Four Things Every Company Should Do Before Signing Telecom Contracts

"At the end of the day, all companies suck at Telecommunications". This is a direct quote from a senior executive manager I know well in the industry and is very true. Every carrier who provides voice, data, internet, or other services has weaknesses when it comes to servicing their customers. Each has strengths as well but they all share many common weaknesses when it comes to provisioning their services. The biggest challenges usually arise from the time you sign your contract till the time some engineer is actually trying to port over your numbers and turn your services on properly. There are many reasons for this. Sometimes it's because sales people didn't tell you everything you needed to know (Go figure!). Sometimes it's because the customer didn't share all the right information with the carrier. And sometimes it has to do with the monopolistic nature of the "Ma Bells" (ILECs) who actually are a necessary part of the process. The reality is that analog voice networks are complicated, IP networks are complicated, and networks that use both even when voice is traveling over IP are complicated. If you want the best value for your money when it comes to purchasing these services you need to just accept this fact and find the one company who as my old manager put it, "doesn't suck as much as the other guys."

Does that mean that you shouldn't switch carriers under the old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it"? Absolutely not. What you can do is to be prepared for making those changes by learning the four things that are crucial for success when switching carriers or ordering new services from carriers.

1. Know all your numbers.

Some of the biggest challenges when provisioning new customers for carriers is accurately porting all of their phone numbers correctly. This is because many of their numbers might have been overlooked before they signed their contracts. Also they might have had some numbers with other carriers than the main carrier they were switching services. For example maybe they had some existing POTS or analog lines with the local LEC (baby bell) or other carrier for purposes of alarms, faxes, or modems. When this happens the carrier they switch to might not be able to identify this when making changes to their services when looking at the old customer service record they get from the main carrier they are porting most numbers. The problem this creates can be hard to amend quickly or might cause slight outages during the switchover process. What I tend to find is that most companies do not keep a good updated list of all their numbers so they forget about these details when signing new contracts. They assume that new carriers will be able to get this information easily for them but this is not the case.

It is much easier for the company to identify these numbers or plan what changes will be needed for themselves before switching services and they will want to do this before paperwork is gathered by the new carrier. The reason is once the new carrier enters the order into their back-end or provisioning systems it's often much more difficult to make changes after the fact. This is a major cause of problems once services are ported over and takes a lot of time and heartache to solve when not done properly. What I advise people to do is always check with all existing carriers what numbers are associated with their services by asking for their current customer service record before making changes. Also they should contact the vendor or person responsible for maintaining their phone equipment to identify all numbers that should be ported. By going through this planning they might also be able to identify lines that will no longer be needed which will help them save cost or streamline their services.

2. Know how new IP addresses will affect your network.

As many companies will bundle your Internet, data, and voice services together plus the fact that a lot of communication services are now IP based it is very important to understand how these IP changes will affect your network. Many companies don't realize that when they switch carriers their external IP addresses will change. An external IP address is how the world sees your network from the Internet or essentially outside your own network. These addresses are crucial for things like firewalls, web based services, remote workers or any application or person that needs to access your network. Typically there are several devices and applications that will be affected by changing IP blocks (this is essentially the sequence of IP addresses you are given by a carrier) and they need to be properly changed before any switchover of new services.

Many times in the past my customers have asked if they change carriers can they keep their existing IP addresses. The answer is "no" because every carrier maintains their own IP schemes and there is a limited number of external IP addresses available. This is why we sometimes see things like ww2 or ww3 in an address bar of a browser because the need for more IP addresses has grown exponentially creating different layers of the world wide web. Also, just because you were given external IP addresses from one carrier doesn't mean you own them. As soon as you leave that carrier you lose them.

The important thing to note is that proper planning is necessary when you make a change to your network and if your external IP addresses are going to change then you need to identify what systems, hardware, and applications this will affect. It is easy enough for IT administrators to make these changes but when they are not properly planned things could shut down during a cut-over or provisioning process. The good news is that just because a new carrier might turn-up a data circuit that doesn't mean that the old one shuts down necessarily. You can control when these IP changes will go into affect. The best practice is to map out how the changes will affect you and plan for the change-over before it happens with appropriate IT resources.

3. Make sure your phone equipment vendor and/or IT consultant are in the loop.

When you switch carriers the person who is almost always needed when the cut-over is going to take place is your phone vendor. Keep in mind the phone vendor is the person who is responsible for maintaining your current phone system. This person or company is usually the same person or company who installed the system but that is not always the case. The reason they are necessary during the cut-over is that typically they will have to assist the new carrier in the cut-over process whether it be cross-connecting the phone lines to new services or making slight changes to the phone system so that the new service will operate properly. The key ingredient to successful provisioning of new services is to have this resource in the loop before the change actually takes place. This allows them time to plan for the changes that will be necessary. Sometimes they might even identify where the new proposed services might not function properly or at all with the existing equipment that is available. Sure we would like to think that the salesperson would have done that but typically they will not have the knowledge to identify these issues when recommending new services. Or worse, they might just lie.

It is also a good idea to have your staff IT person or IT consultant on-site during the cut-over because they will be needed to hook up new internet/data connections to your routers or LAN switches. Again it is crucial to get them involved early in the process. If you do not have staff or vendors like these available then it is recommended you hire someone to take on this role for you when purchasing new communication services. Often I find companies assume that the telecommunication carrier or ISP will do this for them. That is almost never the case. If the right resources are consulted early in the decision making process then many problems can be avoided when its time to actually provision the new services.

4. Know what equipment will be affected by switching to new services.

When telecommunication services are changed often some of the existing equipment being used across a company's network will be affected. It is important to identify what equipment will be affected, what might be unneeded, and what might need to purchased. The first thing to consider is existing PBX or phone equipment. The equipment that is in place today might not be sufficient for the new services being proposed. For example some phone systems or existing equipment might need to be upgraded in order to work properly with new services or new features that the new carrier will be handling. These could include new cards for specific types of telephony hand-off such as Digital Trunks or PRI services. Also the new services might include more lines than existing switches or available ports can handle. These will have to be upgraded. In some instances the new services might not work at all with older equipment. Some equipment might not be needed anymore and thus can be eliminated from the network. This could include routers or firewalls that the new carrier is going to provide or manage themselves. It is important that a company realizes this up front so that they don't continue to pay for maintenance or people to support unneeded equipment.

In summary, many of the problems, challenges, and service disruptions that can happen right after provisioning new telecommunication services can be easily avoided with proper planning and communication before a company decides to move forward with new telecommunication contracts. Most of the time when these items are handled properly the company can expect a very smooth transition to new carriers and eliminate the risk of downtime or outages. The key to this planning is to outline with the proper internal resources how new services will affect the existing network and existing equipment and provide proper due diligence internally instead of making assumptions that outside vendors or carriers will handle these issues through the provisioning process.

-King of Telecom