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You may be required by your organization’s purchasing policy to use a formal solicitation and selection process for your data center relocation. Good Data Center Relocation RFP’s are not easy to write and are even harder to evaluate. A data center move of even moderate complexity contains equipment from many vendors. A data center move of this type will require that many of those vendors move their equipment to preserve your warranties.
After the RFP, you’ll still end up needing to manage a multi-vendor move. Larger vendors will have their own relocation process that they follow to deliver their services. This process typically overpowers your staff who are unprepared and unfamiliar and often already exhausted from the RFP process itself.
Additionally, the RFP has likely used up valuable time and has increased the pressure on time-lines.
Pay attention to these items following an RFP:
- Staff Retention Issues – This time period often marks the beginning, not the end, of staff retention concerns.
- Vendor Scope Creep – Following a contract award, vendors often have the first opportunity to accurately determine the work scope. It should be no surprise that this discovery rarely matches the original bid.
- Multi-Vendor Coordination Issues – Every vendor will have their own timeline, but a data center move requires an orchestra-like cooperation. Larger vendors with their larger staffs equipped with their corporate methodology will overpower smaller vendors and your own staff.
Is it time for an intervention? A fresh and independent assessment of your data center relocation including multi-vendor management strategies, cost containment strategies, and a look forward to equally critical post-move issues can provide welcome relief from an exhausting RFP process.
Give us a call. We can give you new insight into your data center relocation project at a time when your staff is weary and exhuasted from the RFP. You’ll want an advocate who is independent from the self-interest that the equipment vendors have in your data center.