| Name | CTS Role | Why you're here |
|---|---|---|
| Bryan Lukralle | Chief Strategy Officer | Executive credibility, strategic framing |
| Mary Moss | Deputy Director, Client Management | Named escalation point above day-to-day account management |
| Sean Murphy | VP of Service Delivery | Owns the operational model — directly answers their pain points |
| TJ Ryan | Strategic Advisor | Roadmap/QBR cadence, long-range planning — correct name for this role on the account |
Nonprofit affordable housing organization, Ann Arbor, MI. Handles tenant, client, and financial data under HIPAA, PCI, Social Current accreditation, and state/federal funding requirements.
Levi (Avalon staff) met Jim at the NTEN conference in Detroit earlier this year — that relationship is why Avalon reached out to CTS directly. 8 vendors were contacted for this RFQ; Avalon is narrowing the field, and this interview is part of that process.
Primary contact: Rachel Bush, Executive Operations Manager. Levi is typically copied.
Avalon is not shopping around out of curiosity. They are actively leaving a three-year MSP contract that ends October 31, 2026, and they are unhappy. This is the single most useful frame for the entire call.
The result: Avalon's own internal team stopped routing requests through their MSP because it was faster to just handle things themselves. They are paying $77,000/year for a service they've largely stopped using.
Two internal staff currently handle IT/ops: an Executive Operations Manager (Mechanical Engineering background) and an Office Manager/IT Coordinator (Public Administration / DB & asset management background). They handle Tier 1, Google Workspace admin, password resets, basic troubleshooting, device setup, and inventory.
Ticket volume: 50–70/month, mostly handled internally. This is a co-managed engagement — their team keeps real access to ConnectWise, ScreenConnect, IT Glue, and the Field Effect dashboard.
110 Lenovo laptops · 1 Mac laptop · 9 desktops · 8 iPads · 2 Lenovo tablets
3 on-prem servers, ~400 GB total data, hardware 4+ years old — worth flagging as a lifecycle conversation, not an alarm.
~12 managed sites. Existing network vendor is being retained by Avalon — reason unconfirmed. Do not speculate on replacing this vendor unless Avalon raises it first.
SentinelOne (EDR) and Cisco Umbrella (DNS filtering). Security awareness training was never fully deployed.
ADP, Foothold, HMIS, OneSite, MIP, DonorPerfect, Monday.com, Homebase, Glide, Zoom
Avalon's RFQ requires ~1 day/week on-site. CTS is hiring a dedicated Ann Arbor-based engineer — not shared, not rotating.
Avalon's actual support demand on CTS (vs. what their internal team absorbs) is still unknown. Two models, two risk profiles.
Field Effect MDR (EDR/CDR/NDR) · Wizer security awareness training · Inky email security on Google Workspace · AFI.ai cloud backup · Acronis on-prem server backup · NinjaOne (Windows) + Addigy (Apple/iOS) device management · Dedicated on-site Ann Arbor resource
Implementation/onboarding fees waived on both options — $13,700 combined value.
Current spend baseline: $77,000/year. Both options come in meaningfully higher — that's expected. Don't get defensive about the delta. Frame it as investment against what they're currently not getting: real security stack, on-site presence, ticketing visibility.
Avalon is retaining their existing network vendor for the ~12 managed sites. We don't know why. CTS's role is monitoring + coordination, not ownership. Do not speculate on replacing that vendor unless Avalon raises it first.
Out of scope. Avalon uses Talkroute and explicitly did not request phone support. Don't offer it as an add-on in the room.
Our estimates (~50 devices, ~12 circuits) are stated as estimates in the proposal. Actual counts get confirmed during onboarding discovery — don't present these as firm.
Currently marked [TBD] in the written proposal pending internal sign-off. Don't quote a number in the room that contradicts the document Avalon already has.
The SLA table in the written proposal (P1: 15min/2hr, P2: 30min/4hr) doesn't match CTS's standard internal reference table. Don't raise this proactively. If asked why the numbers look different from another CTS document Avalon may have seen, or if anyone internally flags it: "that reflects an outdated internal SLA chart — the numbers in Avalon's proposal are current." Everyone in the room should use this same line if it comes up. Do not improvise a different explanation.
RFP currently names Jim in this capacity. Correct it: TJ Ryan is the actual Strategic Advisor on this account. Raise this early in the call so it doesn't surface as confusion later.
Frame CTS's independence and stability as the direct answer to why Avalon is leaving their current MSP. Never acquired, never rolled up — Sachin Gujral founded the company in 2010 and still runs it. There's no parent company or new ownership group that can quietly change the terms of this relationship down the line. That instability is exactly what Avalon is walking away from.
Position yourself as a named escalation point above the day-to-day account manager. This directly answers Avalon's complaint that their current MSP relationship felt like a black box with no real accountability above the help desk. Make clear there's always a senior person they can reach who isn't a ticket queue.
Speak directly to the operational model: ConnectWise board visibility for Avalon's internal team, SLA structure and response times, and the monthly/quarterly governance cadence. This is the most direct answer to their stated pain — poor communication, no visibility, inconsistent follow-through. Don't just describe the tools, describe how the cadence actually fixes what broke with their last provider.
This is the correction moment — be the one to clarify the RFP naming early, plainly, without making it a big deal. Then own the forward-looking conversation: how the Roadmap/QBR cadence supports their long-term planning rather than just break-fix, and how CTS helps Avalon plan budget and technology investment a year out instead of reacting quarter to quarter.
Background: Mechanical engineering degree (BSME) plus a Master of Education from the University of Michigan. Early career spent ~7 years in engineering and program management work with significant international travel. Returned to school for her M.Ed wanting to put down roots in Ann Arbor; taught high school physics for two years.
Spent 14 years primarily as a stay-at-home parent raising three kids, with side work to stay active — including earning a Residential Builder license and running her own remodeling business for five years.
Came to Avalon during COVID after becoming acutely aware of the pandemic's impact on housing insecurity and mental health. Joined as Executive Assistant to the Executive Director; over ~5 years at Avalon the agency grew substantially in size, funding, and operations, and her role expanded into Executive Operations Manager — now supporting the Board of Trustees, Executive team, Leadership team, and Operations team directly.
Confirmed title: Office Manager & IT Coordinator. This lines up with the Q&A description of Avalon's second internal IT/ops staffer — background in Public Administration and database/IT asset management. He is very likely the person actually doing the hands-on Tier 1 work day to day: device setup/teardown, basic troubleshooting, inventory.
Last name still unconfirmed — a natural, low-key way to get it is just reading it off his email or asking directly early in the call ("good to see you again since Detroit — remind me, is it still Office Manager and IT Coordinator?").