AGENDA

8:15 am Registration and Continental Breakfast

8:45 am Chair’s Introduction and Welcoming Remarks

9:00 am The MPLS Landscape: A Buyers/Users Guide
Telecom is unlike all other IT services – and MPLS is not like any other telecom service. That reality has to be reflected in your procurement strategy and contracts. Join Hank Levine and Laura McDonald for a hard look at how recent, and profound, changes in the telecom market affect all enterprise users and learn how to separate fact from fiction when it comes to the laws and regulations that govern MPLS and VoIP services.
Hank Levine and Laura McDonald
Levine Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP

9:45 am MPLS The Technology and The Marketing
MPLS and VoIP are buzz words thrown around with abandon by vendors and the trade press. In this session, you’ll discover how these technologies really work and why they are fundamentally different from the legacy services - particularly Frame Relay and ATM – they are replacing. We’ll explore the key differences among carrier MPLS offerings and how each can hurt or help your company. Then we’ll look at the pros and cons of unmanaged services, managed services, end-to-end managed IP telephony or hybrid offerings.
Joe Schmidt and David Lee
TechCaliber Consulting, LLC

10:15 am Refreshment Break

10:30 am Laying the Groundwork for a Smooth Transition
There is no such thing as a “hot cut” when transitioning to MPLS. A trouble free transition is the end result of a crystal clear evaluation of your requirements, a rock solid understanding of your current obligations, a detailed assessment of your current network, and a strategic examination of carrier capabilities. This fast moving session shows you how to cut through vendor RFP boilerplate responses and marketing fluff to get to a winning deal that protects your enterprise.
Laura McDonald
Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP

11:15 am Negotiating Key Contract Terms and Conditions: The Essentials
Every successful deal contains scores of key terms and conditions, but only some will appear on the vendor's contract forms. The rest are buried in vendor boilerplate documents posted on the web and subject to change at any time by the vendor! Attend this session and you’ll learn how to build a checklist that leads to a sound and complete contract – one with the terms and conditions that lock in the deal you bargained for and protects your long term interests.
Hank Levine, Deb Boehling and Mark Johnston
Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP

12:00 pm Lunch

1:30 pm Negotiating Key Contract Terms and Conditions: MPLS Agreements
Take a deep-dive into the Ts & Cs that are specific to MPLS deals – and that result in solid and productive relationships. You’ll get an exclusive checklist of contract clauses that are key to MPLS deals to lock in real cost savings.
Laura McDonald and Deb Boehling
Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP

2:30 pm Refreshment Break

2:45 pm MPLS Pricing and Design
The carriers' approaches to operations and pricing are complex and difficult to compare, and unless you understand the key differences, crafting a winning deal is impossible. You must have an understanding of class of service (CoS) and how MPLS uses CoS to prioritize your network traffic – a major piece of your overall MPLS cost. Then you’ll hear all about other price elements – all unique to MPLS – from bundled pricing and site-specific rates to hidden “management” fees.
Joe Schmidt and David Lee
TechCaliber Consulting, LLC

3:30 pm Making Service Level Agreements Work For You
Whenever a new technology is deployed performance becomes uncertain, making SLAs crucial. But there are pitfalls aplenty in many SLAs, like finding out what vendors really mean when they offer 99.999% wrapped in a host of exceptions that hamstring the agreement, or how and why 30 day measurement periods don’t work in the MPLS world. Plus you need to pay special attention to MPLS performance specs like jitter, latency, delay, response time and more – specs that require you to root out and shut down carrier “escape hatches”. Attend this closing session and you’ll be in a position to negotiate a solid set of SLAs that work to your advantage.
Deb Boehling and Mark Johnston
Levine, Blaszak, Block & Boothby, LLP

David Lee
TechCaliber Consulting, LLC

4:30 pm Conference Adjourns