Virtual1: Becoming t
In March 2010, Virtual1 launched Ethernet Everywhere, a fl agship product promising high speed Ethernet access anywhere in the country. Ethernet – EFM in particular – was still very much in emergence in the UK, but the advantages of speed and cost had already been recognised. 18 months later, the landscape has dramatically changed: Ethernet has become widespread, indeed is fast becoming the de facto standard for WAN. With most companies able to deliver UK wide access, how does a company like Virtual1 now differentiate? Here, Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director at Virtual1, describes his vision.
Tom O’Hagan, Managing Director, Virtual1
y business is all about removing barriers or, to be more specifi c, removing whatever barriers lie between a Partner and their capability to build the ideal network for their customers. When Virtual1 launched our Ethernet Everywhere product, there were two key issues facing businesses that wanted to adopt Ethernet: cost and geographic coverage. Cost was easy to address – we simply provided a fi xed cost solution which is still available today. Geographic coverage was less straightforward - at the time carrier footprints were still limited in size. However, we leveraged our strength as an aggregator to combine the existing carrier coverage and create what is still one of the largest UK Ethernet footprints available.
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Now, of course, our Partners face different barriers, so we take a different approach, focusing on combining the right product with additional support and ensuring our Partners really get the most from working with us – more than simply a discounted cost. And as always, giving them the freedom to build their ideal network is our top priority.
38 | COMMS DEALER | JULY 2011 The product
Ensuring the product is right for the end customer is an absolute must – and we don’t believe in a one size fi ts all approach, so we give our Partners a choice of Ethernet products. Ethernet Everywhere is a fi bre-based solution ideal for larger businesses with complex connectivity demands – in particular high bandwidth or dedicated connectivity. However, it quickly became clear that this product doesn’t cater effectively for the needs of smaller organisations, so we launched EtherExpress. It is delivered over Ethernet in the First Mile (EFM) technology using copper and is uncontended, making it an ideal alternative solution to Leased Lines or SDSL. It can also be used as a backup to Ethernet Everywhere.
More support – 1Portal Providing as much support and value in every network is one of our key aims. We do this through additional value on our networks – such as free Quality of Service; we do this through concessions in our pricing – such as free installation on our Ethernet solutions. But most importantly, we do this through ensuring we make it easy to do business with us. Our latest
investment is 1Portal, a unique pricing portal which delivers automated Ethernet and EFM pricing to our Partners. It is interconnected into the pricing systems of every major UK carrier, so Partners need only go through the quotation process once, saving a considerable amount of time; furthermore pricing is completed in realtime and delivered via email within seconds of completing the quotation, meaning Partners can respond very quickly to their customers’ and prospects’ pricing requests.
Finally, the quotations include options for every available access mechanism and every available access speed into the building, meaning there is no need for Partners to spend time completing multiple quotes for the same network solution, but can analyse which options provide the best value offer a series of alternative options to their customers.
We’re already looking at new ways to add value to our offering and we will continue to do so: to put it simply, for every barrier the marketplace constructs, our Partners know Virtual1 will be there with a solution to knock it back down.
www.comms-dealer.com
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