent rise in text message "spam" – texts that are sent without the recipient's consent and usually for a nefarious purpose – poses risks to both consumers and businesses, leading the Federal Communications Commission to address the growing problem of illegal robotexts with an order attempting to curb the nefarious behavior.

In this 10-minute podcast with Sara Crifasi, LB3 Of Counsel, and LB3's Managing Partner Andrew Brown, enterprise customers can learn key tactics to avoid being victimized by illegal text messaging.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Mobile Services and Success Stories webpages.

There is a lot happening in the world right now and it's making a lot of people and companies a little anxious. This uneasiness with the economy, regulatory environment, and general business climate will impact company mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures (MAD).

In this 9-minute podcast, Deb Boehling, a Partner at LB3, and TC2's Joe Schmidt look at some of the more noteworthy MAD transactions announced in 2022 and so far in 2023 and outline what enterprises can do if they're affected.

If you'd like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Technology Consulting & Strategy Development Services and Success Stories webpages.

Enterprise use of cloud services has grown exponentially over the past several years, and as the size of cloud deals increases, enterprise customers must carefully assess the scope of any commitment agreed to in return for discounts and other benefits. In this 9-minute podcast with LB3's Sara Crifasi, TC2 Managing Director Ben Fox lays out the considerations that enterprise customers should bear in mind when negotiating commitments in cloud services deals.

Listen in as Ben highlights approaches that the cloud services providers use to lock-in enterprise customers—from commitments that increase annually to a push for bigger commitments based on aggressive growth targets (many of which may feel eerily similar to those encountered many years ago with telecom carriers).

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Cloud Services and Success Stories webpages.

Technology Expense Management (TEM) is vital to enterprises for helping keep costs in check, but it's an industry undergoing a lot of change. Major TEM providers have added to their service offerings to cover more spend categories and support options, while the industry continues to see a lot of mergers, acquisitions, and venture capital investments.

On this 7-minute podcast, TC2 Directors Theresa Knutson and Joe Schmidt provide an update on recent events in the TEM market that may impact your vendor options.

If you'd like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Contract Compliance & Optimization and Success Stories webpages.

Washington, DC continues to be a hotbed of partisanship which has led to gridlock with a downstream effect on the market for ICT services. Paralyzed government regulation and decision-making impacts the competitive choices of services and providers available to enterprises, it slows down the cycle of innovation that leads to technological advancements, and it hits the bottom-line prices that end users ultimately pay for their services.

Listen to this 10-minute podcast as LB3's Andrew Brown and Sara Crifasi discuss the current environment in Washington, DC with TC2's Joe Schmidt and explain how it affects the products and services that enterprise customers purchase.

If you would like to learn more about our experience in this space, please visit our Disputes & Workouts and Success Stories webpages.