A process built to get the decision right
Four steps from a technology decision to a working solution, with one advisor beside you the whole way.
Technology decisions often arrive with a deadline: a contract is about to renew, a move is three weeks away, or something broke. With a little more room, the choice is usually better.
Our process slows the decision down just enough to make it a good one. It has four steps. They are the same for a single office and for an enterprise. What changes is how deep each step goes.
Not every line below applies to every situation. The principles are the same each time. The specific steps vary with what you need.
Step 1
Assess
We start with your business and the outcome you want, not with a product.
What we do:
- Learn what the business does, where it is going, what is not working today, and what result you want to see at the end.
- Review what you have today, in as much detail as you are ready to share.
- Agree on how you decide: who approves, who pays, who will use the technology, and what your procurement process requires.
- Go deeper where the organization is larger or more complex. The more there is to know, the more we ask before recommending anything.
What you get: a short written summary of your requirements that you confirm before we take anything to the market.
Step 2
Compare
We take your requirements to the market and bring back real options.
What we do:
- Identify which of 500+ providers can actually serve your locations and your requirements.
- Collect proposals and put them in one format, side by side.
- Bring in solution engineers when a decision needs deeper technical evaluation.
- Look at every option from four sides: technology, business, finance, and customer experience.
What you get: a side-by-side comparison in plain language, with our recommendation and the reasoning behind it. If the best answer is to keep what you have, we say so.
Step 3
Contract
You choose. We make sure what you sign is what you were offered.
What we do:
- Check the agreement against the proposal. Depending on the contract, that can include the term and renewal clauses, pricing, service level commitments, and installation or implementation dates.
- Raise anything that does not match with the provider before you sign.
- Work within your approval process, with the documents it requires.
What you get: an agreement between you and the provider that matches what was proposed. You sign directly with the provider. Legal review stays with your own counsel.
Step 4
Implement and support
After the contract is signed, the real work begins.
What we do:
- Follow the order and the implementation through to go-live.
- Coordinate with your team and the provider along the way.
- Confirm that what was delivered matches what was agreed.
- Stay your point of contact afterwards, when questions or issues come up.
- Help you review your options when the agreement comes up for renewal.
What you get: a working solution, and someone to call who already knows your account.
What stays the same on every project
- You decide. We advise and recommend. The decision is always yours.
- One point of contact. You always know who to call at Black Owls, and they know your account.
- Your team stays in the loop. We work with your IT department or IT provider, never around them.
- We tell you when to do nothing. If your current setup is the right one, or if you do not need us, we say so.
It depends on the decision. A comparison for a single service at one location can be ready within days to a couple of weeks. A project across many locations or several technologies takes longer, because the research goes deeper. Installation adds its own time: some services go live in days, while new fiber can take 30 to 90 days or more.
A conversation about your business, what is not working, and the outcome you want. Recent invoices, current contracts, and a list of locations help us be more precise, but none of them is required to begin. You can share them later, when you are comfortable doing so. In a larger organization we also ask who is involved in the decision and what your procurement process requires.
No. Sometimes the comparison shows that your current provider is the right one, or that a better contract with the same provider solves the problem. If that is the case, we say so.
You sign directly with the provider you choose. The agreement is between your organization and that provider. Our role is to make sure it matches what was proposed, and to stay your point of contact after it is signed.
You call us. We know your account and what was promised, and we escalate to the provider on your behalf through our own contacts there.
Yes. Before any work starts, we agree on how your organization approves and buys: who is involved, which documents are required, and what confidentiality or onboarding steps apply. We then deliver our work in the form your process needs.