Creating a service wrap

Martin Saunders, Product Director at Highlight, explains why channel providers need to adopt a full-service wrap for customers to deliver more accurate, relevant, and easy-to-interpret insights into how networks and applications are performing.

With the massive increase in home working, the big issue is how this will affect the traditional office, its connectivity, and its infrastructure. It is fair to predict that businesses are not going to fund a large empty office for any longer than needed.

And whilst the restrictions of the pandemic are reducing, going forward people are likely to adopt a more hybrid way of working, perhaps with a portion of their time at home, a few days in an office and perhaps the option to work at another more local, flexible location.

Newly vacated office spaces and a more hybrid way of working is going to have a major impact on the network.  Good connectivity will still be needed at the office, but it is also needed at home and wherever people need to work.  This might require a good quality cellular mobile connection or a VPN service that works well when using public connectivity.

In addition, satellite connections such as Elon Musk’s Starlink network will be interesting additions during 2021. It promises to be very important, particularly for remote connectivity and those at home who will have the option of a very capable satellite connection as an alternative to fixed-line broadband or mobile.

For now, many home workers are still unable to work as efficiently as needed due to poor networks and unsuitable home facilities. Network connectivity, the quality of Wi-Fi and conflicts on the network are still major problems. This presents an unanswered market demand for the channel to help those working from home.  Business managers are also looking to their providers to help them to understand how their home workers are using and coping with vital tools such as UC and MS Teams.

The opportunity for the channel is extremely strong. To build productive, long-lasting relationships, service providers need to demonstrate to their customers why they are recommending specific network solutions. This requires providers to offer a complete service wrap using the right tools to deliver accurate, relevant, and easy to interpret insights to their customers. They need to help their customers to appreciate that the network is not a commodity, because without the network, nothing works.