What you can expect
Dimension Data's James says the challenge is the initial six weeks, in getting everything just right. "Once that is there then everything hums along," she says.
Data #3's John Grant says customers can expect it to take three to six months for what he terms "phase one".
"Our preferred basis of engaging with our new customers is that we will work with them over a defined period to understand the issues. Once we know the issues, what we want to achieve, then we enter a term base contract, for one, two or three years," says Grant.
There are always teething problems and the key to getting through it is the relationship that you establish with your provider from the outset.
Mencinsky can certainly relate, saying at Isis Projects they encountered initial problems, mainly with their legacy system.
"We had teething problems in optimising traffic, our legacy application is quite touchy and doesn't operate well on the WAN--any kind of latency and it would just fall over," says Mencinsky.
A few months down the track and the legacy system is still causing issues. And there were other teething problems too, which occurred in the interstate branches. What exacerbated the problem was that Mencinsky's provider, Bulletproof, doesn't have a national presence, which meant they were hiring contractors to service the other branches; contractors who Mencinsky says weren't as technical as the Bulletproof staff.
"Sydney went beautifully, but every other branch had a problem, either with the installation of the DSL, then the incompatibilities with the hardware that was set up, which wouldn't work in other offices. It always involved replacement of modem, or something that took time," says Mencinsky.
And when it comes to problems, and there is bound to be at least one, you will be relying on a high level of service to see your company through with minimum interruption. Both service providers and customers alike speak of proactive service when describing the ideal partnership.
"Proactive" meaning the service provider doesn't just sit back and fix problems when they arise, instead it should be constantly monitoring the network to look for ways to improve efficiency and to fix problems before they occur.
Dimension Data's James says the service provider has to become part of the business and work along with the customer's objectives, otherwise the partnership will fail.
"What is critical in outsourcing network management is not only getting real-time service but also getting a consultative relationship. Make sure they are providing you information on what has happened and what is going to happen. Make sure you are getting a proactive and predictive service," advises James. "You are paying for a specialist, so make sure that you get that as part of the service. Consultation is critical if you want to get that return."
Of course the type of service you receive will depend largely on what is stated in your Service Level Agreement (SLA) with the provider.
