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How Vendor Management Benefits Your Migration to SD-WAN

SD-WAN | Data Networking

For the last several years, every industry trade magazine has highlighted the incredible cost savings to be found in migrating to SD-WAN from MPLS. The promise of more bandwidth for less money is a siren call that's hard to resist. 

 

However, which SD-WAN platform is the best fit for your business?

Serviam's Lifecycle Management process provides the guidance and service needed to:

  • Choose the best vendor.

  • Make a successful migration.

  • ​And more...

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Business Imperatives
for SD-WAN Migrations

The first critical step towards understanding your needs is an inventory assessment.

 

For example...

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  • What carriers are you currently using? What are your backups?

  • Are your circuits right-sized for the applications you’re running?

  • Are you being billed per your contract? 

 

Serviam confirms what you have in detail to ensure you know what’s needed moving forward. 

 

During this initial process, we tend to find initial savings of 10-15% due to improper billing, circuits which are no longer in use, or over-developed bandwidth requirements.

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Solution Development
for SD-WAN Migrations

There are a several SD-WAN options to be evaluated when looking at a transition:

 

  • Hybrid WAN – This leverages SD-WAN technology to manage application-level traffic flow through a combination of broadband and legacy telecom facilities.

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  • Native SD-WAN – This utilizes multiple broadband alternatives.

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  • Primary/Secondary SD-WAN – This still utilizes application-level traffic management but uses a primary and secondary data connection. (Typically, this is necessary due to a lack of delivery facilities or a need to use wireless for one them.)

 

In addition, there are multiple equipment considerations:

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  • Do you consider any device an SD-WAN device if it terminates two locations?  What if it doesn’t route based upon application layer? Is this “good enough”?

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  • Do you want true application-level visibility?

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  • If so, what will be your management tool for integrating into your business operations?

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  • Do you need a full security stack in your SD-WAN or just VPN tunnels?   

 

Designing the right SD-WAN environment isn’t as simple as the traditional idea of “buying a Cisco device and plugging it on the end of a circuit.”

 

A successful migration depends on having a partner who learns your environment in-depth to ensure you get the best possible fit tailored for your business. 

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Deal Negotiation
for SD-WAN Migrations

Our expert contract negotiators make sure you maximize your potential for…

 

  • Reducing expenses

  • Gaining flexibility in your terms

 

In many ways, flexible terms can be the most valuable result of a negotiation. Given the standard, three-year terms of business telecom contracts and the rapid-fire changes that happen in the business, it’s imperative that you find room to maneuver and respond to change during your term.

 

Having negotiated hundreds of agreements, Serviam understands the contractual protections your firm needs when moving into a new environment.

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Solution Deployment
for SD-WAN Migrations

Because Serviam provides Project Management support on every client order, we get to know your team, your locations, and the intricacies of your daily operations. 

 

For example…

 

If you have third-party organizations who handle field support or a preferred equipment partner…

No problem, we can coordinate them alongside the SD-WAN provider to deploy services. 

 

If you have remote staff who have to travel to be on site for the implementation... 

We can coordinate their schedules.

 

The key here is to make sure we understand your process and unique business requirements. Then, we use our expertise to marry those two elements together for a successful project.

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Ongoing Support
for SD-WAN Migrations

You will have an outage, probably more than one, during the lifetime of your SD-WAN solution. 

 

Hopefully, opening a ticket resolves the issue, and your operations are back up and running quickly.

 

When that doesn’t work, our team does a few things to make your life easier:

 

  • We provide an inventory and documentation of your solution. This is especially critical when you are leveraging multiple providers for service. Having circuit IDs, account numbers, IP ranges, and support/escalation numbers all in one place eases the burden of supporting a SD-WAN environment.

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  • We escalate your issue and help coordinate vendors. For example, if a router goes bad, we coordinate the carrier technical support group to ensure you have support while your team member or third-party vendor is onsite.  

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  • In rare circumstances, we have to hold vendors accountable for the quality of the solutions they provide. This may involve leveraging chronic outage language, collecting on SLA penalties, or negotiating the resolution of a dispute.

 

Having negotiated hundreds of agreements, Serviam understands the costs, the best practices, and contractual protections your firm needs moving into a new environment like SD-WAN.

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We don’t just sell a solution and leave. We stay engaged, track financial impact, ensure projects stay on track, and make sure your organization realizes the operational and financial rewards that are rightly yours.

 

We partner with you long-term to ensure you get the full return on your investment in SD-WAN.

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