The MegaPath Connectivity Blog

If you haven’t had a chance to read Michael Francois’ last post; now is a good time because his insights are closely related to today’s Managed Services workshop at Channel Partners Conference in Las Vegas. MegaPath’s Bernie McGroder, who heads our sales engineering team, will be participating on the panel “Becoming an MSP: Is Managed Services Right for You?”  He’ll be in good company with industry leaders from Nemertes Research and CompTIA, among others. If you’re at the show today in Vegas, definitely plan to join Bernie at 2:30 pm.

On a daily basis Bernie and his team of sales engineers work closely with customers to help them identify the most pressing issues in IT operations and service delivery for the companies they support; and of course, to counsel those teams on the value that a dedicated outside team of voice, data, and security network experts can provide as a managed services partner. Bernie will be tackling the subject of earned and learned experience when he covers what becoming an MSP entails — from building and staffing a 24/7 NOC, to developing a service portfolio, to building processes and transitioning customers to the new delivery platform. In a recent conversation with an engineer from Bernie’s team, he noted “there really isn’t a customer network problem or situation we haven’t seen before. Our customers seem to appreciate all the experience we draw from, and our ability to meet their issue where it’s at, with the right advice.”

It’s this collective knowledge base and the experience gained from running 24/7/365 NOCs  that Michael Francois talked about in his insights on MegaPath’s successful certification process to achieve Cisco Master Managed Services Provider status. There may be a long list of MSPs in North America, but we’re honored to be part of this elite group of Cisco MSP partners.  Few MSPs can claim their expertise across voice, data, and secure network operations. In addition to NOCs, MegaPath runs a Secure Operations Center.  Back in a June 2009 post we noted the success our SOC team has had in supporting security customers by surpassing a 300,000 user milestone on our SSL platform, and more than 3.5 billion sessions. We’re seeing much demand for SSL VPN services, and just last month we passed another record.

Now that brings me to voice, which is a significant and growing part of MegaPath’s business. Our Connecticut-based voice operations team has been successfully providing managed Duet(SM) integrated voice and data services to customers and addressing 3 varieties – analog, PRI, and SIP trunking — for several years. Starting today MegaPath is introducing Duet Hosted Voice, a new hosted service solution addition to the Duet product family. We’re unquestionably excited about it, because even though MegaPath has been providing cloud-powered calling before the cloud was cool; many customers have been asking for a hosted VoIP service. For a sneak peek of what’s really special about Duet Hosted, stop by Booth 1301 at the Channel Partners show. You can also get a deeper dive into Duet Hosted by attending MegaPath University (also at Channel Partners in Room Islander B). The sessions are FREE, just register online for tomorrow’s courses.

Finally, since I’m on the subject of hosted voice, this is a great time to welcome a new voice for voice to Connectivity. Tomorrow you’ll get a chance to meet Diane Giuffre who has been knee-deep in getting Duet Hosted ready for our customers. Remember, if you’re in Vegas for Channel Partners, don’t miss Bernie McGroder’s session today or MegaPath University tomorrow!

Mastering the Triple Play

I grew up in Maryland, and when I was a kid my baseball hero was Brooks Robinson.  Nobody could turn a ball around faster than he could, and I know I will never forget 1973, when “The Human Vacuum Cleaner” started not one, but two triple plays that season.    That gave him a trio of triple plays for his career, 3 of the 679 all time triple plays. When I look for inspiration when it comes to executing a triple play, I look to Brooks Robinson.  (I am not going to mention that he also hit into a record 4 triple plays in his career).

As it turns out, I didn’t end up being a ball player.  Instead, my chance to make ‘triple plays’ came in communications,  providing a trio of voice, data and security solutions to our customers.   And I’m proud to say that we are recognized as having mastery skills at providing these managed services.

