The dream of a ubiquitous network is in need of a reality check and it's time for the industry to properly assess the connectivity landscape and settle on a true vision of what the future of networking will look like, according to delegates at a round table debate hosted by BT Business Partner Sales at the BT Tower.
Arguments in favour of the growing importance of networks to manage flows of data (and even relationships) are unassailable. Networks have become embedded, they are changing our lives and the drivers of change have combined to create an unstoppable force. It is now clear for all to see how network usage will evolve, but what about the enabling infrastructure? There is a mass of evidence to show that hosted communications is becoming mainstream with more customers than ever snapping at the heels of resellers able to give them what they want. This craving for bandwidth will only become more rampant, but all is not equal in Britain's networked landscape.
"The challenge is aligning business strategy, applications and topology with cloud-based services," commented Robert Sturt, Director, The Network Union. "Having cloud-based services is one thing, but getting them to work correctly is another and requires well engineered networks. The perception of connectivity as a commodity is changing because of the cloud. You need resilience, diversity and correctly engineered networks or it won't work."
Networks have changed the way we work and have become integral to our daily lives, empowering organisations and individuals as never before within a new networked world. "Financial challenges have prompted a change in business practices and how applications are used to drive out costs," said Charles Davis, CEO, SAS Global Communications. "Apps drive everything around the infrastructure and we have seen a centralisation process with on-premise apps such as voice and video moving to a cloud platform based on the opex model. With home working, mobile working and virtual teams, we need to provide connectivity for those people wherever they are."
How possible is it for everyone to take part in this new joined up vision? The answer could be innovation in the design of hybrid networks. "Consumerisation has raised expectations about business communications, but we have to navigate customers through their perceptions towards the reality of hybrid solutions," commented Davis. "There is hybrid networking now with 3G and 4G and satellite services. Those price points will come down and you have to mix and match that solution together. There's never going to be a vanilla networking offering anywhere within the country. For us, the future is going to be hybrid networking - fixed line, mobile, satellite, with commercial and contractual flexibility being significant. It's important for our industry to make clients aware of this."
Comms Solve Managing Director Ty Gardner displayed great enthusiasm for the device as numero uno in any consideration of networking. "We see more and more wireless deployments because people want to use the device," he said. "We don't talk about the connectivity because the biggest driver is the devices. It's about the business, how they operate and contact clients. Only then do we put the plumbing in to support the way they want to work. But the idea of one carrier and one solution is dead in the water. People need more bandwidth but the networks are still designed around cities and towns. Every bit of network we need in the future has to be a form of data Internet - mobile or fixed. We need good sized pipes in the right places at right time."
Bandwidth hungry consumers are feasting on a menu of connectivity options that are far from coherent, and the sticking point is a lack of ubiquitous connectivity. While there are clear matters to be addressed about rising customer expectations on what is technically and regionally possible in networking, just as influential is a lowering of service expectations led by the usage of Apple, Skype and FaceTime, believes Davis. "Rather than high-end video conferencing people are happy to use an iPad," he said. "They have become used to a poor service and this experience has an influence in the corporate market. You have to steer clients through that whole swamp."
The depleting service expectations of end users will reinforce the widening gap between traditional comms and the Internet era, and clinging to old values could prove to be a grim legacy, warned Keith Harvey, Head of Sales, Partners and Channel, TFM Networks. "There is a perception in our marketplace that the phone must work, but in the case of a computer-click that fails it is natural to simply try again with no questions asked. That perception is also generational. The younger generation don't see this differential in service requirements and there is a danger that we could get side-swiped by someone coming along with a different way of doing things. There are plenty of people asking for 3G, for example. It's not going to be about five-nines reliability, it will be about ease of use and the application, and because it's hosted users will just want an interface. This is a totally different perception."
Changes in the perception of what constitutes good service is a sure sign that the Internet age is advancing in leaps and bounds but for those beyond the fringes of coverage ubiquitous superfast connectivity will remain a pipe dream. "The connectivity is so poor in most rural areas, and the response and lead times in providing services are such that the tin versus hosted argument in the countryside is for the most part irrelevant," stated Giles Ecclestone, Sales Director, Ocean Telecom. "We can't cost-effectively deliver hosted in some areas. It's got to be about the service and what the customer wants to achieve with their business. Small businesses generally get a better deal with CPE if they are under served by poor connectivity. People will still want tin, although enquiries about hosted have risen this year. The key aspect is how we support the network, and the tricky bit is making it work properly."
