Businesses that rely on a single network provider for their connectivity are putting themselves at risk, and SMEs are particularly vulnerable.
Louis Jardim, commercial director at converged communication provider Turrito Networks, says large enterprises are valuable customers and can expect speedy solutions to problems they may encounter.
"But as a smaller customer you're more likely to be one of a hundred or more clients in a single account manager's portfolio," he points out.
According to Brian Timperley, MD of Turrito Networks, SMEs don't all have the advantage of understanding the IT industry and, ultimately, the challenges of being tied to a single network provider.
This is echoed by Jardim, who explains business owners shouldn't need to understand the dynamics of the IT industry to get reliable connectivity. "If one network is no longer serving your needs, you should be able to move to a new network, or even a combination of networks, without changing your service provider. This is the link that's been missing in the industry," he continues.
Timperley explains the nature of SMEs is to be agile and fast-moving, which means they need agile and fast-moving providers to deliver their connectivity. "SMEs tend to adopt new technology faster, and want to know about the newer technologies as soon as they are available.
"Importantly, when things go wrong, they want the flexibility and resilience to be up and running quickly through alternatives, without having the luxury of a backup solution in the wings."
Timperley believes if companies don't have the internal skills to aggregate more than one provider, agnostic network providers, a new breed of ISP, fulfil this role."
The costs of working through agnostic network providers are typically identical to working directly with the big networks and can often be far lower, he claims. Business owners get all the benefits of big network service levels, with all the flexibility and service delivery of a smaller, more agile agnostic provider, he says.
He explains agnostic network providers don't own infrastructure and network, but leverage off all the existing providers in the market, and add a layer of service delivery and support.
Timperley advises business owners to find an agnostic provider that understands their business, and can provide that layer of great service delivery.
"The reality is that you'll never need to go back to the tier one networks, because you're already on them, and have the flexibility to change when required.
"Ultimately, your agnostic provider will always remain the conduit to your network, whichever it may be," he concludes.
Share