More small businesses than ever are achieving increased efficiencies while lowering costs by using managed voice, data and security services.   Economic realities, IT staff & budget compression, and increased service expectations from users — whether you’re in a small business or a distributed enterprise — have really created the perfect storm for greater reliance on a managed services provider for voice, data, and security.   The benefits of doing so include the peace of mind that comes from knowing that your services are being monitored 24-7-365 by experienced experts, as well as knowing that well defined Service Level Assurances (SLAs) are standing behind the network services you rely on.  But most importantly, partnering with a Master Managed Service Provider will help your business prosper.

Having a single point of contact for these three services will lower your support costs, while using outsourced expertise will allow you to mitigate the costs of building out management and reporting capabilities that are not core to your business.  You can focus on implementing the best practices of your business, knowing that we are following the best practices of our industry.

MegaPath is one of only a handful of Cisco Managed Services Channel Partners to receive the Master designation.  To achieve this, Cisco made an extensive audit of our NOC  capabilities, checked out our SLAs, and verified that we have both CCIE and ITIL certified team members.  At the end of this process, Cisco said we not only qualified for the Master designation, but that both our MPLS VPN Service and Managed IP Trunking VoIP product qualified for the Cisco Powered designation.

Recently Cisco did a case study of MegaPath (pdf), and put the spotlight on how we work together as an example of the benefits that can be achieved by gaining this designation.  Of course, the real benefit of this goes to our customers, who have come to rely on us for mission critical triple play solutions.

And yes, I know that Donie Bush shares the record with Bid McPhee for turning 9 triple plays, but I never spent summer nights as a kid listening to them play games at Memorial Stadium with Boog Powell, Jim Palmer, Frank Robinson and Earl Weaver on my transistor radio.

As the year is coming to a close, I can look back over the last 12 months and can see that it has been a great year for MegaPath.  Back in September, we were again placed on the Inc. 5000, the magazine’s list of the fastest growing private companies in the US.  MegaPath took position 1,146 on the list this year, making a showing for the third consecutive year.

 Then, in November, we were placed on the 2009 Deloitte Technology Fast 500 (PDF), in position 364.  Deloitte’s list ranks the fastest growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America based on percentage revenue growth over a five-year period. 

Early in the summer of 2009, MegaPath was named to the VAR500 for the sixth consecutive year by Everything Channel, as they recognized we are one of North America’s top technology integrators.   MegaPath’s Channel Partner Program includes many of the industry’s leading VARs and integrators who are certified to offer the company’s leading connectivity, security and VoIP services. On a related note, back in October Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Dan Foster was selected to the PHONE+ magazine and Channel Partners Conference & Expo joint 2009-2010 advisory board. And in November we announced the creation of its Channel Partner Advisory Council to foster communication between the company and our valued channel partners.

Just recently, MegaPath learned that we have received Cisco® Managed Services Master certification, building on the Cisco® Powered designation in Managed Connectivity we announced back in February .  Achieving this designation required significant investment in our NOC and engineering team, with CCIE® and ITIL® professionals on staff, supporting our managed solutions at all phases:  preparing, planning, designing, implementing, operating, and optimizing. 

It was also a great year on the product front at MegaPath.  Back in June, Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) named MegaPath’s Managed Security Services a recipient of a 2008 Communications Solutions Product of the Year Award.  Also in June, we announced we had added our 300,000th SSL user.  In January we were pleased to learn our Duet™ voice and data service had received the 2008 Product of the Year award from INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine for the second time in a row.  We also expanded our footprint of Ethernet services this year, and brought additional connectivity options online for our customers.  We’ve been busy!

Well, looking back has been fun, but we’ve got our eye on the ball, and we’re focused on bringing your business the best voice, data and security solutions again next year. More than 20,000 business customers out there are expecting the most of us, and we are going to continue to deliver!

We wish you a Happy Holiday, and every success in 2010!

NetworkWorld is reporting that Cisco says it has saved $277M by having employees work from home.  Their internal study found that not only did having employees work remotely save money, but it increased productivity and the happiness of the work force.

The company estimated that about 20,000 employees telework 2 days of the week, and about 60% of those spend the time saved by telecommuting working.

You can find out more about telecommuting, and how it can save your business money while increasing productivity,  at Telecommuter.com