Insight

We’re living in an age where cyber security has never been more in the spotlight. With people leading increasingly digital lives and the vast majority of the UK workforce working from home as well as the office, businesses have had to adapt the way they operate and communicate. According to the Office for National Statistics, 85% of employees want a hybrid approach to home and office working. While that brings with it lots of opportunities it can also bring a number of risks including more vulnerability to cyber attacks. A report by Deloitte…

Joining TNC’s podcast host, CEO John Waterhouse, to share his expertise is TNC’s CTO, Craig Northveth.In this episode John and Craig discuss what are the key steps organisations need to take to ensure their network is effectively and optimally designed to enable their cloud application strategy.It pays to remember that proactively designing your network ready for cloud enablement is cheaper than doing it reactively.Tactically fixing a network that is not fit for purpose results in you having less choice and therefore more cost. Whereas if your…

Pretty much every organisation now has a cloud-first application strategy and an active programme to migrate as many applications as possible to the cloud.Unfortunately, not every organisation has a network capable of supporting that cloud-first strategy, and many of those that think they do have a suitable network really have a sub-optimal solution.A significant new challenge facing network architects and engineers is navigating the move to cloud computing. Workload migration to the cloud is forcing network architects to think differently about…

Joining TNC’s podcast host, CTO Craig Northveth, to share her expertise is TNC’s Principal Consultant, Clare Tyndall.In this episode Craig and Clare discuss TNC’s 4 key considerations for your CX strategy. This subject is topical now because customer expectations are changing, and legacy technology has serious limitations in our digital world.There are several lenses through which to approach a successful CX strategy and our discussion will focus on the following:Customer LensAcceptance of digital channels Changing demographic Acquisition…

Joining TNC’s CEO, John Waterhouse, to share his expertise is one of TNC’s very own Head of Consulting, Adrian Joyce.In this episode John and Adrian talk about Openreach’s analogue network being completely switched off by the end of 2025, which inevitably means organisations need to review their telecoms estate to understand the impact and plan their response.Topics covered include:What is happening across the analogue network and why?What are the key dates between now and the switch off in 2025? Why organisations need to act now, even if…

As with analogue mobile phones, vinyl records, and cassette tapes, the time has come to retire the analogue telephone network and to move to a fully digitised phone network. The older PSTN network has been in place for decades with the copper wiring in some places dating back to the Victorian era. Not only will a digital network offer increased reliability and more features, but it will save Openreach (and thus its customers), substantial sums of money. Furthermore, the current exchange equipment is up to 35 years old and is now reaching end of…

TNC has been helping organisations execute successful network and telecoms procurement processes for more than 15 years. In that time TNC has seen the full range of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Through these processes, TNC has come to see 5 key factors that consistently arise as being essential to ensure an efficient process and an optimum outcome. Of course, there are other items of influence but in TNC’s experience these 5 key factors are not only fundamental, but they can often be overlooked in some processes or by some organisations –…

Joining TNC’s CEO, John Waterhouse, to share his expertise is one of TNC’s most experienced Principal Consultants and lead deployment expert, Jonathan Copley.In this episode John and Jonathan discuss how badly network transformations can go wrong, why they do so often and how to avoid the pitfalls.Topics covered include:3 shocking statistics that paint the picture of how badly network transformations can go wrongDelayed network deployments – why do we see so many delayed deployments and what are the implications of that?Cost over running…

Joining TNC’s CEO, John Waterhouse, to share his expertise is TNC’s Head of Consulting, and lead mobile expert, Adrian Joyce.This topic is incredibly interesting and very timely - from Brexit and its impact on EU roaming, to 5G use cases, post-COVID changes, and lots in between.Over the years mobile procurement has assumed almost a utility feel as prices were reduced, Tech Funds lessened, mobile devices were retained for longer periods and coverage issues declined (with improved coverage and Wi-Fi calling). Frankly, not much changed from one…

Picture the scene – you’ve just completed the procurement of your organisation’s new network solution. The business case you presented to the CFO showed a pretty rosy picture, and the final results you’ve achieved more than align to what you promised – a next generation technical solution that delivers more bandwidth, more resilience, and more functionality, a step up in SLAs with an improved operating model, all delivered with significant cost savings. You’re a hero, right? High fives all round! Now let’s roll the tape forwards a…

