Why Managed MPLS Networking Services

Let’s say your company has offices located all across the country. Each location has its own private local area network , perhaps supporting computer networking, IP telephony, and video conferencing. As stand-alone facilities, things work great. But your enterprise is more than just a collection of geographically dispersed sites. It is an organization with a common mission and processes.

You decided long ago that you needed to integrate your network facilities to unify the company. There are big efficiency improvements to be gained by not having to support every function at every location. When employees across the country are electronically just as close as those down the hall, you can establish centers of excellence and marshal short term support when there are local overloads.

There’s also the opportunity to avoid toll charges on internal telephone calls when you put your phone system on your own network. That can amount to an enormous cost savings when there is regular communication between sites. Only when you need to go off net, or on to the public switched telephone system, do you pay for local telco lines and, perhaps, toll charges. You can decide whether it makes more sense to have local access at each location or consolidate your lines with ISDN PRI service or SIP trunking.

The trick becomes how to interconnect those far flung business sites. Most companies start out with dedicated point to point T1 lines and move up to faster services, such as Ethernet, DS3 or OC3, as the traffic levels increase. What gets lost in incrementally adding line after line is the opportunity to save cost on WAN network bandwidth. One day you find yourself with a huge portfolio of telecom line charges plus a considerable staff to manage your ad-hoc WAN network.

What’s better? Today’s answer is managed MPLS networking services. MPLS or Multi-Protocol Label Switching is a “cloud” network designed specifically to link multiple locations with specific connections or in a fully meshed network. What characterizes a fully converged MPLS network is scalable bandwidth, privacy of connections, high reliability with fast response when issues do arise, a service footprint that covers all of your locations, and quality of service controls that ensure high performance for time sensitive applications like enterprise VoIP and real-time two-way video conferencing or telepresence.

That sounds like a tall order, but there are a number of top carriers who specialize in offering private networking services with nationwide footprints. It is even possible to include overseas offices through traffic exchange with carriers in foreign countries. Each of your sites is connected to the cloud through an appropriately sized dedicated access connection. From there the network operator programs your connections into the tag servers that manage network traffic. Even though your share the cloud with other customers, your bandwidth is guaranteed and your connections are private. For the ultimate in security, you can choose to encrypt your data during transit.

By turning your WAN network operations over to a MPLS networking carrier, you unload the burden of constant monitoring and network management, but you’ll also likely realize a significant cost savings. Will quality of service suffer? On the contrary, a top tier carrier has more resources at their disposal than you can afford to manage a nationwide network 24/7. They’ll also have far more bandwidth in their core network than makes sense for any single enterprise. That means you can grow your resources to match the growth in your business without incurring extensive construction delays every time you want to increase throughput between locations.

How do you find these high performance network providers? The best way is to go through a telecommunications broker who has a complete suite of carriers available to bid on your business. You can then feel confident that you are getting the best service at the best price, without having to develop the expertise and staff a group to search the industry. That’s all taken care of quickly and easily. How quickly and easily? Take literally a minute to enter an inquiry for managed MPLS networking services and an expert Telarus consultant will be at your service in no time at all.

Get a Consumer Advocate On Your Side

We know that consumer advocates are valuable in representing the voice of customers to business. But what about an advocate for businesses? Could your business make good use of a consumer advocate? You can when you consider that you're a consumer too.

The fact is that businesses are purchasers of goods and services just like individuals. Depending on the size of your business, you may have little more leverage than an individual when dealing with much larger suppliers. So doesn't it make sense to even up the odds with a little more help on your side?

A perfect example of what I mean is the consumer advocacy aspect of working through a telecommunications broker rather than going it alone in dealing with the big carriers. Even a mid-size business has limited leverage when dealing with billion dollar corporations, especially when they know they have the upper hand.

