In last week’s column, I wrote about the need for carriers to offer branch office solutions that combine professional and hosted services. But the major carriers aren’t the only ones who can fill the voids in serving branch offices.
And in fact, because the major carriers have been slow to offer hosted and professional services, we’re seeing other types of companies knocking on doors of enterprise IT executives. They each offer specific benefits and concerns, detailed here:
* Equipment vendors - This is becoming more common among IP telephony vendors, including Avaya, Nortel, and ShoreTel. They will offer professional and hosted services either directly or indirectly through partners. Avaya is the most aggressive at offering and managing its own hosted services; the others are more apt to go through channel partners (expect where a very lucrative customer demands direct relationships with the vendor). The appeal in using a managed/hosted branch office IP telephony service from the equipment vendors is that they know their own equipment better than anyone.
* Second-tier carriers - Providers such as Global Crossing, iPass, Megapath, and Masergy are offering or considering offering professional and/or hosted services to help at the branch. In this space, each provider tends to have an area of expertise, but they can address multiple issues. For example, iPass focuses heavily on security, while Megapath is strong on last-mile access implementation and management.
* Traditional outsourcers - Major players, such as IBM, EDS, and Orange, are offering professional services and often work with the major carriers. The carriers provide the WAN service; the outsourcers craft a package specifically for the branch locations and mange the service. This is appealing primarily for large, global companies that can afford a large contract.
* Virtual Network Operators - VNOs, such as Sirocom, Vanco, and Virtela, leverage the networks of hundreds of global carriers, and then wrap security, professional, and managed services around their offerings. They generally focus on mid-size organizations. The appeal is VNOs can shop best price and most recent innovation. The concern is they’re managing multiple networks and connections that they don’t own - leading some to worry about performance.
* Value-Added Resellers - Resellers, including everyone from the smallest, local company to the regional providers (Aimnet, Pericall, and Dimension Data) to the VAR units of the major telcos are trying to leverage the trend toward convergence by offering managed services to the branch office. Customer appeal stems from tight relationships and trust they have established with the VARs.
Nemertes is gathering more detailed data on these and other branch office trends. If you’re an IT manager, director, executive or architect and want to participate in the research, please click here. The bottom line: I expect a growing number of options to emerge for hosted, managed and professional services to the branch.