BUSINESS INTERVIEW Redefi ning NGN services
The conversation has moved away from NGN technology and points of presence to the ‘Next Generation Network Based Services’ that underpin the changing marketplace, according to Pete Tomlinson, Director of Partners at Cable&Wireless Worldwide.
“Facebook is perhaps the largest collaboration tool on the planet. However, these consumer services aren’t always fit for purpose in the business world. In such as fast changing and colleague driven landscape it is the SME that is leading adoption of new technology and corporate institutions are now playing catch up.”
The trend towards hosted services and pay-per- use commercial models will accelerate, believes Tomlinson. The winners in this market will be those that can clearly articulate the business benefits of adopting cloud-based services and make the switch simple for businesses to understand and low risk to deliver. “Looking ahead, it will be hosted applications that lead channel partners’ sales campaigns,” noted Tomlinson. “This will become the focus of increasing investment.”
Pete Tomlinson U biquitous
high quality IP connectivity via Next Generation
Network Based Services enables the delivery of integrated communication services and applications that truly improve business
productivity and people’s quality of life, according to Tomlinson. “The business comms market is now being driven by the expectations of employees to have the same experience in their professional life as in their personal life,” said Tomlinson.
Although committed to all sections of the reseller community Tomlinson finds the VAR space particularly interesting. “These are the people who are becoming the systems integrators for the mid-market and really understand how to create and sell on business value rather than price,” he said. “We’re seeing them able to bring together what is happening in networking, conferencing, unified communications and cloud services in a relevant way.”
There is a paradox, observes Tomlinson, that data access services have become increasingly commoditised and yet without the network the whole concept of the cloud cannot be delivered. “This is a great opportunity for ICT providers to move into providing the quality infrastructure that underpins communications and cloud services while traditional voice resellers diversify,” said Tomlinson.
Integrated networks “We are seeing more demand for the supply of integrated networks and managed services. The channel is embracing these changes, but it is the responsibility of players like Cable&Wireless Worldwide to support them. So we are investing further and supporting partners with a new level of sales support, partner training, collateral, proposal templates, solutions support and joint marking to help the channel seize this opportunity.”
Key growth areas that stand out for Cable&Wireless Worldwide include wholesale IP VPN. “This has exploded,” said Tomlinson. “In some ways this is a well established product, however whether a single or multi-site solution is required it remains the perfect platform for the delivery of IP-based communications and hosted applications. These require Quality of Service
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and make affordable the ability to integrate access media – Ethernet, DSL, EFM, mobile etc – into a single customer solution.”
The trick for NGN operators is to create a Multi Service Platform, believes Tomlinson. “Customers are becoming weary of having multiple connections into their sites each using the latest and greatest access technology but only ever meeting part of their communication needs,” he commented. “They also need to understand that service levels are about how the network supports the performance of applications, not simply if a line is up or down. A true NGN experience is the ability to deliver voice, data and applications over a single connection, with the end customer not caring how it’s delivered but knowing their services will perform.”
In a changing marketplace the whole value chain involved in providing communication services needs to get much better at working together and collaborating, believes Tomlinson. “That’s infrastructure providers sharing open access networks, software organisations adopting pay-per-click models and services business bringing it all together. Increasingly you’ll see Cable&Wireless Worldwide shaping this agenda.”
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