How do they know that? Just as soon as they find out that you found them in the phone book or simply called the incumbent local carrier out of habit, they know. What they know is that the chances of encountering any stiff competition for your business is slim indeed. They don't need to try very hard. All they need to do is find out what services you need, look up their standard pricing and send out a quote. You may or may not get a small discount if you are buying several services at once.

What can you do to tilt the balance of negotiations in your favor? Let's consider a telecommunications broker like Telarus, Inc. in their consumer advocate role. You start by entering an online quote request, which takes a couple of minutes at most. The patented GeoQuote (tm) search engine then automatically queries the databases of perhaps a dozen or more competitive carriers and compiles a list of available services that meet your need and their prices. Calling around to do the same things could take days... if you even knew all the carriers to call.

But it doesn't stop there. Your consumer advocate swings into action to locate temporary special offers and recommend alternative services, such as Ethernet over Copper, that you may not have even thought of. You won't have to slug it out in contract negotiations. Your advocate will work with the carriers that best meet your requirements to get the best deal for you.

How much does such an advocate charge? Nothing. Seriously. If you own or manage a business, not a residence, that uses commercial telecom services such as PBX phone service, dedicated Internet connections, or a private network, your Telarus advocate works for you free of charge. Their fees are paid by the carriers they represent.

Wouldn't you rather be working through an advocate who represents many providers rather than a sales rep for just one? Don't you think that your advocate can get you a better deal than you can find on your own? I would think so. If you agree, call the toll free number or enter an online quote request now and get a consumer advocate on your side right away.

More Bandwidth, Less Money

What does every business want employees to provide? Higher productivity. The usual quip is "do more with less." Well, how would you like to really get more for less? You can do that with bandwidth. You get more Mbps from your WAN connection and pay less. Sound interesting?

I'll limit this discussion to WAN or Wide Area Network bandwidth, although it can easily apply to LAN or local networks as well. If you want to explore possible cost savings for your in-house networks, take advantage of the VAR Network to locate contractors in your area that have this expertise.

So, how is it possible to get more bandwidth for less money? Conventional wisdom is that the more Mbps you use, the more you pay. That's still true as a rule. But what makes you think you have the optimum solution now? Chances are you are paying more than you need to under your current contracts. Once you see what you may be missing out on, you'll have a tough decision to make. Either pay less for your current bandwidth usage or pay the same and get a higher bandwidth level.

The first thing that you may be missing out on is a true competitive marketplace for your communications services business. Many companies simply call the local telco or check the Yellow Pages to find somebody that can hook them up for voice and data line service. That will get you up and running, but the chances that you are getting the optimum pricing are unlikely.

What's a better way? Use a telecommunications broker like Telarus, Inc. to research the available options for your location and get you the best deal. You can access this service by calling a toll free number or using the GeoQuote (tm) online search tool available at T1 Rex. This service is available at no cost for companies with a valid business address and telephone number in the United States. What will Telarus do that you can't? They'll access a dozen or more competitive carries and get you an list of competitive quotes prioritized by lease price. They'll also work with you to better define your requirements if need be.

You know yourself that having a dozen offers to choose from is better than having just one place to shop - especially when that provider knows they are the only game in town. Well, they may not be the only carrier that services an area but perhaps the easiest one to find.

Here's another thing you may be missing out on. There are newer bandwidth services available that might not have been offered in your area even a year ago. Two that come to mind are Wireless Fixed Internet access and Metro Ethernet. The Wireless offering is an alternative to DSL for smaller businesses and is available in most business locations. Metro Ethernet offers high bandwidths for less cost per Mbps that competing services such as DS3 or SONET fiber optic. If your requirements are under 50 Mbps, you may be able to get EoC or Ethernet over Copper transport that doesn't require the expense of new fiber installation.

So how do you find out whether these new options or others may save you a bundle? Once again, just use the GeoQuote (tm) online search tool. Some types of services will give you an instant price online. Others need a little more investigation, but you'll soon get a reply from a friendly Telarus consultant. Chances are, you'll soon be enjoying more bandwidth for less money.