Managed Services Enabled Strategic Focus of IT Resources, Part II

As noted in Part I, global sensor manufacturer Measurement Specialties Inc. (MSI) faced multiple challenges with its managed network services provider. It suffered from excessive downtime, and the team of IS/IT director Bob Andreini spent too much time solving problems that were the responsibilities of their provider.

Andreini brought in Virtela, a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based managed network services provider that works with multiple vendors of networking equipment, including Cisco. It devised a mesh network using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology that eliminated the point-to-point problems that plagued MSI previously.

He describes it as a seamless network with multiple subnetworks, "almost like a black box. Someone in Fremont, Calif., can send something to our site in Shenzen, China via the most logical route over the network."

Automatic Backup
At the same time, MSI's downtime has disappeared. Virtela set up a back-up DSL circuit at each of MSI's sites, so that if anything does go wrong, the back-ups kick in automatically. "We can't even tell when it happens," says Andreini. "Usually we only find out after we get notification from Virtela's operations center." The cost of the DSL lines is only a couple hundred dollars a month, and he estimates that MSI now enjoys more than 99% reliability.

Even with his difficult experience, Andreini was still sold on outsourcing his network services. "I didn't want to beef up on network engineers internally, because that technology is so complex. Having a partner that could take care of that was very attractive."

Dramatic Time Savings
Having a managed network services provider also gives Andreini "dramatic time savings. When every event took two days of firefighting, we were unproductive in other projects. It was very disruptive, and took the equivalent of at least two full-time people. Having a managed network services provider means I can have my staff focus on the strategic IT needs of the business, not running the infrastructure."

The moral of the story is that it's important to look closely at your managed services provider. Don't look just at their services, but at their business model and their telecom relationships. Determine how their plans suit your company, and your plans for your company's growth. As MSI found, it was able to shift from an unsatisfactory provider to a satisfactory one and reap the benefit of reliability.

Managed Service Nightmare - Lessons Learned, Part I

By any measure, Bob Andreini's network was a nightmare. Even though he had outsourced the management of the network, downtime was measured in days. His team regularly mediated finger-pointing between international telecom providers. Even the configuration of his infrastructure left a lot to be desired.

Andreini, the global director of IS and IT at Measurement Specialties Inc., a $200 million manufacturer of sensors with 12 locations around the world, knew something had to change.

His company had grown through acquisition, adding sites in locations in Galway, Ireland; Versailles, France; Dortmund, Germany; and Bevaix, Switzerland, a village of 3,500 outside of Neuchatel. But this growth also meant an increasing patchwork of network connections.

Reliability was a challenge, especially with an IT staff of 35 and only ten of those people devoted to the infrastructure -- able to work only part-time on this key task.

Downtime Here Meant Downtime There
A hub-and-spoke infrastructure meant that all communications went through MSI's corporate headquarters in Hampton, Va., some by point-to-point connections, others through VPNs. "If we had trouble in Hampton, we had trouble across the whole network," says Andreini.

Part of the problem, he admits, came from the telecom provider's own growth problems. It didn't always have the best relationship with telecommunications providers in the countries where MSI did business.

"We ended up with higher communications costs, because they couldn't get good resell rates." And because it didn't have good relationships, where there were problems, there was a lot of finger-pointing. "We would eventually have to have our IT people figure out the problem," sighs Andreini. Then the guilty party would admit it was their problem, sometimes as much as two days later.

Unmanaged Services
Some of Andreini's team even had to spend time learning about Cisco router configurations because their provider, which was supposed to be providing maintenance, had outsourced it to yet another company.

Solving MSI's network management problems took multiple steps, including signing on with another vendor of managed network services. MSI worked with the new company, Virtela, a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based company, and its team to create a new infrastructure. Together they took a close look at what kind of infrastructure would serve the global firm best.

In part II: how MSI solved its managed service problems.

Creative Applications for Managed Network Services

Perhaps the restaurant sector doesn't immediately come to mind when you think of creative applications of current business technology. But, that's exactly why it can provide a distinctive competitive advantage for a savvy forward-looking company.

Popeyes quick-service restaurant was founded in 1972 and has expanded to over 1000 franchised locations globally. A Popeyes franchise owner of multiple U.S. east coast locations became interested in using the latest communications technology to reduce his operational costs and streamline back-office functions at each site.

This upgrade included installing a new voice and data network that could manage secure credit card transactions. The decision was made to research a solution to update communication capabilities with a private Internet Protocol (IP) network.

A network using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) technology was procured, replacing the cumbersome and outdated analog communication lines. Once the private voice, data, and video network was in place, the next logical step was to determine how to further gain cost advantages by leveraging this advanced infrastructure.

Built on a Solid Foundation
After carefully evaluating several telephone system solutions, the decision was made to use a hosted Voice over IP (VoIP) service from Geckotech, layered over the new backbone network. As a hosted service provider, Geckotech manages an off-premise voice solution that has built-in disaster recovery and very high reliability.

The Popeyes franchises are now able to fully realize the advantages of an outsourced VoIP phone system without having to purchase, maintain, or manage separate phone systems at each location.

All restaurant sites can easily reach each other using simple 4-digit extension dialing. They also benefit from one consolidated monthly telecom bill -- which includes unlimited local and long distance, advanced features like Auto-Attendant, eFax, Conferencing, and Unified Messaging.

Moreover, all of the outdated phone systems were replaced with one advanced VoIP solution, using Cisco Systems hardware end-to-end. As a result, Geckotech enabled the franchise owner to prepare for future business needs, based on a solid communications foundation.

The multiple locations benefit from a built-in disaster recovery plan, which reroutes all calls to a different office location should any site experience a disturbance or natural disaster. The new voice system has reduced overall operational costs by almost 40 percent at each site.

The Power of Strategic Foresight
In reality, there are few enterprises in the 21st century that are inherently low-tech. Every industry has its early-adopters of business technology that assess all the options, survey the competitive landscape, and then take decisive action.

The rewards clearly go to those business leaders who keep and open mind, and willingly embrace change –- especially when it equates to a quantum leap in progress.