In Telecom and IT, David Roberts, CEO of ProcureLogix, emerges as a formidable figure, aptly known as “The Most Dangerous Man in Telecom.” Beyond widespread recognition, Roberts has established himself as a visionary and an unrivaled force to be reckoned with in the world of telecom. His vast experience and exceptional expertise have propelled him to the forefront of the industry, earning him the distinction of a true Renaissance Man. From his entrepreneurial ventures to groundbreaking inventions, David Roberts has disrupted the industry’s landscape, leaving an indelible mark that resonates with telecom carriers and clients alike.
Roberts’ guidance in personally coaching his enterprise clients through the minefield of telecom regulations, complexities and onerous contract terms has had a lasting impact on the global telecom providers’ bottom line, and thus an entire industry. No longer do the telecom providers have the upper-hand in these negotiations, which ultimately have led to high-risk, bloated contracts favoring the providers. David Roberts has trimmed Billions of excessive profits from the telecom carriers back into the rightful pockets of the corporate end-users by exposing their practices. Roberts has likely personally negotiated more telecom contracts than any person in history. Thus, David Roberts is “most dangerous” to the providers’ operating as status quo.
The Enterprise World recently had the privilege of sitting down with David Roberts to gain insight into his remarkable and unparalleled role spanning three decades. We asked David Roberts, about his negotiating style and what enjoys most about this process, in which he stated, “The telecom companies are highly-skilled at using leverage to obtain contract signatures on deals that are at best, sub-par and in many cases downright unethical in scope.
We completely flip that leverage in the client’s favor. My style? I would say I negotiate in a very, very direct manner with a bit of a natural touch of ‘Texas swagger’ and common sense. And – I thoroughly enjoy – almost too much, of ultimately winning the terms for our clients that I demand and they deserve. For me, it’s always about winning for my clients.”
Seizing the Opportunity
In the wake of telecom deregulation, David Roberts recognized a unique opportunity to build a business around the industry’s unsettling practices that largely grew from a monopolistic environment . The once highly-regulated telecom and IT sectors had transformed into the “wild west,” leaving buyers vulnerable to one-sided contracts and questionable revenue recognition techniques reminiscent of the infamous “Enron accounting.”
David Roberts saw an urgent need to address this culture of revenue-recognition flashing continues to drive outdated business practices and questionable ethics which surprisingly still continues today. He observed how large enterprises, lacking proper guidance, were subjected to unreasonable contract terms when navigating this complex landscape alone. Since then, Roberts has dramatically impacted the telecom and IT industry throughout his career. David Roberts has been directly responsible for returning over $5 Billion in excess profits back to his enterprise clients. His involvement spans thousands of contracts for major enterprises and globally recognized logos and publicly-traded clients.
Empowering Global Enterprises
David Roberts’ firm, ProcureLogix is a boutique consulting firm helping sizable global enterprise clients procure exceptional contracts and terms for telecom, network, and IT products and services. With over 30 years of experience, its principals have procured over $15 Billion in telecom contracts.
At the helm of ProcureLogix as the Chief Operations Officer is David Roberts’ oldest son – Travis Roberts. The younger Roberts is a Harvard-trained negotiator with nearly 15 years of experience in leading the project management of complex telecom sourcing initiatives for global clients and in actual live client-vendor negotiations. ProcureLogix is in excellent hands for the long-term future.
Telibid™
At the core of ProcureLogix’s offerings is its industry-leading eProcurement tool, Telibid™. This multiple patent-pending application enables clients to launch and manage complex global RFPs for network, telecom, and IT services. It gives them a competitive edge in securing optimal Best-in-Class contracts aligned with their business objectives by strategically converting leverage in the client’s favor. Additionally, ProcureLogix provides IT-related contract legal consultation and strategic benchmarking services, ensuring thorough reviews and offering valuable insights for performance improvement. Telibid™’s financial analysis tools and ability to manage all aspects of a formal global RFP for services has literally been another game-changer typical to David Roberts’ disruptive style.
Why Choose ProcureLogix?
By partnering with ProcureLogix, businesses can offload the complexities of telecom negotiations and focus on their core objectives. With a highly-skilled negotiation team and effective strategies, ProcureLogix empowers clients to navigate the procurement landscape and secure agreements that exceed with their goals. The ProcureLogix team can deliver world-class contract terms and pricing that the end-user simply cannot acquire alone, due to the extensive knowledge, contacts and experience from negotiating these terms on a daily basis.
