Don’t let vendors run the show

This is your demo, your POC, your decision. If you’re not steering it based on your needs, you’re wasting time. Here’s how to take control - from smart vendor selection to ruthless POC execution.

Demo > Get the vendor to demo based upon you, your business and your needs. You would have already defined your non-negotiable requirements. The vendor can then tailor his/her demo to you. Not the other way around.

We always recommend a demo form no more than three vendors, any more than that it gets more complicated as you go through the selection and down-selection process. 

References > if you think any of the chosen vendors are suitable get the references. Be clear of what you need to know, don’t be afraid to be over prepared and ask difficult questions. We love this bit and drawing on our vast pool of knowledge and experience.

POC > this is your POC not the vendors. Use your scope including your non-negotiables, don’t spend hours deep-diving on the GUI if your requirements are not met. Share your requirements and non-negotiables with the vendors up front. They can then prepare based upon these and expand as you need to fulfil your brief.

POC duration > the most successful POCs last no more than two weeks.

Why? It is a fallacy to think you need longer than this. From the vendors perspective they have to resource the POCs and build the environments, these take time. If month end cycles are important conduct over this period. We always recommend with SD-WAN to do a physical POC with actual hardware, you want to kick the tyres. If public cloud is important deploy a node there too. If you plan on self-managing do it yourself, with their guidance.

Next up is SASE PoP locations and why they matter, more than you think.