Archive for December, 2020
FSB Wellbeing Award Winners
The FSB 2020 awards did not happen in the way they were originally planned but we were delighted to receive the winning “Wellbeing Award” trophy today.
Some positive news to end an extremely challenging year. Check out the more about what the award means to CEO Terry Moore by reading his responses to a few questions from FSB’s Roisin McAliskey below:
How does it feel to win and how does it affect your business?
Fantastic, to achieve any external recognition for what we do is an always an achievement but an award regarding the wellbeing of our staff is extra special as it is so important to us. Our mission statement is to “Make Life Better” for our staff, our customers, partners and anyone connected with our company. We passionately care about what we do and the impact it has on others. We continuously try to find ways to improve and develop our culture, to maintain and promote the importance of personal wellbeing – and this award recognises that we are delivering.
How has Covid-19 impacted your business and how do you see things for yours and other small business?
The human cost and loss of life has been so tragic for many and cannot and should not be overlooked. Businesses have faced unprecedented challenges and have had to adapt and change at a rapid pace, with some unfortunately struggling to survive. But as the world slowed everyone got a chance to take stock and think about what was really important; for me it has highlighted the importance of people and relationships.
At Outsource we deeply understand that more than ever technology impacts every business, but also at the heart of every business are real people with their own challenges. The pandemic has only reinforced our commitment to ensure that Outsource will Make Life Better for everyone and every business we touch. To support this, we have accelerated plans to launch some exciting and ground-breaking disruptive products and services in early 2021, watch this space, to further drive and support the future success of our existing and new customers, during and beyond the current challenges.
I firmly believe that all businesses need to embrace the power of technology internally and/or with external assistance to fully exploit the benefits it will bring. The teams at Outsource have continued to work with businesses in all sectors, developing and implementing bespoke solutions to bring positive change throughout the crisis.
Poor Connectivity Can Cripple Productivity.
Poor Connectivity can cripple business productivity. Not surprisingly then, many businesses are looking at leased line connectivity as a solution and an alternative to broadband. Effectively, a leased line is a dedicated Ethernet connection direct to the Internet.
How much does a leased line cost?
Frustratingly, there isn’t a simple, easy answer. The reason? Leased line costs depend on a number of business-specific variables:
Location. A leased line involves creating a direct fibre optic connection between your business and the nearest ‘Point of Presence’, this is usually an exchange or carrier datacentre, which can be up to 35km away. The longer that connection, the greater the cost.
Bandwidth. Basically, the faster the connection, and the greater the amount of traffic that it has to carry, then the higher the cost. A business simply wanting a fast and reliable connection for 20 people, say, is therefore going to pay a lot less than a 200-employee business with heavy cloud-computing and enterprise systems workloads.
Contract length. From a leased line provider’s point of view, there are a lot of fixed costs involved in setting up a leased line connection. The longer you’re prepared to be a customer, the lower your monthly payment.
Required levels of customer service, latency, resilience, and uptime provisions. As always, you tend to get what you pay for. And as with consumer broadband offerings, cut-price business connectivity can often mean compromises on performance and service.
Make Informed Decisions
It is important to really understand what your bandwidth requirement is going to be, as not every leased line provider will offer an ability to flex your leased line’s bandwidth as your needs evolve. Bandwidth calculations aren’t easy, technology evolves at a rapid pace which may increase your business demands.
Different leased line providers will have different leased line infrastructure in place to serve businesses’ differing location and bandwidth situations. It really does pay to shop around—especially if your business is located a little off the beaten track: cities and busy business parks are better served than more rural locations.
Getting The Best Solution
It is a complex marketplace, thanks to those differing leased line infrastructure footprints, and differing service and uptime provisions. To ensure you get the best prices and the most appropriate leased line capability, we obtain a ‘whole of market’ comparison with our connectivity partner Aspire, who work with all leased line providers including Virgin Media, Sky, Openreach, Talk Talk Business and CityFibre, to ensure your business benefits from the best solution to match your needs. They also provide a 24/7 support service dedicated 24/7 monitoring and support and a customer portal for bandwidth usage reporting and incident management.
Our Dedicated Leased Lines offer ultrafast speeds which are dedicated to your business, meaning you don’t share the bandwidth with anyone else, ensuring that you can always rely on your connection.
Click the link below to read more about their features and benefits.
Features and Benefits – Dedicated Leased Lines
Are you looking for help in working out which leased line option best suits your business?
Get in touch, talk to one of our expert telecoms solutions team who develop best in class solutions solutions in collaboration with a range of highly regarded and proven global partners.