SourceLogix™
ProcureLogix™ highly recommends RFPs (Request for Proposals) as the ultimate leverage strategy to drive competitive costs and maximize the potential of any business’ telecom environment. RFPs serve as a rigorously competitive exercise, leveraging incumbent Providers against the market to yield exceptional results. Remarkably, significant cost reductions can often be achieved without any changes to the existing network infrastructure.
While RFPs are pivotal in cost reduction, ProcureLogix™ understands they are not the sole avenue for savings. Leveraging current Providers can also lead to substantial cost savings without the need to go through the RFP process. This approach directly impacts the business’s bottom line, delivering tangible financial benefits while saving valuable time and resources. The key to securing favorable pricing and terms is leveraging the right strategy to attain the desired leverage.
ProcureLogix™ offers a comprehensive range of services, including.
- RFPs
- RFQs
- TEM RFPs
- Renewals
- Mid-Term negotiations
- Provider Consolidations
- Quoting
With SourceLogix™ as a trusted partner, businesses can unlock the power of maximum leverage, optimizing the telecom landscape and driving significant financial benefits.
ComplianceLogix™
Global organizations frequently enter into telecom service orders and contracts to meet operational needs. However, in a rush to procure these services, many agreements are signed without a comprehensive understanding of obligational risk, market competitiveness, and adherence to world-class terms and conditions. Constrained by time limitations, IT departments often struggle to ensure compliance when procuring telecom services.
Recognizing these challenges, ProcureLogix™ restores valuable time to organizations by offering over 30 years of telecom contract expertise. Its dedicated team ensures that contractual obligations are thoroughly reviewed, redlined, and compliant, mitigating risks and maximizing contractual benefits.
The services provided by ComplianceLogix™ include
- Reviewing Order terms and conditions
- Ensuring Provider compliance
- Eliminating restrictive terms and red flags
- Providing Stewardship management
- Producing Compliance Reports recommending signatures
- Providing order tracking (for updates)
- Making changes with Providers
- Negotiating pricing/NRCs
With ComplianceLogix™ as a trusted partner, businesses can be rest assured that telecom contracts are compliant, protecting interests and ensuring a successful business relationship.
LifecycleLogix™
ProcureLogix™ understands the importance of maintaining accurate contract records, tracking obligations, and managing provider relationships to ensure a competitive sourcing environment. It offers LifecycleLogix™, a comprehensive solution to streamline telecom contract management. With LifecycleLogix™, ProcureLogix™ is responsible for maintaining the lifecycle of the businesses’ telecom contracts. It provides:
- Central contract repository
- Commitment tracking & forecasting
- Stewardship management
- Contract expiration reports
- Contract management
- Service Term reporting
- Evergreen/auto-renew reporting
- Sourcing Recommendations
- Proactive milestone notifications
BenchmarkLogix™
ProcureLogix™ offers the perfect solution for businesses seeking to benchmark their telecom rates and gain a competitive edge. With its innovative product, BenchmarkLogix™, businesses can easily compare their pricing to industry standards and identify areas for improvement in their telecom costs. Using Telecom Market Intelligence, BenchmarkLogix™ provides valuable market analytics and comprehensive comparisons. This empowers businesses to make informed decisions based on accurate data, ensuring their rates remain competitive and aligned with industry standards.
MobilityLogix™
With MobilityLogix™, ProcureLogix™ helps businesses maximize their savings by analyzing their wireless telecom setup and recommending optimized rate plans. By leveraging its expertise and industry insights, the firm ensures that mobile rate plans are cost-effective and competitive. ProcureLogix™ goes beyond a mere analysis of wireless expenses. Its Wireless Savings Analysis dives deep into the telecom environment, identifying areas for improvement and pinpointing potential cost-saving opportunities.
ConsultLogix™
ProcureLogix™ understands that navigating the complex world of telecommunications can be challenging for businesses. It offers ConsultLogix™, a comprehensive consulting service designed to address all telecom needs. From technical consultations to contract workouts, ProcureLogix™ has the expertise to assess and support businesses’ unique requirements.
