Most people outside the business, or even on one side or the other, don’t realize how much effort goes into the finalizing of the contract and the handoff from sales to delivery at the time of the project start. These things take time and care to get right.

I wanted to outline the model here. Some companies have delivery teams do the bid but when you grow, this is practical anymore. Somehow you need to make sure all teams are aligned and held accountable.

Wade’s notes on private network sales to delivery handoff.

• Rubber hitting the road, alignment.
• Finish the final design with delivery and customer.
• Update the final business case, pricing, and changes.
• Align the updated schedule.
• Align the customer with the delivery teams.
• Everyone, same page, please!

Some notes that may help you along in building a #PLTE and #P5G business.

Rubber hitting the road, alignment.

OK, so you’ve won a deal, how exciting. Yet, you should be nervous as well. This is where a lot of problems happen. 

Let’s review some risks and questions:

• The offer was sold, but is it as is or will there have to be modifications and changes? Do you and the customer actually agree on everything? Details matter.
• Is your delivery team on board with what you actually sold? Do they know the details?
• Did you align delivery, customer, and the gaps in between?
• What did you miss?
• What did you assume?
• What did delivery assume?
• What is the customer assuming?
• What are the risks?

Remember, you only know what you know, it’s what you don’t know that will surprise you.

This is where you actually have to finalize the offer. If you think it’s already done, then be ready for problems. This is a network that requires details to be handled up front, at least as many as you can.

Once you get better drawings and do site walks, you have a better understanding of how things will fit together.

Permitting may be an issue depending on where you’re working.

In some cities or buildings you may still need union labor or to pay prevailing wage. That’s still a requirement in many larger cities.

What about the supply chain? Did you take into account what can be delivered and when?

You also need to think about staging. 

All these little things add up. They could add cost to your project. The one thing you and the customer can agree on is that the project has to be successful. To do that, you need to align with your teams and the customer’s teams. They should already know the expectations, but in case they think it will all work out without any hiccups, you need to set them straight. There is always something. 

Your job as the integrator is to make it as easy for the customer as possible and still deliver a great network, or at least what they paid for.

When you align, go through the schedule and acceptance one more time. It helps to be sure you’re all on the same page. 

When they accept the network, have clear criteria so you can hand it over to them without any gray areas. 

Finish the final design with delivery and customer.

I would bet the first quote you gave the customer had a lot of variables in it. They probably gave you high-level information. The sales team should have said (repeatedly) that the site walk and closer inspection will help you set the final price.

Then when you sit down and walk through the details, perhaps do some site walks, you begin to get the actual costs so you can finalize the quote. 

Now, this won’t be set in stone, 

The reality is that when you start the project you will uncover some unknowns. This means that there may be change orders throughout the project. These are the things you want customers to be aware of.

The deployment team will know what to expect as they gain experience. They could forecast many problems.

You also want to be sure that everything you quoted on the BOM is available and can do what you promised. Roadmaps with features could be missing something or they could change over time. These are risks that should have been identified earlier and labeled as such.

I would say the design should be as close to the final model as possible. This is where everyone will sign off on the design, plan, and schedule. I think this will help you when things get tough or problems arise.

Update the final business case, pricing, and changes.

Now, the final design and schedule should be set. You need to align the pricing, which also should be set, with the costs in the business case. Here is where you have a solid understanding of the actual costs you expect to spend. 

You should also have your risks covered either in a risk budget or using change orders to true everything up. 

Larger companies have risk budgets and risk logs done ahead of time to identify the risks they are aware of or that could happen. You can’t protect yourself from everything, but you can protect yourself from known risks, and that will help you down the road.

Align the updated schedule.

Now that you know the final design, you should have the final BOM, and you should know the customer’s schedule and testing requirements.

Let’s align the schedule. While this sounds easy, like, “Hey, when can we start?” We all know that you have to check the availability of the materials. A few years ago, when COVID was in full swing, no one knew when we could get anything. While it’s much better today, we still have potential risks and delays.

We also have manufacturers discontinuing products or making changes. 

If you deal with radios and routers, you also know that the roadmaps are wrong, causing you to find replacements to achieve the customer’s desired results. This isn’t always a bad thing unless you’re locked into one vendor or OEM, then you may have problems if they can’t deliver on anything.

There is an expectation that everything will do what it’s supposed to, but things don’t always work out. I would recommend being as transparent as possible with the customer. I think they would appreciate the honesty over a bad surprise. We all hate surprises when they are bad

Align the customer with the delivery teams.

Please note, “delivery teams” is plural, because in this scenario you may have a wireless team, an IT team, a construction team, a commissioning team, and an electrical team. Larger offers will need to have a project management team to pull all of this together. It’s usually best if they are involved in the sales process.

Real-world experience helps because if you’ve done it before you know what to expect and where to start. It’s easy for the delivery team to get overwhelmed, especially if the delivery time frame is short. 

This is where the customer also aligns with everyone. You may think that internally you need to align, but without the customer’s project management team being on the same page, it won’t matter. Remember that sales may have worked with all of these teams but probably closed with the managers then it is handed off to the IT or other team again.

Everyone, same page, please!

Have you ever been in this situation? You show up with your teams and equipment and the people at the site are surprised to see you. I have. 

Now I make it a point to call myself and ask who will be there to meet us. Then I ask for that person specifically. I try not to assume anything.

I have had customers forget we showing up that day, even after a call and an email, somehow it’s not enough.

What I started doing back then was sending out an invite on a calendar and also testing their mobile device. I want their attention, at least for the kickoff. I need focus and I don’t want to be someone they let in, point, and then leave unless I am given full access and permission to do anything I need to. 

Sometimes that is the best route, they tell you to go do what you have to do.

I remember tower work was challenging because sometimes two crews show up at the same tower at the same time. In that situation, you have to be flexible because the other team may have priority over you. No point in being a jerk, just let the customer work it out. Do what they ask, and if possible, have a backup plan for your team.

So, get on the same page with everyone that matters!