Insight

5G offers an amazing future of Gigabit plus connectivity (for what, we’re not quite sure yet, but a 'build it and they will come' mentality seems to be prevailing). 5G also offers a great chance for marketing departments to race for the biggest headlines: ‘First 5G call’; ‘First 5G network’; ‘First use of ratified standards’; ‘Biggest 5G deployment’; ‘Longest distance 5G call’; ‘First 5G commercial offering’; expected launch dates etc... How much of this is actually real?We hear stories of trials and test deployments but…

Over the last 12 months we have seen the availability, reliability and functionality of UCaaS grow into what could now be described as a mature cloud service offering. Why is it then that organisations are not scrapping their legacy PBX systems in favour of these on trend cloud solutions?As we see it there are 3 main challenges organisations need to assess when considering its business case for UCaaS:Organisation Culture – Many organisations now recognise that today’s modern workplace is more collaborative than ever - for many users, collaboration…

The Network Collective has long been a fan of the benchmarking clause although this does come with some caveats. Benchmarking is a process included in many contracts to prevent customers being locked into the pricing (however competitively sourced), obtained at the time of contract signature. For 13 years TNC has watched the price of nearly all telecoms services fall continuously and for longer contracts (5 years) the differential between the pricing at the beginning of the contract and the end can be substantial so any ability to refresh…

Over the course of 2017, TNC has seen an increased demand from its customers wanting to source managed security services as part of a wider Telco sourcing process. In this whitepaper TNC explores what a Managed Security Service is and if/why convergence into a single Managed Network and Security contract could be considered.

When TNC first surveyed the market for network operating and management strategies in 2010, 88% of companies bought outsourced managed services from telecoms service providers, and half of those who didn’t intended to move in that direction. In other words almost 95% of organisations sourced or intended to source networks this way.

We have created the below White Paper to give you expert insight into the future of mobile in 2018, and beyond, from TNC's perspective.

Here at The Network Collective we have recently been debating how C-level executives view the importance of data networks to the successful execution of their IT and wider business strategy. The key question we have been debating is whether they consider the data network as a “tactical” or “strategic” asset, or do they even consider it at all?As subject matter experts in data network strategy and sourcing, we believe there are several indirect factors starting to drive the data network further up the strategic agenda. Factors…

The platform O365 delivers means companies are able to strip out significant amounts of infrastructure and shift the workload to a cloud-hosted model. This paper is concentrating on the main applications of O365 which are Exchange, OneDrive and SharePoint.

This white paper recommends the two main approaches TNC sees to the WAN of the future, and the key characteristics and pros and cons of each

Vendor management offers a new approach to managing this relationship without increasing pressure on in-house resource. A vendor manager will build a long-term strategic partnership with your vendor, reducing conflict, monitoring value and leveraging the contractor’s insight into tech innovation to increase efficiency and benefits.

Many businesses opt for renewal because they simply haven’t left themselves time or they don’t have enough resources to take any other course of action. In any event, if the service you receive already is reasonable or good, or you need continuity of service for some other business reason, you may go for the easy option and simply renew. However, don’t let shortage of time be the driver.

From a conceptual perspective, hosted UCaaS is extremely attractive...is this the reality in businesses?

TNC’s research does indeed show that there has been a decline in companies buying MPLS. Does this mean that MPLS is dying?

One of the UK’s largest companies was approaching the end of its contract with its mobile telephony vendor. The estate included 3,000 handsets with a mix of different types of users (smartphone, data, voice) and a mix of domestic and roaming requirements.

Roaming costs have always been a source of budget angst for organisations, but recent developments in mobility are exacerbating the problem. 4G and increasing use of mobile data services means users expect to be able to turn on their phone wherever they are and consume services, but when overseas this can be extremely expensive. Whilst changes such as the new EU regulations make some significant difference, roaming costs in further-flung locations can still be very high, indeed TNC are seeing evidence that this is one area that, left unchallenged,…

How to Reduce Data Roaming Charges Here’s a meeting no one wants to have: sitting down to explain to your manager that on a recent business trip you downloaded the latest blockbuster film, and it cost the company £3,600 in data roaming fees. Or that you skyped your partner for ten minutes a day for a week at an overseas conference, which cost your employer more than £1,000. This kind of unexpected telecoms expense has a name: bill shock. It can result from either data roaming costs or voice call charges. The user is generally unaware of the…

For the last 3-5 years, Bring Your Own Device, or BYOD, has been a topic of intense discussion within many organisations developing mobility strategies. As the UK’s largest independent network and telecoms consultancy, TNC has supported over 200 organisations to develop market-leading mobility strategies so is uniquely placed to sum up the current state of the market for BYOD solutions and to set out the market trends in this key area of telecoms expenditure.

Cloud services are not only changing the way organisations store data and host applications; they are triggering material architectural changes to data network too. Workload migration to cloud is the primary driver behind leading organisations reconsidering their design, procurement, implementation and management of their telecommunication networks.

We are entering one of the most exciting periods in the history of Wide-Area Network (WAN) provision. In a market dominated by Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) systems for very many years, new innovations are poised to shake things up and maybe even challenge the big industry players. In this article we look at three recent developments in the field: hybrid WANs, Software-Defined Networks (SDNs) and Network Function Virtualisation (NFV). These technologies promise to bring cost efficiencies, faster speeds and improved control of deployment.…

Telecoms strategy, design and procurement are increasingly important parts of any IT strategy and telecommunications costs are often one of the largest items in an IT budget, yet achieving improved outcomes through the procurement process is getting ever more difficult Through working with The Network Collective, our customers have a trusted partner to help them understand the market, make the right technical choices and ultimately achieve an enhanced telecoms solution that supports their business needs and fits their budget.