Teleconvergence is a small, service-intensive, independent management consulting firm located in Portland, Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest. Our consulting expertise includes telecommunications, marketing and full cycle business development, business systems, and strategic operations planning.
We offer our consulting services in both English and Spanish to startups and small businesses through medium-sized companies everywhere.
Teleconvergence works at a strategic and business level, not a technical one. We help clients leverage technology to satisfy business objectives, decide among system and software alternatives, reduce operating costs, and improve productivity.
We advise companies on market opportunities such as the VoIP industry. We work with clients to create actual products and services that achieve real positioning and differentiation, add real value, and generate real revenue streams.
We do not sell anything or act as agents for anyone. 100% of the revenue from our consulting activities comes from our clients. What we offer is our expertise. Our clients pay us to tell the truth as we see it, and not to simply agree with them. After all, if you already had the answers, there'd be no reason for you to pay us to ask you the questions.
We trust you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the range of our services and their possible application to your situation. Feel free to explore our site, and whenever you're ready, call us to explain your neds.
We hope you enjoy your stay.
When I first started consulting more than 25 years ago, both technology and life were simpler. My clients retained me because they felt I knew the answers.
As recently as ten years ago, my clients were confident I'd be able to find the answers.
Today, my clients retain me in the hope I'll be able to ask the right questions.
Steve Bergman, Teleconvergence founder and owner, has a 30-year history in management, telecommunications and technology, marketing, consulting, and strategic operations/planning. Teleconvergence primarily represents his experience and his personal attention to clients.
He has unusual expertise at both product management and sales and a unique ability to create company and product positioning that achieves valuable differentiation in otherwise commodity-like settings. He has a multicultural and multilingual perspective that, along with his ability to use technology to achieve business objectives, enables him to find markets, channels, and diverse ways to create new revenue streams. He’s a team player, working with CEOs and others to provide perspective and in-depth expertise that may be lacking or otherwise unavailable in-house.
He has taught both undergraduate and graduate classes at Golden Gate University in San Francisco in Telecommunications Management and in Strategic Telecommunications Planning. He participated in the Portland Community College (PCC) steering committee that created PCC’s E-commerce curriculum, and has also taught Telecommunications Management there. He served for several years on the Board of Directors of Internet Professionals Northwest (IPN), as well as the board of Portland SME (Sales and Marketing Executives).
He is the author of many published articles on telecommunications and is an accomplished speaker, available to groups and associations to discuss the impact and future of telecommunications and Internet-related issues, managing technological change and convergence. He is fluent in Spanish.
Primary objectives and considerations regarding fees:
The work we do is varied. The factors we take into consideration when framing the relationship and the compensation include (but are not limited to):
Teleconvergence is retained on either a Project or a Retainer basis.
Most consulting work for all consultants consists of projects, specific activities that have start and stop dates. For some consultants, that's the only work they do.
Teleconvergence works with clients to make projects as manageable as possible. For a new client, this may mean a limited number of initial hours spent largely in defining the scope and cost of the project and in establishing the basis for a long-term relationship. We also spend time creating milestones and deliverables, learning about the client's business and objectives, and determining the activities with the greatest financial ROI or the most strategic value, or some combination thereof.
Since Teleconvergence is a management consulting firm, we also have clients on retainer. A Teleconvergence retainer may consist of multiple overlapping projects stretching into the future. It may reflect outsourced functions such as IT-Liaison or telecom management. It may involve a continuing management role ensuring that technology is adequate to support marketing efforts and that marketing efforts take full advantage of available technology. It may consist of any or all of these and more.
Retainers are always for extended periods and are paid monthly at a flat rate that reflects either stable volume or changing volumes of work averaged out over the retainer period. If a retainer client unexpectedly has a large project, we either roll it into an extended retainer or bill hourly for the extra work at the discounted retainer rate, as the client prefers.
For more information about our retainer, see both The Teleconvergence Telecommunications Retainer and the The Teleconvergence Retainer FAQ.
Regardless of the type of relationship, Teleconvergence tries to fit the scope of the activity to the client's time, financial, and strategic horizons. We have a variety of compensation plans and we always try to propose more than one of them to a prospective client in a way that is revenue neutral for us. That allows us to simply suggest that the client select the compensation method with which he or she feels most comfortable.
The Very High Cost of Low Flat Fees
The concept of a flat fee is inherently attractive to both client and consultant. The client likes it because it can be budgeted and limits financial risk. The consultant likes it because it represents guaranteed cash flow. Yet in most instances, it's a truly bad idea for both parties. Here's why.
Let's begin with two true statements. First, a consultant's most valuable resource is the time for which he or she charges. Secondly, all projects consist of knowns and unknowns.
The two come together because all projects, but especially more complex ones, contain many unknowns, or as Teleconvergence calls them, gotchas. The full extent of gotchas are unknowable before a project starts -- indeed, many gotchas are created once underway, when a client becomes aware of a new risk or opportunity and asks us to investigate or to develop an idea further. These unanticipated efforts and new directions take time to work through, and time is, well, you know, money.
Any consultant proposing a flat rate has three choices, only two of which will generally be acknowledged. Since gotchas consume unknowable but frequently considerable amounts of time, the consultant generally has to either (1) ignore gotchas while bidding or (2) hide a significant amount of contingency time in the bid to account for them. This really isn't padding the bill; it simply reflects a desire to avoid losing money on the project when an unforeseeable snag (or even a series of them) raises its head.