TNC's CTO, Craig Northveth, discusses how to plan a successful network transformation with TNC’s Principal Consultant, Clare Tyndall, in this episode of TNC’s Down The Wire Podcast. Some of the points covered include:Establishing a baseline is an essential first step in the network transformation process, which naturally leads to requirements gatheringSome suppliers promise the world, but can they deliver?How TNC’s agile procurement process enables outcome-based network sourcing strategiesHow to ensure there is flexibility in the contract…

TNC last wrote a deep dive examination of the use cases for 5G in early 2020, just before the world was turned upside down by COVID-19. With the UK emerging from lockdown, it felt like a great time to look again at where 5G is today, and how those use cases, and the underlying business cases are stacking up.Let’s start with what’s changed in the last 12 months:Coverage has continued to grow, but remains low relative to 4G:The three major network operators addressing the UK corporate market, BT/EE, O2/Virgin Media, and Vodafone, are now offering…

We are delighted to welcome special guest, Karl Walton, to the podcast. Karl is one of the highest profile IT procurement professionals in the UK. Karl has led the development and execution of market-leading procurement strategies across a very broad range of IT, network, telecoms and mobility services, delivering technology and operational transformation, as well as lowest lifetime TCO.There is a revolution sweeping through the network and telecoms market, with transformational technologies such as SD-WAN and cloud-based contact centre and telephony…

We are delighted to bring you Down The Wire’s 10th Episode. TNC’s CEO, John Waterhouse, and TNC’s CTO, Craig Northveth, whether co-management is the future model for your enterprise network.As TNC has reported through many recent podcasts and articles, there is a technological revolution sweeping through the enterprise network market. However, harnessing sexy new technology is only part of the story – for organisations to achieve their objectives of delivering agile, flexible network services to support their business objectives, they are…

In one of our recent articles “MPLS vs. SD-WAN vs. SASE” we talked about a technology revolution in the enterprise network market, and concluded that we expect more of our customers to begin their transitions into Phase 3 (SD-WAN) and/or Phase 4 (SASE) over the next couple of years. One of the questions we got asked about this article was “what is the relationship between SASE and SD-WAN, and is it something I need to consider when developing my future network strategy?” Indeed, this is an interesting question to which the answer is multifaceted…

In this episode of TNC’s Down The Wire Podcast TNC's CTO, Craig Northveth, discusses how and why UCaaS, CCaaS and CPaaS are beginning to have a huge impact on the telecoms market with TNC’s Principal Consultant, Clare Tyndall.The ‘as a service’ communications topics covered by Craig and Clare include:What the core principles of UCaaS, CCaaS, CPaaS areWhy it is such a hot topic nowDrill down into the Contact Centre solutionsUnified Communications market overviewBuying behaviours of large, UK based organisationsThe audio version is available…

When the world has become entirely dependent on connectivity to enable everything from seeing friends to joining a yoga class, it might seem crazy to suggest that the world’s telecoms companies are facing a battle for survival that many may not win, but that’s the reality of the existential threat facing the telecoms industry.In this article, we will show how multiple threats and market developments are driving huge change for telcos, the consequences this will have for them, and crucially what that means for you in how you develop and execute…

SummaryA new breed of low earth orbit satellites have begun to offer cheap, low latency, high bandwidth connectivity without geographical limitations. For customers with sites which are difficult to reach, particularly in rural and difficult terrain where cellular and fibre is unavailable or poor quality, this new technology could be a game changer. IntroductionFor many years the network and telecoms industry has been largely reliant on fixed lines for reliable WAN access connectivity. We have seen 3G and 4G promise an end to this reliance on physical…

TNC’s Down The Wire Podcast brings you Episode number 8 entitled “Is It Time To Spring Clean Your Network and Telecoms Estates?”John Waterhouse, CEO, interviews Head of Consulting and TNC commercial guru, Adrian Joyce. Did you know that cleaning up your network and telecoms estates is one of the most effective, but least well-known approaches to delivering cost savings? In TNC’s expert opinion, this is one of those rare approaches every organisation can take, irrespective of where they are in their technology, contract, or procurement cycle,…

Many multinational organisations need to develop new, much more agile global networks. The first question is why is this the case? The second, and far more challenging question, is how can they do this? We are going to tackle both in this article. Let’s start with the first question – why do many multinational organisations need to develop much more agile global networks? The short answer is that there are three main reason reasons for this: