Module 03: Understanding Customer Requirements

How to understand and interpret request for proposal (RFP) documents.

The RFP

• List of design requirements
• Types of solutions
• Warranty and legal terms

A request for information (RFI) can be broad in scope and covers the technical aspects. It may be a precursor to an RFP. An RFP takes more effort from both parties.

The RFP typically includes environmental elements (Layer 1), such as power or PoE. These influence the scope of the project and the solution.

Tips for a Successful Response

• Pay attentin to details
• Highlight benefits of the design
• Respond using the format of the customer

The RDP response should include:

• Executive summary
• Network topology
  • High level logical design and low level physical design
• Design details
  • Protocols, standards
• Implementation plan
  • Including timetables
• Training plan
  • For the customer’s employees
• Support plan

Defining Key Stakeholders

• Understand the corporate structure
  • Know who has the final say in accepting or rejecting a plan
• Ask the right people the right questions
  • To understand the requirements
  • To understand the existing network
• Understand corporate politics
  • Some people might prefer one vendor over another
  • Some designs might influence the company, e.g. headcount

Gathering Data

Use questionnaires, surveys and interviews. Use job aids; documentation and instructions for customer employees to do their jobs.

Take into consideration the customer’s goals, gathered earlier, and employee feedback. Collect facts about the customer’s existing network. If the customer is amicable, offer to perform a traffic flow analysis on the existing network, to gauge the required capacity on the new network.

Identifying Applications

Networks are defined by the applications people use. Identify the applications in use by the customer employees, and keep track of them in a table. Include user applications and system applications. Consider existing and new applications, and the network capacity required by all of them.

Analysing the Existing Environment

Some requirements are for greenfield deployments. There is little or no networking equipment already in place, and therefore little restraint on the kind of network that can be build. However, there may still be space and cooling constraints.

Most often, the customer will already have a network, that needs to be upgraded. If the network has been built in a modular way, then upgrading it to provide additional functionality should be possible with little disruption. Sometimes, the customer is happy with the design, but has old equipment that needs to be replaced. Sometimes, the design and equipment are both outdated, and need to be updated and replaced.

Identifying Resources

Creat a bill of materials (BOM). It often helps to use a modular or multilevel BOM, if parts of the design are replicated for multiple customers.

Set pricing and understand budgets. Consider that the budget may change over time. If the new design would mean a change in headcount or training, communicate this to the customer for them to provide instructions.