www.msona.co.uk Leveraging Broadband to Offer Value-add Revenue-Generating Managed Services to Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) by Network Service Providers (NSPs)
Broadband Internet has gone from being a luxury to necessity, to a utility. How can a leading Network Service Provider (NSP) leverage Broadband penetration into Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to be innovative and competitive while increasing revenues and lowering costs? In the following paragraphs we aim to provide a summary of our products and services and how we believe we can help NSPs answer the question. WHO ARE MSONA? We design and develop multi-service network appliances optimised for use by Small & Medium size Enterprises. We enable service providers to earn additional revenue streams from a market that is currently under-serviced in many countries. We streamline the delivery of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services to SMEs though managed services offering which combines on-premise and cloud - based services. We are based in the UK, Italy and Sweden and employ some the best Broadband technologists in Europe. WHAT ARE MSONA S PRODUCTS? Our flagship product is the mbox Series platform. The mbox Series is a family of network appliances and Customer Premise Equipments (CPEs) that bring together Broadband access (FTTx, DSL, 3G), security, telephony and IT in one single device. We compliment the mbox with a series of cloud-based subscription services and applications which are hosted in our data-centres in Europe. By striking a balance between on-premise and cloud services and applications we exploit the best-of-breed technologies and services for SME customers. OUT-Of-THE-BOx MANAgED SERvICES for SME MARkETS From our experience with our customers in Scandinavia, offering bandwidth alone where the only differentiator is speeds and feeds leaves no room for a real competitive edge. With bandwidth as the only differentiator drives commoditization resulting in declining average revenue per user (ARPU) and shrinks margins. Our Telco customers like Quadracom Networks AB in Sweden confirm that managed services are a true catalyst for revenue and margin growth and, most importantly for the long-term, customer satisfaction, retention and loyalty or what we call stickiness. 2 Managed Services for SMEs www.msona.co.uk
What s the Opportunity for NSPs? SMEs ARE UNDERSERVED Small and medium businesses are looking for ways to streamline their ICT rollouts and reduce cost without compromising on features or functionality. Due to their size SMEs seldom have in-house IT staff and therefore providing ICT services for SMEs has always been a challenge. For this very reason the Msona product offering is a blend of on-premise IT applications and cloud-based network services. Although the SME IT requirements are straight-forward, their requirements are vital for nations that wish to stay ahead in an increasingly interconnected 21st Century business and personal world. This demand creates the opportunity for the NSP to provide managed services from a well established and recognized organisation that has the power and reach throughout the territory it covers and serves. INCREASED ARPU The Msona product and service gives NSPs the opportunity to up-sell value-add services to SME business customers beyond the basic Broadband offerings. Through bundling of services NSPs can offer customers Security, Email and Web hosting, Virtual Private Network (VPN) services, Voice-over-IP (VoIP) telephony, network storage and backup and many more services to increase ARPU and differentiate its offering from plain vanilla Broadband. NO CAPEX/OPEX REQUIRED BY NSP TO IMPLEMENT SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES Msona has built a whole set of subscription services ready for the Telco to sell on to their customers through a service delivery platform, the mcloud. There is no requirement for NSPs to invest in implementing any of the service or hosted options offered by Msona. In the future, NSPs may want to host these service offerings from their own in-house data centres. ANY INTERNET CONNECTIVITY No matter what Broadband technology the NSP offers, the mbox can support it. Whether it s Fibre, DSL, leased line, 3G or WiMAX, NSPs can easily reach their customers and connect them online. REDUCED OPEX MPLS-LIKE VPN SERVICE NSPs can offer business customers cost-effective inter-office connectivity using secure SSL-based VPN service where it s not economic for SMEs to deploy an MPLS infrastructure (like international links). Msona offers an alternative highly secure SSL-based VPN service that is easy to manage and highly scalable that can support 1000 s of sites. OFFLOADING MOBILE NETWORKS (IF NSP HAS WIRELESS ASSETS) Congestion on mobile networks is now a customer satisfaction issue due to network overload caused by the increase in data being generated by applications over 3G and LTE