You must outsource your data telecommunication needs unless you are going to get all of the agreements in place then lay your own fiber. All carriers outsource services, including technical support. Carriers buy capacity from other carriers when they don’t have the resources. Outsourcing no matter what you relabeled it to is outsourcing.

The Internet giants don’t keep all of their support calls within the US. If I call the colossal big boys of the internet I could be in the Philippines, Argentina Australia, Brazil, Chile China or India. If I get India I hang up and try again. I find that outsourced Indian support is one of the least expensive, so not much is spent on training. I have actually called with a DS3 issue and was asked what operating system I was running. They spend more time on process then support.

Image: Danilo Rizzuti / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In a nut shell vendors must balance user satisfaction with desire to curb costs.

I found a few interesting statements.
“…At companies with revenues of at least $5 billion, as many as one quarter of IT jobs will be moved offshore by 2010.”ComputerWorldMay 2009

“You may not have signed a contract with your third-party IT services provider solely to cut costs. Maybe you were seeking specific skills or farming out non-core work to focus on strategic initiatives, or looking for a back door into an emerging economy.”CIO
June 2009

Ways to take advantage of this outsourcing phenomenon.
· Increase the scope of the contract or extend the terms of the agreement.
· Re-examine your IT portfolio to see if cost savings might be achieved by transferring other functions to your outsourcing vendor. Or consider extending your outsourcing deal beyond its current expiration date. Doing so may give you leverage to ask the provider for cost savings, or enable you to save money by renegotiating a longer deal.
· Verify provider performance. Vendors are facing the same tough times as their customers. Consequently, many providers are responding to the pressure by reducing headcount, under performing, or shirking their contractual duties.
· Renegotiate some or the entire contract.
· More than 40 percent of enterprises are discussing renegotiation with their outsourcer this year, according to a June 2009 Gartner report. “Not only are clients asking, many clients are successfully negotiating some of type of discounts,”
Intelletrace has a domestic US presence with the Tier 3 engineers in the Domestic US. Our Corporate offices are located just 30 Minutes north of the Golden Gate. Our Tier 1 and Tier 2 Support are located in Manila Philippines. All of our support engineers are trained for our business and dedicated to Intelletrace. They report directly to me in the US. All Customers are given an escalation list that is functional 24×7 (yes it includes my cell phone) at all levels. The issue is not where is the support, but how available and responsive are they.

As a Comparison I pulled our phone stats from our server for Q1 and Q2 of 2009.
Average wait time is 17 Seconds.One call in 6 months took 10 Minutes to answer. The next longest wait time was 1 Min 20 Seconds.
This allows you to get off of the phone sooner to deal with internal fires. The Intelletrace dedicated support staff continues to resolve the issue. Giving regular updates and escalating with the carrier(s) to have the issue resolved in the least amount of time possible. Everything is logged. Obtaining an SLA credit is simple and painless.

Our entire infrastructure is designed to deal with Point-To-Point, Internet and MPLS circuits. This is what we do day in day out. We want to be part of your team. The best part of it is we can do it at no additional cost. Our circuits are competitive, or in some cases cheaper than going direct. The support we give Post sales is the best in the industry. Including Service Delivery, to get it all installed in time. Accounting to get an accurate invoice each and every time. Accounting processes the SLA’s by the next invoice. Intelletrace support staff works to resolve post deployment issues. Intelletrace uses our buying power to get higher level of support with the carrier so you don’t need to wait.
Amazing enough a single inquiry to Intelletrace will tell you if a carrier has fiber at your location other than the Local Exchange Carrier. It will also allow us to give you the most competitive price from the most appropriate carrier for your location. Services between T1 to OC768 including 1Gbps and 10Gbps Ethernet.

What are you waiting for? Request a Quote today.