John Dawson, MD at Griffin Internet says that providers need to be challenged at every point and forced to justify claims with regard to performance and reliability.
"No stone should be left unturned when researching a suitable network provider," he says.
"Questions should be asked of past investment and ongoing investment in the network and product innovation, of the company’s track record and ongoing management structure of contention rates and of user profiles."
It is all about matching customer needs with appropriate products. Smaller customers may simply want safe and secure internet access with the ability to remotely backup their data.
Larger customers may want a secure non-internet network to link their sites together to be able to pass telephone calls and data around the sites with guaranteed QoS.
Dawson says that VARs should also think about finding multi-site opportunities, particularly where there is a chance to introduce a converged voice, data and video solution. He adds that very few integrators and VARs have the capabilities to bid for and deliver such solutions on their own.
"These are high-value tenders so resellers should ask prospective partners for partner references and for examples of solutions they have delivered to multi-national organizations in the past. VARs need to make sure that the ISP will not try and cut them out of the deal when they realize the size of the potential in the account."
But Dawson believes that the biggest opportunity for integrators and VARs could come from multi-site, private broadband VPNs.
"In the retail sector alone more than one million electronic point of sale and chip and pin dial-up lines will need to be converted to IP over the next two years," he says. "This is a fantastic opportunity to introduce truly converged solutions to a sector with a compelling need to change. Resellers are able to justify the increase in cost of broadband compared with dial-up by replacing separate exchange lines that have been used for fax, voice and security with one or two broadband lines carrying voice, data and video."
In addition new Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) based broadband VPNs are far easier to install and manage than traditional internet based VPNs. As such this represents a rich source of high-margin recurring revenue without significant management overhead.
Dawson adds: "In a market where consolidation and acquisition is high and where providers are here one day and gone the next, the benefits of choosing a provider that not only has a good track record but also forward thinking investments plans are clearly significant."
Source: CRN Focus April 2007
"It is very important to find an ISP that knows what they are doing and that has experience and has the track record to bid on large tenders,"
- John Dawson,
MD, Griffin Internet.
John Dawson
Managing Director