Any prospective client receiving an surprisingly low time estimate should beware. Just as surgeons are frequently surprised by what they find while operating, it's equally true that no consultant can foresee everything. If there is no fudge factor for unknowns, and gotchas begin to consume the project, the consultant has every incentive to not spend time and effort elsewhere. Never assume a consultant will be willing to perform all the work necessary even though he or she stands to lose a significant amount of money, despite assurances to the contrary.
What about the third choice? The third choice is for a "consultant" to bid a low flat fee and to more than make up for it by receiving a hefty commission from one or more vendors in the consultant's stable while adamantly denying it's taking place.
Which of these approaches does Teleconvergence take?
None of them.
Except for retainers, we usually don’t perform projects on a totally flat rate; we will provide a flat rate for specific work with the proviso that time expended on anything not specifically included in the work description shall be billed separately.
In general, as we say elsewhere, we have a variety of plans and we always try to propose more than one of them to a prospective client in a way that is revenue neutral for us. That allows us to simply suggest that the client select the compensation method with which he or she feels most comfortable.
1. What is Teleconvergence?
Teleconvergence is an independent management consulting firm with expertise in marketing, technology, telecommunications, and strategic operations. We have a business rather than a technical orientation. Our clients range from startups to medium-sized businesses. We're located in Portland, Oregon, and we offer our services in both English and Spanish.
2. Does Teleconvergence sell any equipment? Are you an Internet provider? Do you provide software as a service?
No. No. And No.
3. What are examples of your services and why do companies use them?
Our Telecommunications Consulting services result in lowered costs, increased revenue, enhanced productivity, and improved communications.
Our Strategic Telecommunications Planning (STP) services help clients leverage telecommunications technologies to attain corporate objectives. Our STP competencies include Telecommunications Business Continuity and Disaster Planning, Bridging the IT-Business Unit Divide, Outsourcing telecommunications, and Procedural Strip Mining, Teleconvergence’s version of business analysis.
Our Strategic Telecommunications Marketing (STM) services are utilized when the telecom focus shifts from satisfying internal operations requirements to creating new revenue streams. Examples of such capabilities are resale of telephone service within a building or local area, providing virtual or actual call center capabilities, and providing telecommunications business continuity services to partners up and down a client’s supply chain
Our VoIP Opportunity Development services (actually a specialized subset of FCBD, below) help entrepreneurs determine whether and how to enter the VoIP business.
Finally, Full Cycle Business Development (FCBD) helps companies differentiate their products and services from their competition while developing new revenue streams to meet organizational objectives.
Our clients appreciate the fact that we're there with them for the long term, that we learn their business and their style, and that they can either use us whenever they need us or on a more formal retainer basis. They view Teleconvergence as integral to their success as their other professional advisors.
4. What types of consulting work do you do?
Our consulting work falls into two areas:
On a Project basis, we perform specific tasks and provide advice and recommendations to help a client reach a particular objective.
On a Retainer basis, we become part of a client's management team, identifying priorities and opportunities, mapping out appropriate strategies, and working with various departments to achieve objectives. We can also virtually perform the telecommunications management function for our retainer clients, although not day-to-day administration.
Due to the long-term nature of our retainer relationships, we gain insight into our clients' future plans and acquire significant understanding of their business practices and procedures, ensuring that we can continue to leverage our expertise for their best short and long term interests..
5. How much does it cost to speak with you?
Nothing. We will speak with you without charge or rigid time limit to answer your initial questions, and to let us both determine if Teleconvergence can understand your situation and satisfy your needs.
There are two reasons why we hold nothing back during these conversations.
6. What is it like having Teleconvergence as a consultant?
We're very direct, both before and after we've been retained. Our clients value our no-nonsense and honest approach. This is especially valuable when an existing or even potential client knows he or she needs help, but is not even sure where or how to start.
It may seem unusual, but Teleconvergence is frequently retained first to determine exactly what needs to be done and whether we're the right party to do the work. If we decide we're not, we'll do our best to steer you in the right direction. We also often invite colleagues with special expertise to work on projects with us. Even the best doctors refer certain patients to other specialists.
Since we're consultants and not vendors, if you basically just want to buy something and be done with it, then you want a vendor and not a consultant. Similarly, if you're looking for a firm that will say "yes" to whatever you tell them, then you want to speak to someone who gets paid for saying "yes" to a customer, and that's a salesperson, not a consultant. Or at least not a true consultant like us. Also, if you're not comfortable with straight talk like this, that's another indication we might not be a good fit for each other.
7. Once we speak, do you send us a proposal?
No. We will not spend time generating a proposal just to see if you like it. We will spend the time with you necessary to determine if have the basis for a fruitful relationship. Over one or more sessions, we will discuss the scope of what we can do, your objectives and budget and other constraints and details, how much time we would spend on your behalf, and how long it would take us to complete your project. We'll discuss work stages and milestones and fees and the other elements of a successful relationship. We do that together.
However, if and only if we agree to a relationship, including first payment and start date, then, with your approval, we will willingly spend a considerable amount of time to prepare and send you a detailed confirmation of everything we've agreed to, including a reasonable kill fee should we not proceed. But we will not just send out a proposal solely in the hope it will be accepted; someone has to pay for the time we spend preparing it, and it's not fair to charge other clients for it, however indirectly. Don't you agree?
8. One last question. If we decide to use your services, how do you charge?
We have a variety of options available, ranging from hourly or flat fees to a monthly or annual retainer. We always try to give a client compensation alternatives, each of which is revenue neutral to us. That way, a prospective client can retain us on the basis with which he or she feels most appropriate.
Once you’ve read enough to feel comfortable with our perspective and approach, why not call us to discuss your needs?