Branch Office Best Practices
Table of Contents
1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6
2 BRANCH-OFFICE STRATEGIES 7
2.1 WHAT MAKES A ‘BRANCH OFFICE?’ 7
2.2 BRANCH-OFFICE DECISION MAKERS 8
2.3 INVENTORY ANALYSIS 9
2.3.1 Tier One 10
2.3.2 Tier Two 11
2.3.3 Tier Three 11
2.3.4 Tier Four 12
2.3.5 Tier Five 13
2.3.6 Inventory Recommendations 13
2.4 BRANCH OFFICE MANTRA: ‘BETTER, FASTER!’ 14
2.5 GROWTH IN BRANCH OFFICES 17
2.6 BRANCH-OFFICE MANAGEMENT 18
2.6.1 Centralized 20
2.6.2 Distributed 22
2.6.3 Combination 22
2.6.4 Service Provider 23
2.6.5 Time Spent on Managing Branch 23
2.6.6 Truckrolls 25
2.6.7 Who’s to Blame? 25
2.7 VOIP TO THE BRANCH 27
2.7.1 Distributed Switching 28
2.7.2 Regional Clusters 30
2.7.3 Central Switching 31
2.7.4 Service Providers 31
2.8 WAN TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE BRANCH 34
Consolidated Devices 35
2.8.2 Network Optimization 37
2.9 RECOMMENDATIONS 38
2.9.1 For Carriers 38
2.9.2 For Customers 38
3 CUSTOMIZED FINDINGS 40
4 APPENDIX A: REPORT METHODOLOGY 41
4.1 PROCESS 41
4.2 TIMEFRAME 43
4.3 PARTICIPANTS 43
4.4 BY INDUSTRY 44
4.5 BY SIZE 45
4.6 DISCLAIMER/DISTRIBUTION 46
5 APPENDIX B: PEER PROFILE BENCHMARK DESCRIPTIONS 47
Table of Figures
FIGURE 1: END USER PERFORMANCE EXPECTATIONS, 2000-2007 15
FIGURE 2: HOW DO YOU MANAGE YOUR BRANCH OFFICES? 16
FIGURE 3: GROWTH IN BRANCH OFFICES, BY INDUSTRY 18
FIGURE 4: DECISION TREE: BRANCH-OFFICE MANAGEMENT 19
FIGURE 5: TIME MANAGING BRANCHES, BY TYPE 24
FIGURE 6: HOW MUCH TIME MANAGING THE BRANCH? 25
FIGURE 7: CAUSES OF BRANCH-OFFICE OUTAGES 27
FIGURE 8: DISTRIBUTED MODEL TO BRANCH OFFICE, BY VENDOR 29
FIGURE 9: VOIP TO BRANCH OFFICES, REGIONAL/CLUSTERS, BY VENDOR 30
FIGURE 10: PARTICIPANTS BY TITLE 42
FIGURE 11: PARTICIPANTS BY INDUSTRY 43
FIGURE 12: ANNUAL REVENUE 44
FIGURE 13: IT BUDGET 45
Table of Tables
TABLE 1: CATEGORIES OF BRANCH OFFICES 9
TABLE 2: HOW DO YOU MANAGE BRANCH OFFICES? 22
TABLE 3: EXTENDING VOIP TO BRANCH OFFICES 32
TABLE 4: BRANCH-OFFICE PRODUCTS & SERVICES 34
1 Executive Summary
Convergence projects are running strong in the vast majority of organizations. Voice typically is the first application implemented on a converged IP backbone, and Nemertes is starting to see IT executives explore new applications, such as video, unified communications, collaborative tools and real-time communications dashboards. They’re also recognizing the need for network optimization, branch-office technologies, enhanced management tools, and detailed cost analyses. And finally, they’re waiting not-so-patiently for the carriers to catch up with market demands.
Volume 5 of the “Convergence & Next-Generation WAN Technologies” benchmark explores trends, challenges and best practices in the branch office. Nearly 90% of employees work remotely, so ensuring predictable, solid network and application performance is vital. IT staffs must determine how to best manage branch offices overall, and for specific applications, such as voice over IP. Most organizations manage the branch centrally (often with the help of a service provider), and they’re typically managing seven networking devices.
Volume 6 of this benchmark will provide an assessment of converged applications. Additional volumes explore vendor and carrier analyses, organizational and operational best practices, management challenges, mobility plans, and WAN service/technology trends. Nemertes also provides a Convergence Market Analysis, which explores the differences between vendors and service providers in the convergence space. We also analyze organizational best practices based on Nemertes’ Peer Profile Benchmarks, a multi-faceted method of categorizing companies based on a variety of characteristics.