Global Companies Need Global Partners

Considerations When Looking for UCaaS Providers on a Global Scale

The American economy matters, a lot. Not just because a quarter of all the world's economy occurs here, but because a much greater percentage of the world's decisions are made here. Those decisions are often implemented elsewhere and that's where the fun begins.

Traditionally CIOs pick partners in one of two ways.

They pick a different partner for each highly defined geographic region and keep the organization running with a series of relatively disconnected, autonomous regional solutions. Each solution suitable for local conditions, but generally not functioning as a cohesive whole very efficiently. In the days before SaaS (Software as a Service) and UCaaS (Unified Communications as a Service), multinational teams, always-on communications and regions run as separate businesses, worked. Not anymore.

Many multinational companies have tried to solve the problem in different ways. Namely to employ a single vendor solution. This has worked to some extent but has disadvantages of its own. How to cope when the manufacturer changes platforms, or companies with disparate systems merge, or what to do if a supplier is weak or even absent from a market? Even large mergers and takeovers have failed because incompatible systems. That is no longer an excuse that any CIO could use.

SaaS and UCaaS change everything. Once a user can access the Internet, with sufficient speed, then they are just as full a member of the organization as anyone else. Skype for Business, Video Conferencing, and Web Conferencing all decrease the sense of distance to zero. This empowers users but causes the CIO to examine their suppliers in a different way.

No longer can they simply select a supplier per region, or a global vendor and expect to break down silos enough to keep their users happy.

The regulatory world can be a minefield for suppliers and clients, companies with deep experience in this are becoming mission critical, particularly in emerging markets such as India with its tangled red tape. After all however good the technological solution, if the supplier can'to obtain the right permits to operate it, it becomes useless.

What is needed is a partner with experience weaving numerous disparate systems together, while able to implement, on a global scale, the very latest solutions, by stitching together disparate systems. A range of companies will claim to be able to do this.

Another important consideration is how agnostic the supplier is. Are they be tied to only one or two suppliers? For a successful client outcome they must be completely independent, and not unduly influenced by any one supplier. Once you look past the marketing slides few suppliers actually can truly claim to be.

Increasingly CIOs are looking for a single partner, capable of implementing solutions of consistent quality and cost, irrespective of location, on a global scale, all backed up with global SLAs (Service Level Agreements). The list shortens very considerably once these criteria are taken into account. Many suppliers can claim high quality SLAs for part of the solution, but a true global partner is required to guarantee a service level from the network all the way to desktop applications. In modern UCaaS and SaaS environments a unified SLA encompassing both the whole network and all the applications on it is required. That can only be delivered by a global player. Enter Tata Communications.

Tata Communications is a global behemoth. Part of the same group that owns Tata Consultancy Services and Jaguar Land Rover, it is one of India's most impressive companies. Although to call Tata Communications an Indian company when it transports a quarter of the world's Internet traffic, employs over 2,000 people outside of India and count over 60% of the Fortune 500 companies as customers does rather under state what a global company it truly is.

The superlatives for Tata Communications will make your head spin, with 99.7% of global GDP is within its reach, and its position as the no.1 wholesale international voice provider, are simply examples. The list goes on and on.

Increasingly CIOs are required to produce world class solutions for everyone within their organization. No longer can the non US resident team members be left on older, disparate technology. The Philippine call center needs to work in exactly the same way as the Phoenix version. The sales reps in Dubai need the same instant access to Skype for Business solutions as the ones in Dublin or Delaware.

Business unit managers demand the breaking down of silos. Workers need to be able to act as part of a global entity, so suddenly a global provider with unmatched skills and experience in emerging markets would seem a choice paying close attention to.

Increasingly business is global. Even companies that don't consider themselves global are almost certainly involved in some way with global suppliers and clients. Having business partners capable of implementing solutions around the world matters. Bear that in mind the next time you're looking for a communications partner.

This paper is sponsored by Tata Communications.