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Technology Procurement

Firewalls, switches, access points, endpoint security — selected for your environment and threat profile, not a vendor quota.

Your VAR sells you the brand they make the highest margin on. Your IT person recommends what they've used before. The vendor rep pitches the product that hits their quarterly quota. None of these people are optimizing for your environment. Forged procures technology based on what your infrastructure actually needs — evaluating capabilities, compatibility, licensing models, and total cost of ownership across vendors. We're not a reseller. We don't carry inventory. We have no vendor quotas. Every recommendation is based on what's right for you.

What's Covered

Scope of Assessment

Firewalls & Network Security

Next-generation firewalls, UTM appliances, and network security platforms. Fortinet, Palo Alto, Cisco, SonicWall, and others evaluated against your throughput requirements, feature needs, and management capabilities.

Switches & Network Infrastructure

Managed switches, PoE infrastructure, and network fabric. Cisco, Aruba, Meraki, Juniper, and UniFi assessed for your environment size, management model, and budget constraints.

Wireless Access Points & Controllers

Enterprise wireless platforms sized for your density, coverage, and management requirements. Indoor, outdoor, and industrial-grade options specified and procured.

Endpoint Security & EDR

CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Microsoft Defender, Sophos, and other endpoint platforms. Licensing models, management overhead, and detection capability compared for your specific use case.

Servers, Storage & Compute

Physical servers, NAS/SAN storage, hyperconverged infrastructure, and cloud compute. Dell, HPE, Lenovo, and Supermicro evaluated for workload requirements and lifecycle cost.

VoIP & Communications

Phone systems, handsets, headsets, and unified communications platforms. RingCentral, Teams Phone, Zoom Phone, 8x8, and on-premise options compared for your call volume and feature requirements.

Our Process

How It Works

01

Requirements Definition

Before we look at a single product, we define what you need it to do. Performance requirements, feature requirements, integration requirements, management requirements, and budget constraints — all documented before vendor conversations begin.

  • Technical requirements gathering — throughput, capacity, features, and compatibility
  • Integration requirements — what must the new technology work with
  • Management model assessment — cloud-managed, on-premise, or hybrid
  • Licensing analysis — per-device, per-user, subscription, or perpetual
  • Budget alignment — investment range defined before evaluating options
02

Vendor Evaluation & Comparison

Products from 2–4 vendors evaluated against your requirements. Not feature-for-feature comparison charts — real-world assessment of how each option performs in environments like yours.

  • Capability assessment against your specific requirements matrix
  • Total cost of ownership — hardware, licensing, support, training, and lifecycle
  • Vendor stability — financial health, product roadmap, end-of-life policies
  • Support quality — response times, escalation procedures, community resources
  • Reference checks — how the product performs in similar environments
03

Procurement & Configuration

Equipment ordered through our distribution channels at competitive pricing. Pre-configured and tested in our lab before shipping to your site. No unboxing surprises. No default configurations deployed into production.

  • Purchase through distribution channels — competitive pricing without reseller markup
  • Pre-staging and configuration — devices set up and tested before on-site deployment
  • Firmware updates applied — current versions, not whatever shipped from the factory
  • Security hardening — default credentials changed, unnecessary services disabled
  • Shipping coordination — delivered to site on your deployment schedule
04

Deployment Support & Lifecycle Management

We don't just sell you equipment and walk away. Deployment support, knowledge transfer, and ongoing lifecycle management — firmware updates, warranty tracking, and replacement planning for the life of the equipment.

  • On-site deployment support or remote guidance for your team
  • Knowledge transfer — your team trained on day-to-day management
  • Warranty registration and tracking in your asset registry
  • Firmware and software update management throughout the lifecycle
  • End-of-life planning — replacement timing and budget forecasting
Deliverables

What You Receive

Requirements Specification

Detailed technical requirements document — what you need the technology to do, not which vendor to buy. The objective foundation for every procurement decision.

Vendor Comparison Matrix

Side-by-side evaluation of shortlisted products — capabilities, pricing, licensing, support, and total cost of ownership. Transparent analysis so you understand the recommendation.

Procurement Recommendation

Specific product recommendation with justification — why this product, from this vendor, at this price, solves your requirements. Includes approved alternatives if the primary choice has availability issues.

Configuration Documentation

Every device's configuration documented — settings, policies, credentials (stored securely), and baseline configuration backup. Your team can rebuild or replicate any device from documentation.

Licensing & Support Portfolio

All licenses, support contracts, and subscription details consolidated — renewal dates, coverage terms, escalation contacts, and cost. No surprise expirations.

Lifecycle & Replacement Forecast

Equipment end-of-life dates, warranty expirations, and projected replacement costs. Budget planning document that extends 3–5 years so capital expenditures aren't surprises.

Who It's For

Is This Right for You?

New Infrastructure Deployments

Standing up a new office, data center, or branch location. Full technology stack procured as an integrated system — not piecemeal purchases from different vendors.

Technology Refresh Cycles

Replacing aging firewalls, switches, or servers. We evaluate whether the same vendor still makes sense or whether a platform change delivers better value for your next lifecycle.

Reducing VAR Costs

Your current reseller's markup is too high and their recommendations are biased. We provide vendor-agnostic evaluation and distribution-channel pricing without the reseller margin.

Security Platform Selection

Choosing between EDR platforms, SIEM solutions, or email security gateways. We evaluate against your actual threat profile and operational capabilities — not vendor marketing.

Scaling Infrastructure

Growing faster than your current equipment supports. We assess what needs upgrading, what needs replacing, and what can be expanded — then procure accordingly.

Multi-Site Standardization

Different equipment at every location making management a nightmare. We standardize your technology stack across sites — same platforms, same configurations, same management.

Common Questions

FAQ

How is this different from buying through a reseller or VAR?

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Resellers and VARs make margin on what they sell you — which creates an inherent bias toward higher-priced products and the brands they carry. We charge a procurement fee for the evaluation and sourcing work, not a product markup. Our recommendation is based on what's right for your environment, not what pays us the most. We source through distribution channels at pricing that's typically 10–20% below VAR quotes.

Do you support any vendor or are you limited to certain brands?

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We're vendor-agnostic. We have deep expertise across major platforms — Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto, Aruba, Meraki, CrowdStrike, SentinelOne, Dell, HPE, and dozens of others. We recommend what fits your requirements, management model, and budget. If a $500 UniFi access point meets your needs better than a $2,000 Cisco Meraki AP, that's what we recommend.

Can you handle the licensing and renewals too?

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Yes. Technology procurement isn't just the hardware — licensing is often the more complex and expensive component. We evaluate licensing models (per-device, per-user, perpetual, subscription), negotiate pricing, track renewals, and optimize utilization. Many organizations are paying for licenses they're not using. We find and fix that.

What if we already know what we want to buy?

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Then we'll source it at the best price through our distribution channels and handle the logistics. But we'll also sanity-check the selection against your requirements — if what you've chosen is right, we'll confirm it. If there's a better option you haven't considered, we'll present it. No obligation to change course, but an informed decision is always better.

What does your procurement fee look like?

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Procurement fees are typically 5–10% of equipment cost, depending on complexity and evaluation scope. For straightforward purchases where the product is already specified, it's on the lower end. For full evaluation engagements with multi-vendor comparison, it's higher. In both cases, the fee is a fraction of the VAR markup it replaces — and the product recommendation is unbiased.

Case Study
750-Staff Nonprofit Health Organization
Consolidated IT operations and improved quality without business interruption.
Read Case Study

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