With ConsultLogix™, ProcureLogix™ provides a range of valuable services. Its team conducts thorough contract reviews and assessments, ensuring that telecom agreements are fair, transparent, and aligned with the business goals. Additionally, it offers technology advisement to help businesses stay up-to-date with the latest telecom advancements and make informed decisions about technology investments. ProcureLogix™ also excels in commercial and legal contract advisement. Its experts guide businesses through the intricacies of telecom contracts, offering valuable insights and recommendations.
Revolutionizing Procurement
In addition to their expertise, David Roberts and his team at ProcureLogix have developed a groundbreaking technology called Telibid™. This proprietary platform, which has pending patents, is a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) bidding process designed explicitly for procuring telecom and IT services. It is the only tool created by industry experts tailored to meet the unique needs of clients in this sector.
The Unyielding Negotiator
With his strategic negotiating skills, David Roberts has amassed an unrivaled expertise in the field of telecom contracts, having successfully negotiated more of them than anyone. Roberts has a unique talent to pierce archaic vendor policy excuses and pull the curtain back on questionable contract processes. Roberts leaves no stone unturned, which has led to some interesting revelations – and even industry-needed changes.
A perfect example is when David Roberts initially uncovered the troubling collusion between major telecom carriers and U.S. government institutions during intense contract negotiations, leading to alleged Fourth Amendment violations, as these vendors handed over their clients’ metadata to the government without proper authorization or search warrants – and without their clients’ knowledge.
This scandal later came to light during Congressional hearings and through the whistleblower testimony of Edward Snowden, but Roberts uncovered it a full year before. “The vendors know that I know what their clients don’t know – and more importantly, that I won’t hesitate to expose it,” stated David Roberts.
Exposing Dubious Practices & Impact
Known for his relentless pursuit of truth and justice, Roberts has become a formidable force, exposing telecom and IT giants’ questionable contracting and billing practices that cater to large enterprises. David Roberts chuckles when confronted with his notorious moniker. However, beneath the laughter lies a profound sense of accomplishment. Through his bold actions, he has single-handedly stripped billions of dollars from the annual revenue figures of these industry behemoths.
By actively engaging in large enterprises’ buying and procurement processes, David Roberts has educated them about the questionable practices of telecom carriers and IT service providers. This involvement has led to significant reductions in the profit margins of these companies, amounting to billions of dollars saved.
Unveiling the Dangers of Revenue-Flashing
David Roberts sheds light on the practice of revenue-flashing within the telecom industry. Revenue-flashing refers to the unethical recognition of unearned revenue by telecom providers. For example, a provider may secure a customer’s three-year, $1 million revenue-commitment contract. However, the sales team, motivated by bonuses tied to inflated revenue figures, reports the entire $3 million as a sale in the month or quarter the contract was executed.
This behavior, driven by contract terms that allow for such practices, poses significant risks for the customer. It creates an illusion of higher sales figures and masks the true financial health of the telecom provider. The customer is exposed to unnecessary risks, as the inflated revenue figures can influence decision-making processes and lead to unfavorable contract terms.
Challenging Head-On
With a track record of monumental impact in the telecom and IT industry, it is no surprise that the companies in question do not welcome the engagement of David Roberts and his firm, ProcureLogix, for consultation and negotiation services. The prospect of facing Roberts and his team are met with trepidation, knowing that their extensive knowledge and expertise leave no room for deception or exploitative practices.
Engaging with Clients on a Contingency-Basis
David Roberts outlines the process through which clients engage with ProcureLogix. The firm assumes all the risk, offering clients a no-cost evaluation of their telecom and IT contracts. By providing a detailed assessment of the necessary improvements and the potential cost savings in their upcoming procurement cycle, ProcureLogix demonstrates the value it can bring. Importantly, the firm operates on a contingency basis, meaning it only receives payment if it successfully saves the client money.
Rewarded for Unmatched Expertise
David Roberts has undeniably achieved remarkable success in his field. With his unparalleled expertise and vast experience, it is no surprise that he has been able to carve out a rewarding lifestyle for himself. Having established himself as the foremost authority in this niche, his exceptional track record in delivering results for clients naturally translates into personal success.
David Roberts embraces the analogy of being a hired gun in his role. With his sharp negotiation skills and deep industry knowledge, he takes on the task of securing world-class terms and pricing for his clients.
“ProcureLogix is a boutique consulting firm helping sizable global enterprise clients procure exceptional contracts and terms for telecom, network, and IT products and services.”
