The larger and more complex your telecommunications network becomes, the more likely it is that your telecom provider alone can’t meet all of your needs. Now, many businesses are employing professional services organizations instead of hiring full-time employees to help manage their evolving telecom services and fill the gaps that the telecom providers just aren’t equipped to handle.
“Instead of increasing their staff with engineers, project managers, etc, corporations are deciding to bring in professional services organizations to assist in everything from network design, new technology implementation and trouble management,” says Jon Marley, director of Technical Solutions with Simplify Inc.
Smart Business spoke with Marley about using a professional services organization to keep your telecom services under control.
What gaps should companies look out for in their telecom network?
One gap is proactive management of their data networks. Most enterprises have people on staff who are highly specialized in network performance, server applications and uptime of critical software applications for their users. To have these high-end resources spending time following up with carriers on basic trouble tickets is not an effective use of their skills. Having a pro services organization take over the basic blocking and tackling of this type of day-to-day support is a huge benefit.
Another gap: When a customer decides to implement a new network, a pro services company can be critical to ensuring a successful implementation. A qualified pro services company can manage all of the detailed steps in the process because they understand what a carrier will not or cannot do for a customer and can fill in the gaps. For example, when a customer orders a circuit, it is often then their responsibility to get that circuit extended to their suite, install and configure the equipment, handle the test and turn up with the carrier, and then connect it to their local area network. A competent pro services organization can assist by getting field technicians, the carriers and hardware vendors onsite to handle all of these tasks, then documenting the interactions between all parties.
Inventory management is another reason to partner with a pro services company. Enterprise customers today tend to have a multitude of carriers servicing their voice and data needs. They typically store e-mails in folders that have circuit IDs and other critical information or put them on a spreadsheet that is stored away on an individual’s local computer. Given the constant change that most businesses experience, few can effectively keep up with the documentation of all of the moves, adds and changes within the telecom inventory with this type of approach. A pro services company specializing in asset management can assist with gathering information not only from the customer but also directly from the carrier(s) and/or employ specialized network scans so there is no question on the customer’s network infrastructure. The key is to ensure that information is readily available and updated as changes occur.
