There is a widening gap between the static services that network operators offer and the dynamic services their enterprise clients want, and increasingly need. While businesses of all types want their bandwidth and connectivity services in real-time —"on demand”— with the same ease and cost-effectiveness as their cloud-based services, network operators remain bound by slow, expensive service delivery due to outdated order-to-service systems and processes.

I discussed these issues with Anand Santhanam, Vice President, Communications, Media & Entertainment at Infosys, a global leader in next-generation digital services and consulting.

“Digital enterprises communicate non-stop with their geographically diverse workers, manufacturers, distributors, partners and sales channels,” said Anand. “At the same time, their ever-increasing use of video and mobile technologies, and the cloud, have created more volatile traffic volumes with less predictable patterns.  These long-term trends demand agile WAN services to efficiently handle transient relationships and elastic bandwidth requirements.”

While these long-term enterprise trends represent exciting new market and revenue opportunities for network operators, they have been unable to profit from them. Their outdated Their legacy operations support systems and outdated operational procedures impose a multi-week order-to-service process that is limited to static services between fixed sites.  And with a minimum 12-month contract, traditional services also miss the market opportunity for transient events – like sporting events and concerts – that require flexible connectivity and variable bandwidth for a short duration.

The good news: advances in automation overcome these constraints and make bandwidth on demand a reality.  In fact, Blue Planet offers a Bandwidth on Demand solution that combines advanced network slicing technology, time-aware path computation, and a sophisticated policy engine with state-of-the-art calendaring to orchestrate and provision immediate or scheduled on-demand services end-to-end across multi-vendor, multidomain packet-optical networks.

“Infosys is working closely with customers in 45 countries, and across all verticals, which gives us a unique insight into enterprise markets, and requirements, worldwide,” said Anand.  "On-demand services give enterprises the agility they want. With the ability to control their connectivity services with the same speed, ease, and pay-as-you-go pricing they get with their cloud-based services, they have the power to respond quickly and efficiently to changing traffic demands and business priorities."

“Enterprises want that control,” Anand continued. “They want the ability to turn-on a service when and where they need it, without a multi-week delay…and they want to be able to modify or terminate the service as needed—and pay for only what they use.  This is the way enterprises consume cloud services, and it is a model that works very well for them.”

This is a win-win situation. Network operators can use bandwidth on demand automation to improve the customer-experience, which is a priority with every service provider I speak with, while at the same time reducing their order-to-service OpEx by transferring the order process from their customer service reps to their clients, and by automating the service delivery.  This is exactly what the Blue Planet solution provides, and it holds a lot of promise for network operators that are looking to increase their market share, and margins through service differentiation.

As a highly-differentiated service—priced per bit per hour—that improves customer experience, network operators offering on-demand services will naturally attract new customers and gain market-share, as well as increase overall revenue.  This revenue boost from bandwidth on demand is critical to network operators who are experiencing commoditization and price erosion for their traditional static service offerings.

“From the enterprise perspective, the control and agility of on-demand services are well worth the premium,” said Anand. “They can use on-demand services to keep their business priorities, service needs, and budget in alignment, and to avoid the expense of purchasing over-provisioned and under-utilized WAN links with inflexible long-term contracts.”

Anand continued. “These benefits extend beyond enterprise clients—and include content providers, data center operators, mobile operators, and retail network service providers—any business that relies on a WAN and wants to optimize their capacity utilization and business agility.”

The Blue Planet Bandwidth on Demand solution works in multi-vendor, multi-layer and multi-domain networks, and professional services – through Blue Planet or partners like Infosys – can help network operators integrate the solution with their order management systems and other current OSS / BSS.

Get a free 60-day trial of the Blue Planet Bandwidth on Demand solution

“The importance of professional services cannot be overstated, especially when it comes to new services and technologies,” said Anand. “The consultation teams and services practices at Infosys have deep solutions expertise that we have gained over decades of successful engagements, and we work closely with our clients to advise, build and co-evolve solutions that precisely meet each customer’s unique business needs.”

I appreciate Anand sharing his expert perspectives on the enterprise market. You can contact him via LinkedIn, and you can visit www.infosys.com to learn more about how Infosys is helping their customers on their digital transformation journey.

Please visit the Blue Planet Bandwidth on Demand solution page to learn more, and to apply for a free 60-day trial.