Large business networks are complex, opaque, capital-hungry beasts that consume resources and often sap productivity. And yet, they are critical for business applications and services – and therefore success. In many cases, today’s enterprise businesses find themselves allocating resources to manage their networks that might otherwise be focused on customer service and business growth.
Today, almost every large business’s success is tied to network performance. However, not every business is tripping over certified network specialists. For example, an opaque network of branch offices increases risk and makes productivity levels uncertain, at best. When a branch office goes down, who do you call. And what about the future?
With business increasingly customer-oriented, dynamic swings in the market mean unpredictable demands on network performance. If you can’t even see into your business network how can you manage it?
Imagine if there was a way to increase transparency into your entire business network. A single-pane-of-glass through which you could visualise network status, track issues as well as turn up or turn down capacity with a swipe of your finger. Imagine if you could have a team of certified IT professionals audit and proactively monitor your network, security, BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy, and address network issues before you even know about them.
With Integrated Service Management (ISM) this is possible via your own customer portal on a tablet or PC. Even in complex and dynamic environments, you can turn up or turn down the bandwidth, block applications, or add a new device with simply a few clicks. Or have your service management team do it for you. Real managed service providers offer a customer portal, so you can see what’s going on in your network and make adjustments yourself.
Companies all over the world are moving towards ISM and not only because it eliminates almost all the challenges to modern networking for even the largest businesses. It also makes perfect sense – in terms of dollars and cents.
A large corporate network demands constant capital investment for growth, as well as repairs and maintenance to aging infrastructure. Imagine the room to grow your business would have if you could re-allocate that capital expenditure to operating cost? Integrated Service Management means your business can focus more time on customer service and business growth, while eliminating risk and increasing productivity.
Business growth is on everyone’s mind. But how to plan network infrastructure accordingly when demand is so unpredictable? A key business value of Integrated Service Management (ISM) is the single-pane-of-glass transparent view of your network. It’s not just useful for real-time insights. Your team will be able to see, correlate and track environmental impacts on your business network over time so that when you do need to add capacity beyond what you already have, the decision is data-driven.
ISM means your business is covered from the data centre to the WAN until your customer premises – including any CPE – right down to the individual user. If you have a Public Cloud deployment ISM means that instead of dedicating resources to maintain and service your Public Cloud you have one phone number to call for any issue across the whole network. Or you can just check for yourself through the customer portal as well as receive alerts when things are being worked on proactively.
In short, you can get an immediate productivity boost, remove a significant amount of risk and give yourself more time to develop your core business with ISM. And you wouldn’t be alone. With more and more businesses leaving complex networks to the certified professionals you’ll have the space to innovate, excite and delight your customers. If you want to spend more time focusing on your business and less time worrying about your network than reach out to a certified ISM provider near you and ask them how they can help.