Presales Solution Architect
Our Why
Datacom works with organisations and communities across Australia and New Zealand to make a difference in people’s lives and help organisations use the power of tech to innovate and grow.
About the Role (your why)
The Solution Architect plays a pivotal role in the presales and project delivery of solutions in Datacom’s Managed Operations line of business. The focus will be on business outcomes that can be realised by scoping projects which transform and mature our customers IT environments and improve the overall end user experience/risk posture/service delivery.A strong commercial and pricing acumen is required to provide competitive services whilst ensuring Datacom’s profitability.
The Solution Architect will work with a wide customer base ranging from 150 to 60,000 seats across both public and private sectors and industries (including Health, Transport, Services, Finance, Infrastructure, and Government). They will leverage expert technical knowledge of Datacom’s Managed Operations products and service offerings to develop statements of work, prepare bids, and support presales activities.
Our offices are based in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch. We like to bring people together in person when we can, but we are mindful of the benefits of working from home for work/ life balance. We therefore leave it to you and the team you join to figure out what works best!
What you’ll do
As a Solution Architect, you will be focused on:
Managed Operations Presales Pipeline and Project Opportunities- Provide presales support to the sales and account management teams by leading presales workshops with customers to guide them through proposed solutions, whilst extracting their requirements and understanding their problem statements.
- Assist customer and Datacom teams with reviewing and completing Statement of Requirements (SOR) documents.
- Produce Statements of Work (SOW) documents, in conjunction with pricing estimators, for the purposes of project engagements for both managed services and professional services engagements for Datacom customers.
- Produce Proposal documents for customers who require solutions and product options as part of their evaluation process.
- Produce Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) documents for the purposes of customer budgeting.
- Prepare and deliver presentations to our customer base on new and emerging products, solutions, and Datacom’s Information Technology Outsourcing (ITO) offerings, highlighting how these services can be applied to their business.
- Lead internal project kick-off’s on the SOW’s you author to project teams.
- Undertake quality assurance documentation peer reviews on colleagues’ documentation.
- Contribute to Sales Growth Plans and proactive customer targeting workshops as directed by your manager.
- Identify and resolve gaps between old managed services contracts and our new managed service schedules (amended/evolved from time to time) to ensure consistency in delivery and pricing across the customer base.
- Provide the technical and commercial inputs from a Managed Operations line of business perspective into the renewal team.
- Ensure requirements are adequate, understood and agreed with technical engineers prior to commencement of deployment activities.
- Contribute to defining scope and accurate effort estimates in Statement of Work for non-standard implementations.
- Continuously develop and maintain an understanding of industry trends as well as Datacom’s evolving products, solutions, and services.
- Work as part of a bid team to lead the solutioning, compliance and pricing components for large multi-service line bids (RFI/RFT/RFQ/RFP).
- Coordinate appropriate responses and pricing to bid requirements through the Managed Operations service line managers (Intelligent Workspace, Modern Platforms, Service Management, Service Operations and Service Desk).
- Where requested, engage with the customer to present on Datacom’s Managed Operations service capabilities.
- Develop, maintain and execute initiatives in alignment with a personal development plan.
- Attain and/or maintain relevant industry or professional certification.
- Attain and/or maintain an intimate knowledge of the Microsoft ecosystem, including Cloud Solutions, Hosting Solutions, Identity Solutions, Information Management Solutions, Database Solutions, Copilot Solutions and Security Solutions.
- Attain and/or maintain an intimate knowledge of supporting Microsoft solutions (subject to change and evolve over time), such as Riverbed Aternity, VMware, Nutanix, AvePoint, Commvault, Rubrik, Veeam, BigFix, Ansible, ServiceNow, TeamViewer.
- Align their learning and development activities with an AI and automation growth mindset.
- Work with partners and vendors to build strong relationships to facilitate timely resolution of product issues and presales support.
- Identify opportunities for rebates, incentives, etc from vendors and work with various teams to exploit such opportunities.
- Influence and negotiate with vendors to ensure we buy at the best possible price point.
- Identify gaps or inconsistencies in Datacom’s presales processes when encountered and formulate remedial recommendations.
- Proactive open and honest communications at all levels and remain accountable for personal performance.
- Develop effective working relationships with other Datacom employees to ensure the best company outcome.
- Take ownership of all tasks which are assigned to and drive them through to completion.
- Ensure quality is not compromised by highlighting blockers to management and managing time expectations with stakeholders.
- Contribute to and present on Datacom Managed Operations Go-To-Market strategies and content.
We are a pretty agile company, and are keen to respond to customer, technology and internal stakeholders’ changing requirements and this can mean we evolve in our roles to meet those needs.
What you’ll bring- Extensive experience designing installing and/or supporting Microsoft, Oracle or VMware solution offerings
- Experience with scoping and pricing MSP engagements
- Ability and previous experience with presenting solutions and service offerings to customers
- Demonstrable history of creating high quality SORs, SOWs, HLDs and proposals for customers who outsource their IT
- Strong understanding of Fixed Price vs Time & Materials SOW’s (and when to choose one over the other)
- Strong understanding of pricing project and managed services engagements
- Extensive knowledge of the following technologies - Windows Desktop OS, Window Server OS, Microsoft Infrastructure, Microsoft Teams Voice, Microsoft Email, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Database Platforms
- Extensive knowledge of hybrid cloud and native cloud environments such as Public cloud offerings, specifically Azure and Microsoft 365 solution design and implementation
- Good working knowledge of - Enterprise mobile management solutions, Enterprise desktop and server management solutions, Enterprise cloud solutions, Microsoft Copilot’s, Hardware lifecycle management, Software lifecycle management, Identity lifecycle management, Security lifecycle management, Sales and Project lifecycles
- Good understanding of ‘on-premises to cloud’ and ‘cloud to cloud’ migration paths
- Good understanding of industry recognised security frameworks and solutions
- Good understanding of AI and Automation and a strong desire to expand upon these skillsets
- Sound understanding of networking technologies and solutions
- Proven history of working autonomously in small and large teams
Why join us here at Datacom?
Datacom is one of Australia and New Zealand’s largest suppliers of Information Technology professional services. We have managed to maintain a dynamic, agile, small business feel that is often diluted in larger organisations of our size. It's our people that give Datacom its unique culture and energy that you can feel from the moment you meet with us.
We care about our people and provide a range of perks such as social events, chill-out spaces, remote working, flexi-hours and professional development courses to name a few. You’ll have the opportunity to learn, develop your career, connect and bring your true self to work.You will be recognised and valued for your contributions and be able to do your work in a collegial, flat-structured environment.
We operate at the forefront of technology to help Australia and New Zealand’s largest enterprise organisations explore possibilities and solve their greatest challenges, so you will never run out of interesting new challenges and opportunities.
We want Datacom to be an inclusive and welcoming workplace for everyone and take pride in the steps we have taken and continue to take to make our environment fun and friendly, and our people feel supported.
Requirements
#LI-Hybrid