Managed Router

You know how I harp about "Managed Services"? Let's ignore the fact that IBM, HP, and UPS make billions on services. Let's focus on two other facts: the service provider market and the consumer.

The Consumer still has a blinking 12:00 on his VCR. DVR, DVD, Blu-Ray, Wireless, Cellular, LAN, digital pictures, etc. --- have far outpaced what the average consumer can handle.

How about what his kids are doing on MySpace and IM?

Then there is the business owner who can't figure out what VPN is or why he would need it. Back-up? Why? Twitter, blogs, social media, YouTube -- all of these things and trying to figure out Unified messaging, virii, malware, spam, while retaining customers, profitability and employees. Hooboy!

Then we see that Ma bell is moving into the ASP market. That Ma also has a services division AND a Professional Services division. Manage the router, the firewall, the installation, yadda yadda. VZB also does this. Now Paetec has launched a Managed Router Service that ranges from $25 to $125 per month.

At its highest tier, PAETEC configures CPE routers, keeps their software up-to-date, polls routers every 90 seconds and generates automatic alerts in the event of an outage, generates incident reports and trouble tickets for detected outages, and adds proactive trouble notification from a network engineer in PAETEC's Technical Assistance Center.

Help the customer by taking the technology and skills out of the way. Be Customer Centric. All they want is email, web surfing, and dial-tone. Without th eheadaches and pain. Your job is to take away the pain.