# Service Provider and Pre-Sales

**Key words**: domain research, gap analysis, customer analysis,discovery phase, scope identification, resources planning, solution design, [lineage](https://docs.opendatadiscovery.org/features#end-to-end-microservices-lineage).

### Challenge

As a Service provider or IT consultancy, I often mention that a scope of work refined in Pre-Sales provokes the following problems:

* drastic changes during Discovery / Implementation / Handover phase
* conflicts between an existent architectural landscape and best practices of organization

### Solution

The ODD Platform provides an [API](https://github.com/opendatadiscovery/odd-platform/tree/main/odd-platform-specification) to gather details on existing architectural landscape and toolset available in organization, so that I have better planning and therefore better customer relations.

### Scenario

1. As a service provider, I usually engage in Pre-sales to facilitate with a potential client, estimate the scope of work, decide on the team setup and suggest solution design.
2. My company has encountered situations when:\
   \- Client is dissatisfied with services provided and therefore not set up for a long-term cooperation.\
   \- Client has been asking for additional features leading to a scope creep and changes to time-to-market.\
   \- Enhancement/change request costs.\
   \- Potential monetary, reputational and legal losses may occur.
3. I am sure that the above mentioned situations happen due to miscommunication or a technical proficiency level of people I am engaging with during Pre-Sales and not the quality of services I am providing.
4. To improve my Pre-sales processes I ask my clients to integrate the ODD [API](https://github.com/opendatadiscovery/odd-platform/tree/main/odd-platform-specification) with their data landscapes. This helps me gather information on:\
   \- Microservices / tools client is using, so that I set my project team right\
   \- Level of maturity / landscape complexity, so that I can propose appropriate solutions given the time and budget constraints.

**Result**:I can plan efficiently and suggest the solutions that are feasible to avoid miscommunication and client’s dissatisfaction.