Selling Network Upgrades

Chris Labatt-Simon, CEO of D&D Consulting, a network and information security integrator in Albany, N.Y., discusses easing customer concerns about upgrading the network backbone.

CUSTOMERS ARE REACTIVE: The sales cycle is too short. Customers tend to be reactive in their upgrades. When they get an appliance, they don't think about the effect it will have on their network. And when something goes wrong or it doesn't work as expected, they call and they want a patch real quick just to get it working. So we end up rushing through assessment to install and not properly rearchitecting the network. Properly done, there should be two to three weeks for an assessment. Implementation would be anywhere from two weeks to a year.

AVOID THE HYPE: Many of our customers are still making the transition from Layer 2 to Layer 3. While there are reasons for upgrading—critical application, data backups—most networks aren't even utilizing 1G, let alone the need to move to 10G. We do an assessment to determine what the customer needs.

PICKING A VENDOR: We have partnerships with various vendors, but we look at the investment the customer has already made. If the customer network is mainly Cisco, we aren't going to push a Juniper solution if there's a Cisco solution that's going to do the job.

ROI IS SATISFACTION: Upgrading is expensive, and there are many factors involved. When customers ask about ROI, I tell them a story: Say you bought something, and there's a problem with it. You call customer service, and you say, 'There's a problem with this thing and I want to return it.' The agent says, 'OK, give me your info, and I will pull up your order.' And then the agent says, 'The system is being a little slow, hang on.' Have you ever had that? And then finally, after looking at your order, the agent asks how he can help you. And you say you want to return it. And he asks for more information, and then he says, 'Oh, our system is down.' Have you ever had that? Customer service is avoiding all that, having the system up when you need it to be. That's where the ROI is.

LIMITED SERVICE OPPORTUNITY: Network management is about understanding the quality and type of traffic moving across the network. It's not really common for someone to pay, say, $50 a month for network support. Network as a service has not really taken off, but with smart buildings and more complicated networks, maybe that will become more common.