Case Study: The Project team - Between a rock and a hard place

It's June 1, 2020. You and your tablemates comprise the data network Project team for a large, national telecom company (ABC Inc.). Two days ago, you received some news from the Sales team: ABC has finally been selected as the successful respondent to an RFP your team contributed to in the Fall of 2019 and the contract has been signed.

The RFP was issued by XYZ Neatstuff Ltd. to design and implement a new nation-wide high-speed data network to support their 85 locations across Canada. Although margins are thin, and XYZ is a challenging, 'high maintenance' customer, you remain confident that your team identified and analyzed all relevant risks associated with this large, complex telecommunications implementation opportunity, (which could be worth up to $10,000,000 in revenue over five years). It is one of the biggest and most complex proposals your team has contributed to for a customer in this market segment, which the Sales team has been trying to crack for years. This deal will open doors in that market segment for your company.

The customer is a large, national retailer of consumer electronics, with 15,000 employees, headquartered in Vancouver with locations across Canada. Aside from multiple warehouse centres, there are retail outlets in all major Canadian cities, (Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax, Moncton, St. Johns and Charlottetown). There are also locations in numerous secondary centres in each province. XYZ Neatstuff is also part of the larger, North American Neatstuff Corporation. At present, the Canadian operation has autonomy to procure their own services, although they consult closely with their counterparts in the significantly larger US parent entity.

It was a challenge for your project team to get the risk and project analysis work done and signoffs completed for the company's proposal last year, given the numerous conditions XYZ specified in their RFP. The hurdles were cleared though and the Sales team submitted a solid bid. Now, that seems like a long time ago though.

Quite frankly, with all the other potential opportunities you had been asked to provide risk & project management input to as well as the ongoing project implementation work your team has been involved in, associated with your company's aggressive business expansion program, the XYZ opportunity had fallen off your radar screen. You had received no updates on the progress of the RFP from the Sales team and accordingly, you assumed that the opportunity was no longer a priority and allocated your team to other pressing work.

It turns out that the Sales team and the Customer had been engaged in a long, painful negotiation cycle. XYZ drives a hard bargain, has a well-deserved reputation for being a very demanding customer and dragged out the negotiations and final decision-making process significantly, in order to secure the optimal proposal for their needs.

It also turns out that the Sales team had to make some significant concessions during the long negotiation cycle, one of which was XYZ's insistence on meeting a November 1^st implementation completion date, in good time for the all-important Christmas sales season. This would have been fine, had you started work in March, as specified in your input to the RFP response. This is the first you have heard about this concession: your team's RFP input was clear - this project requires 8 months of implementation work - and it's now June 1.

By the way, for the next few months you and your team are currently fully engaged and running flat out to bring in a series of implementation projects on time for other customers. And there is more good news:

• You know that the customer's existing data network (with another provider) is limiting their business operation and they are anxious to proceed immediately - delays will not be well accepted
• The contract with XYZ contains contract penalties for late delivery, (not unusual in this business).

The Sales team has reminded you that after all, this is a $10,000,000 deal - and the contract is signed.

You've just glanced over at your computer and noticed a high priority message from your VP, summoning you to a meeting this afternoon to discuss 'issues' with the XYZ deal.

You round up your Project team and begin preparing for the meeting. The participants for this meeting (in addition to your VP) will include the senior Management decision makers from operations, sales, customer care, and finance, among others.

YOUR CHALLENGE:

1. What are the 'issues', and how should you prepare for the meeting this afternoon?
2. What should your team's recommendations be?