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Tender compliancy (licenses / engineering days)

Skyline answers the requirements of a tender in the following way:

  • "COMPLY" means that the requirement can be fulfilled with the DataMiner platform, i.e. a combination of software licenses, but it will also require a certain number of engineering days to configure the platform to your operational and business needs.

    Note

    The engineering days pertain to configuration of the open platform capabilities of DataMiner, and hence this represents activities that can be done by Skyline but also any other qualified party. For the initial deployment, we recommend that the Skyline Deploy Squads work together with your team, so that the lead Devops Engineer(s) can acquire knowledge and expertise in order to subsequently take ownership and independently support any further evolutions. You can also always work together with Skyline for such further evolutions.

    With a platform like DataMiner, it is less about developing new features that affect the core software, as most requirements can be rolled out based on configuration of the platform. That includes, for example, designing a tailored workflow or a use-case-specific Automation script or even a user-definable API. DataMiner is designed as an enabling platform, which means its open architecture allows anyone to meet virtually any operational and business needs. You could compare it to an SAP or SalesForce type of platform, though of course tailored to data collection, processing, control, and orchestration of ICT media ecosystems, offering sophisticated resource management and orchestration capabilities, off-the-shelf solutions for control panels, a vast collection of connectors for media ICT products, etc.

  • "COMPLY" does not necessarily mean that the deployment of the feature or functionality is already included in our offering.

    A typical DataMiner solution consists of:

    • A mix of standard DataMiner platform software licenses, e.g. a certain number of connectors, DataMiner nodes (DMAs), or licenses for a certain number of concurrent active events.
    • Multiple buckets of engineering days needed to configure and set up the DataMiner platform to your company's specific operational and business needs.

    In case the deployment is not included, this will be pointed out. In such a case, either the software license, the engineering services, or both can be offered optionally. This is often because with the information that is available in a tender, it is impossible for any software vendor to offer and budget the required engineering efforts accurately. Further clarifications with your company/team will be required in those cases to ensure full alignment on the expectations.

It is in the nature of such software and ICT integration projects that not all requirements are known at the outset, so that assumptions need to be made, and new requirements and expectations will very likely arise during the project implementation. The software licenses and engineering days we quote are based on a realistic approach to deliver a solution fulfilling the proposed goals and objectives for a project within the required time frame.

Skyline Communications aims to deliver the best possible project within the available budget and time frame. The total number of engineering days Skyline Communications will spend on a particular project is capped, but these can be leveraged in an agile manner, which means that priorities can shift over the course of the execution of a project. Together with your company, Skyline Communications will set up a partnership to use the engineering days in the best possible way.

For each feature, functionality, or requirement, a delivered solution can typically vary between an acceptable minimum viable solution and a solution that fulfills the user’s wildest dreams and ambitions. The budget Skyline Communications typically foresees is set to meet in the "golden middle".

Our value proposal
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Your team has the freedom to set and shift priorities (and therefore engineering time) between buckets in the Preliminary Solution Backlog, as long as the total number of engineering days does not exceed the budget.

For example, your team can put a strong focus on the user experience and user interfaces, which might require more engineering days than initially foreseen. That additional time budget will then be deducted from another bucket, which could be a back-end automation workflow that is less complex than foreseen.