networks. The mbox can be used strategically to offload data generated by applications running on mobile devices when in the office. All smart phone and tablet devices support both WiFi and 3G operations. The 3G spectrum is ideal for communications when one is mobile and out of the office. The spectrum and higher bandwidth available to the SME user via WiFi network is ideal for mobility when in the office. WiFi Access Points (AP) will provide access to users in the office and the mbox will authentic the user to provide secure and authorised access to application and network resources. In locations where there is inadequate 3G spectrum coverage within a building, NSPs can augment their 3G/LTE service by installing a Femtocell within the office. The 3G/LTE Femtocell would be connected to the Msona mbox to provide secure access to the wired broadband uplink. The authentication of the 3G/LTE user would be done by the NSP mobile switching centre. In this scenario data generated by smart phones and tablets would be routed via the WiFi access network and voice calls would be routed by the Femtocell but both streams of data use the Broadband wired uplink. Using the WiFi access network to offload data traffic from the 3G/LTE network reduces congestion, improves customer satisfaction and lowers Opex expense. Using Femtocell improves coverage, reduces congestion and lowers Capex expenses a win-win strategy for the NSP. BRANDING Msona offers a range of branding options to suit every service provider s requirements and aspirations. From co-branding to fully branded products, NSPs can ensure that their brand awareness is significantly enhanced. No truck-roll is required to provision and setup the services. All configurations, maintenance and support are done remotely from the existing NSP s NOC. 3 Managed Services for SMEs www.msona.co.uk
Moving forward... TELCO REFERENCES Quadracom Networks AB, Sweden s largest communications operator in the country, is currently selling managed services to Swedish SMEs entirely based on Msona technology under the Instant Office and Office Direkt brands. We have been using mbox solutions for nearly two years both internally and with customers through our Riksnet AB subsidiary and have been extremely satisfied with their reliability, feature-set, performance and ease of use. Christer Henriksson, Head of Product Management, Quadracom AB TAKEAWAYS In a nutshell, Msona is about fast-forwarding NSPs market entry to offer valueadd revenue-generating managed services over Broadband without the Capex and associated development risks. Msona has a comprehensive technical offering that includes multi-service Internet appliances for service delivery at customer premise and an out-of-the-box pool of managed services. We can also bring to the table innovative ideas for quick roll-outs and deployments that draw on synergies with current practices from the mobile world and together with integration capabilities with existing OSS environments. All of this can be offered from our data-centres in Europe or NSP s own data-centres. Offering managed services to the vertical SME market segment is an exciting revenue-generating opportunity for the NSP that will provide the establishment with a strong competitive advantage and secure a leadership position in what is becoming increasingly a very competitive Broadband market in the country. NEXT STEP? ADDITIONAL BENEFITS WITH HALO EFFECT For NSPs there is another dimension to the offering. Managed services can create a true Halo effect encouraging customers to take up other NSP services which they may not have considered in the past. Exposure and visibility of such services will multiply and there are some real examples where such phenomenon appeared when Telcos started offering Triple Play IPTV services triggering considerable uptake on other non-related offerings such as added telephony options for example. Furthermore, the NSP can be positioned to bundle additional services from its wireless portfolio and create marketing bundles that leverage fixed to mobile convergence (FMC) to build unrivalled offerings in the market. We would like to request the initiation of an internal project at the NSP to evaluate our products and solutions for offering managed services to SMEs in the region. We would be delighted to engage with the NSP at a strategic level that would lead to knowledge transfer, joint developments as well as design of tailored solutions for their markets. 4 Managed Services for SMEs www.msona.co.uk
www.msona.co.uk 004-00002-0 Msona Ltd., Science & Technology Centre, Earley Gate, Whiteknights Road, Reading, RG66BZ, United Kingdom. www.msona.co.uk 2011 Msona Ltd. All rights reserved. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. All company names, logos, and product designs that are trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Registered Office: Belmont Place, Belmont Road, Maidenhead, SL6 6TB, United Kingdom.