The rise of hosted is blatant and Michael Thornton, Sales and Marketing Director, Frontier Voice and Data, believes that the progressive move towards bigger and more reliable networks will open the hosted floodgates. "Every product we sell is predicated by the fact that we need a good network service," said Thornton. "In hosted telephony we've gone from one per cent to 15 per cent of revenue in 20 months. Prior to this growth period we were stuck at one per cent because of poor networks. People ask for assurances and guarantees and you have to deliver that. The product to deliver hosted is here now and the demand will get massive. Look at the adoption of video: Not so long ago you needed a costly camera, but now a device is all that's required. The adoption rate is high and it will be the same with hosted telephony."
A sign of this technological advance can be clearly seen among the generation leaving school and university who are not interested in fixed line, don't use email, are immersed in the digital age and for them hosted is the only option. According to Rainbow Global's Sales Manager Fred Barton there is an unbreakable link between Generation Y and the future uptake of cloud models. "Graduates coming into companies expect services like FaceTime," said Barton. "We have seen a big shift to hosted telephony. Voice is now a service. At one time we sold many PBXs, now it's just four or five systems a month but we're doing 200 seats a month on hosted. The connectivity is better, the pricing has come down, the porting agreements are better, SIP is improving and the engineering is much easier. You don't need to ask about hosted now, customers know about it and it's exciting to sell."
There is a lot more to be said on the future of networks. They do, after all, provide the ability to harness data for detailed research and analysis. The exploitation of Big Data to gain new insights is where the network is heading, and Harvey is already engaged in putting the power of hybrid networks into the hands of customers who want to understand data and use it to make a difference. "We are starting to fill in networks with Wi-Fi, most notably selling to marketing analysts who, for example, want to measure footfall, gain an understanding of who's walking past and what that means in terms of marketing the information," he commented. "In such cases the conversation is not about coverage. We talk about what customers want to achieve and how we can help them through networking."
With the market turning on its head it should come as no surprise that customers expect a different conversation with their ICT supplier. "Before the recession IT directors took the purchasing lead, but there has been a big change in who calls the shots around the applications," added Davis. "Now it's more the remit of business analysts, knowledge workers and the CIO - the people who understand value. Once the decision has been made it's the IT director's job to make sure the infrastructure can deliver the solution. There is a change in who you talk to."
If we want to set the networking world to rights we should do it with total commitment and that means all parties in the value chain having a new conversation based on close collaboration and a shared vision. In a move that advances the value of quality relationships BT has set up a new team to drill into the SME and corporate sectors and find ways to better engage with customers. Georgina Williams, General Manager for Cross Product, BT Business, is the woman tasked with plugging the gaps. She commented: "Were focusing on understanding how we can bring products together in a seamless way, with one person to deal with and one bill. This means understanding the pinch points when customers buy multiple products. They expect a better price, a better service and a SLA that covers everything."
Williams' extended role testifies to the fact that our networked future needs more than just talk. It is right to debate the issues, but a deep commitment is required if we are to strive towards the goal of connected digital ubiquity, pointed out Martin Clarke General Manager, BT Business Partner Sales. He said BT's strategy will ensure that we are not lost in a morass of disconnectedness, highlighting hybrid networks as the tour de force. "The work we've done with our mobile strategy is a sign of our strategic vision around a combination of fixed terrestrial networks with 4G and Wi-Fi services seamlessly integrated for voice and data," he stated. "It's about hybrid networks. This is where BT's investment will be in the core network."
The future of networking will draw on the best of ingenuity and innovation in the channel and will show a wide divergence of options brought together into a single networked solution, and the ability to disentangle the impact on customers will be the measure of resellers, according to Steve Rathborne, Field Sales Director for UK SME, BT Business. "Hybrid networking is a double edged sword," he said. "It means greater complexity but there is a real demand from customers for trusted advice from their partners. It's important we don't lose sight of the crucial role of resellers in the success of networking today and in the future."
Click here to download the BT Business Partner Sales Proposition