Simplifying the complexity of modern telecoms

Companies of all sizes are looking at the growing complexity of their communication technology and asking how they can maximise its contribution to the business while minimising its impact on costs. Nigel Stevens, Product Director of THUS plc discusses the merits of letting specialists focus on what they do best.

Today’s business world runs at a dizzying speed with seemingly daily advances in the competitive and technological environment. An equally bewildering array of tools and devices offer the solution to managing these environments leading to an always on, always available culture that presents more challenges than it addresses. The technological revolution taking place in the workplace pours information into our lives and we collectively have to face the challenge of how to use this information effectively. In this fast paced world, there is no office off switch. But what if a tempting opening to the promise of a better way of working, but what if it didn’t have to be like it is today? What if your information and communications were effectively converged and simplified? What if any problems were other peoples, costs were lower and networks were secure and evolved to meet your needs. What if it just worked?

The telecoms industry has been vocal in heralding the efficiencies and improvements next generation networks (NGNs) can bring. The move to convergence; bringing voice, data and broadcast capability onto one network and increasing the ways in which centralised applications and resources can be accessed swiftly and securely by employees from wherever they may be, opens up a myriad of possibilities and opportunities. Reduced network costs, inherent in a single converged network are only a beginning. The scalability and flexibility of the right NGN solution will make organisations more cohesive and will bring benefits through centralisation and virtualisation and provide the ideal platform to expand the range of flexible working options available.

Potential
NGNs have the potential to fundamentally change the way we work. In this age of abundance, we have to stop believing that organisations can master all things and situations. As long ago as 1776, the economist Adam Smith pointed out that as the size of the market increases, so should the degree of specialisation. More than 200 years later, there are no geographic limits to push. We are there. We are in the age of the specialist.

Adopting a managed solution approach, effectively outsourcing your entire telecoms infrastructure, is the key to allowing specialists in your business to focus on what they do best. Allowing telecom specialists, who have the knowledge and experience and skills to help you maximise your investment in your telecoms infrastructure, to manage your infrastructure more effectively, opens up new paths and new opportunities.

Specialist communications and network solutions providers, such as THUS can help organisations to plan, deploy, optimise and manage their communications infrastructure allowing the organisation to focus on maintaining competitive edge. In order to benefit from a managed solutions approach, you need to work with specialists that can evolve infrastructure in response to specific needs and only after consultation, define what is wanted and needed from the communication infrastructure. Irrespective of the solution required, the network provider take the organisation on a path that will allow it to reduce its network ownership costs, reduce the risk of managing change, enhance operational efficiency and improve the quality of service.

The road to outsourcing can be a series of steps rather than a single bound. It is all about applying knowledge and experience to finding a pace of journey at which an organisation is comfortable. And it’s about choosing the right managed solution for your organisation. Options range from a managed network solution (a component service to complement the capabilities of an in-house team) through to an in-sourced solution,(where the service provider works on behalf of a customer as part of the in-house team), to the journey’s end of the fully managed solution (which includes the transfer of staff and assets). Make sure your network provider can advise what, and when, is most appropriate for the organisation and provide the required level of ‘hand-holding’ as it takes each step.

The service and commercial element of outsourced managed solutions is as important, if not more important than the technical solution itself. At THUS, our approach to outsourcing is to tailor a solution and develop a relationship so we can match a network strategy with specific requirements. We work within a business to understand its needs and jointly drive innovative solutions to meet future challenges and strategic goals.

Outsourcing though is not a panacea. It throws up issues, questions and challenges of its own. How do I select a provider I can trust? Will I lose the people resource from the business and the expertise and capability that they bring to it? Will it compromise the security of our network and undermine organisational effectiveness? Perhaps most pertinently the question, how will I ensure the high quality of service promised is delivered now and in the future?

Traditionally, the management of any outsourcing arrangement has involved a contract that includes a service level agreement (SLA). Terms of SLAs usually involve financial penalties, service credits and, in the worst cases, the right to terminate the relationship if SLAs are consistently missed and the outsourced service or application fails. SLAs record the agreed terms for services and priorities and may specify the levels of availability, serviceability, performance, operation, or other attributes of the service such as billing as well as penalising the service provider in the event that the agreed terms are missed for any reason.

This type of SLA has long been the foundation underpinning technology outsourcing agreements and are still considered by many to be the de facto method of controlling and managing the supplier/user relationship. Given the changing nature of managed solutions and network outsourcing the SLA is increasingly at risk of becoming an empty or, at the very least, meaningless agreement. As it currently stands neither the carrier nor the enterprise is likely to benefit greatly from enforcing them.

One of the issues with the traditional SLA is that it is constructed in terms of simple and general attributes based on counters or measures such as connectivity, loss, latency and jitter. As such it ties both the provider and user into an agreement that doesn’t take into account individual needs and offers limited accountability and benefit for either party

The service and commercial element of outsourced managed solutions must be as important, if not more so than the technical solution itself. A collaborative approach to SLAs is needed to develop a tailored solution able to meet the particular needs of an individual organisation. It is fundamental that service providers develop the right relationship and work to understand individual customer needs and behaviours in order to match the network strategy to a user’s specific requirements. The SLA must be secondary to understanding customer priorities and this, rather than simple metrics, should be the focus of good customer service.

One approach, currently being adopted by THUS, is to tailor existing, traditional SLAs to meet the specific requirements of a customer; anticipating, scoping and meeting a customer’s needs using sector-specific information and experience. This process will generate a spectrum of appropriate SLAs based on factors such as time, applications, availability and security, as well as whatever is most appropriate to the business’ core function. Bespoke service levels to accompany tailored solutions; the business model has evolved far beyond the ‘off the peg’ solution

Today’s customers require that service providers are aware of all issues and concerns and can respond to all of these questions with openness and integrity while displaying insight into the customers business and foresight in the telecoms industry. Service providers must assure customers on all aspects of their service so that the customer can focus on what they excel at – running their own business. In the age of the specialist, managed solutions could be the key to headache free communication. It may not provide an office off switch or slow the dizzying process of change, but it may be a pause button that offers enough room to catch your breath.

Nigel Stevens’ primary responsibility at THUS is to drive the revenue and margin growth of the business. He ensures that the company continues to be highly regarded in the UK business telecoms sector and is seen as the pre-eminent alternative to BT. Responsible for product management, development and marketing, he delivers the industry leading next-generation network services for customers. Stevens, who has extensive experience in the telecoms industry, is also responsible for the pricing and commercial departments ensuring that our customers receive world-class services at competitive prices.