For one global electronics manufacturer, Sprint Managed Network Solutions is the key to maintaining a lean and focused IT group as part of an overall objective of keeping costs down in an industry where profit margins are particularly slim.
This company, a Sprint customer for more than a decade, has grown quickly through acquisitions, and has thousands of employees scattered across offices and manufacturing facilities all around the world. It has a highly decentralized corporate structure with independent decision makers and P&Ls. This is reflected in the fact that it maintains a corporate wide area network, yet individual business units have a lot of leeway in making their own network decisions.
Gradually, however, the corporate IT department is bringing more of the offices and business units under the corporate umbrella, to extend the reach of the improved communications and performance of the Sprint Global MPLS network and Managed Network Solutions (MNS).
From the beginning, this company has embraced MNS for the same reasons that it does now. Rather than occupy its IT groups with managing the network, the relatively small IT staff’s time is freed up to focus on key applications and the local area network. Due to the sheer volume of firewalls they have to manage, they rely on Sprint to control both the Cloud and edge.
In addition to MNS, this multibillion-dollar manufacturer is also methodically deploying SIP Trunking, and with the guidance of the Sprint team, determines how to deploy new sites while providing efficiencies on existing sites.
Sprint offers, at no additional charge, an online self-service management tool called Compass. The company is an active user of it, as it gives IT staff a comprehensive view of the network. Compass enables real-time WAN performance management, assessment, performance optimization, and troubleshooting. But while most organizations do their own troubleshooting and generate their own change orders through Compass, the Sprint account team takes on much of that role for this company, demonstrating our willingness to go above and beyond when it comes to customer service.
“Beyond simply providing managed services and other solutions, Sprint has developed and maintained a longtime trusted partner relationship with this company,” says Tom Loch, national account manager. “They trust us as an adviser, to tell them frankly about both the advantages and disadvantages of various new technologies and other network options they are considering.”
Loch added, “We’re the third head in the room and will continue to enable them with new technology.”
With the newest three-year agreement nearly wrapped up, the company is extending its relationship with us in several areas. It is currently trialing our Mobile Integration solution, so highly mobile employees can leverage the corporate network while they are out of the office or on the road. The company is also considering turning over management of its scores of network firewalls to Sprint, to gain additional security and improve wide area network connectivity, which will allow IT to focus on more strategic projects.
