Are you ready to meet the needs
of the On-Demand Economy?

As Leonardo Da Vinci once said, “simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”.

In many ways, we can apply this quote to the sea of change that’s facing the telecoms industry at the moment. We’re all trying to be more sophisticated with our technologies and solutions. But while our networks become incredible feats of engineering, we must always develop with simplicity in mind and carry on making our network easy to use and manage for our customers.

It’s our mission to help resellers expand by providing the best scalability, network reach, skills, reliability and breadth of services. We’re uniquely positioned to be the power behind resellers as they address new opportunities and scale their businesses. Here are three ways that we can help you grow with the On-Demand Economy.

We’ve got the flexibility to help you grow

The On-Demand Economy is ripping up the old rulebooks and demanding we change how services are sold and delivered. With so many cloud-based services on the market, connectivity is critical to any business’s infrastructure. This means service providers have to rethink ethernet connectivity. And it’s not just about quality and quantity, it’s also about flexibility.

What our customers want should underpin how we deliver our technologies now and in the future. As our networks evolve and new technologies are introduced, customers shouldn’t be backed into a corner with their options and end up with no choice.

At the heart of our capability is our connectivity portfolios which offer an unparalleled range of access solutions and are all available through self-service portals and open APIs. So the connection between us and our customers is as seamless as possible. We also have a full portfolio of professional services that range from managing the installation, through to project and programme management and even removing legacy equipment. All this leaves our partners free to focus on serving their customers and growing their business.

This is an exciting time for our industry. As the On-Demand Economy goes from strength to strength, data, or at least data analytics, is becoming crucial to modern-day businesses. But On-Demand is also about being more cost-effective, using the cloud to reduce capital costs and making infrastructure scalable. As software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) change how businesses operate, almost everything is now underpinned by ethernet connectivity.

Bandwidth On-Demand

Bandwidth On-Demand is not just a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. With us, our customers can upgrade or downgrade their bandwidth on our self-service portal in less than 10 minutes. Compare that to the 24 hours or more that’s typical today in the industry. We’ve made this work through an API so the service flexibility can be fully automated into comms resellers on systems, portals and customer propositions. We’ll work really closely together and our systems will continuously talk to each other.

This of course has cost implications, so we also offer Bandwidth On-Demand as a pay-as-you-go service. It’s calculated in 24-hour periods and billed monthly, quarterly or annually. We want to be as fair and flexible as possible for our customers during their peak and quieter times. We also want to help our channel partners to be agile and responsive to individual customer requirements and the industry’s changing connectivity demands. This is a totally new way of managing how connectivity is delivered, managed and paid for as our services are tailored for each customer and billed in one go. 

The next wave of connectivity

As we enter the next phase of connectivity provision, where virtual networks will drive a whole new level of capability, our partners will have even more granular options. By offering flexible bandwidth, our partners and customers can scale at their own pace without being stuck with unwanted costs. 

Network Function Virtualisation (NFV) is also on its way and it’s offering more agility for services as well as lower costs. Channel partners can keep control and visibility of customers and network services and offer enhanced systems integration via portals. We’re already embracing NFV as we transform our core network and embed computing functions in the heart of our national infrastructure. We see a natural evolution of this to host customer functions alongside it.

Comms resellers can look forward to a world of opportunity, but we know that there are many challenges too. Competition is tough, cash-flow may be a problem, technological change never stops, and hiring the right people takes time. Infrastructure also needs to keep up with ambition. 

We want to be a true partner to resellers by providing a well-priced solution and an unrivalled roster of people, products and services for white-labelling. All this underpinned by connectivity solutions you can access through fully automated, digital channels. We want to be part of the engine room of the channel, providing the know-how to meet the needs of the On-Demand Economy. 

If you have any questions, connect with Paul Beacham on LinkedIn and drop him a message to learn more about the latest additions to the BT Wholesale data portfolio.