If you’re like most network managers, you take the same approach to issuing a telecom request for proposal or request for information as you do to getting dental work: Avoid wherever possible.

Here’s why it’s a bad idea on the telecom side: As I’ve noted in previous columns, the process of preparing to issue an RFP is useful. It requires you to gather important information such as present and planned bandwidth requirements, application deployment, and site and user distribution. It also creates an opportunity for you to take a holistic look at the communications services your organization is using (or planning). You may be surprised to learn, for example, that core voice and data services consume less than half of your overall telecom spend. The rest is likely to include remote access, hosted services (such as collaboration and VoIP) or mobility. (As I’ve noted recently, mobility costs are rising rapidly — more than 100% year over year — in many organizations). Finally, as part of the RFP process you’ll make a point of coming up to speed on major company-wide initiatives, such as acquisition or divestiture strategies or significant application rollouts.

The downside? Doing a good job issuing an RFP, and following it up with effective contract negotiations, takes time — a lot of it. Most of the companies I work with don’t allocate nearly enough time to the RFP process, which often means they’ll either go in with a half-baked understanding of their needs, or they’re still haggling over terms and conditions when the contract runs out. Neither is optimal — so please, plan ahead.

How much time? If you’re like most companies, you’re buying services in three-year cycles (longer contracts are problematic given the rate of change in WAN technologies). Ideally, you’re starting on your next RFP 18 months before your contract ends — so less than halfway through your current contract. And you should let the carriers know up front that you plan to issue RFPs every time — as I’ve noted before, being willing to change providers is critical if your goal is to obtain the best rates and services.

Also, most companies don’t leave themselves enough time between signing the contract and turning up circuits. I generally recommend at three months in order to provide “buffer time” for last minute discussions around service-level agreements or other contract Ts and Cs.