Enterprise Technology Aggregation

All aggregation of some form or another is good, so for me, It is never a matter of if, but simply a matter of what, how, when, and with who. That said, there is a tremendous amount of work and research that needs to be performed to find the right answers. 

The Aggregation / Consolidation projects I have been involved with range from 100 – 5000 locations and regardless of their size, are always accompanied by a detailed project management worksheet with typically 100+ columns that I create in collaboration my clients.

For those of you interested in seeing examples, PM me or send me a request at [email protected]

There are 50+ National Service providers made up of ILEC’s CLEC’s, CableCo’s, ISP’s, MSP’s, and TEM’s and Hybrids that can perform all or some functions of technology aggregation. I refer to it as their “Aggregation Stack” They all have strengths and weaknesses yet, they all can perform admirably at the right time for the right customer, however, none of them can perform admirably all of the time for every customer.

When considering aggregation, IT decision makers and technology advisors need to pay attention to what I refer to as the Art of Aggregation, not just the science. The science is what it is. The Networks are the Networks. The Hosted/UCaaS platforms either have the features or they don’t. The solution offers the required diversity and redundancy, or it doesn’t. The SLA conforms to the Customers requirements, or it does not. The rates, terms, and conditions, hit the metrics or they don’t. All of these things to me, are more or less, scientific in nature. Easily identifiable, easily vetted, and widely incorporated into most evaluations of project candidates. They are all important, but let’s assume all of those boxes are checked, then what is left?

The Art is left, the Art of peeling back the onion to identify if the prospective suppliers and the client line up on a broad range of metrics. The timing, the ramp, the communications, the people, and the culture just to name a few. This part begins typically at the down-selection phase of a possible engagement. By engagement I do mean, the pre curser to marriage in a sense. Why marriage, simply because when you aggregate, you are making a strong long-term commitment.

Some clients may argue, but wait, I’m in for 36 months or 60 months and then we’ll see. You can say that, and yes, contractually that is true. But for the most, particularly really large aggregation projects, if you truly believe you may want to exit in 36 months. I have only four words of advice. “STOP, Don’t Do It!” LOL

Seriously though, when aggregation is performed properly, when clients are happy, when billing is accurate, when suppliers remain competitive, yet are making a profit, and when service levels are sustained or better yet, always improving, and most importantly, if both organizations have sync’d up culturally, these are 10 – 20 years relationships. I have seen very few projects that adhere to above criteria that last less than 10 years and many over 20 which is about when this whole aggregation thing got started.

We don’t want long drawn out engagements, so we need swift use of this Art I speak of to create full transparency between Supplier and Customer. This involves collecting the really important information and a lot you never thought to ask. Things a prospective supplier may not want to tell you, data you may think is over-reach or proprietary to one or the other. Or quite simply, information you never thought to ask, or considered vital to a project’s success.  To that end, I have at least 50 artful questions I typically ask suppliers or carriers above and beyond the obvious and expected ones prior to the final down-selection process.     

Here’s an easy one; What’s is in a prospective vendors sales and implementation pipeline? Given there are tremendous hills and valleys to all aggregators support and implementation capabilities, (the size of the deals make it so) there is a point where a clients implementation based on timing alone, may dictate success or failure. This one item can be the difference between selecting a larger well-known brand with twice the resources, versus a smaller company that may be laser focused on the client implementation simply due to less backlog.

If you are interested in seeing more examples of these who’d of thought of that questions, PM me or send me a request at [email protected]

While this is article is intended to stress the importance of marrying the right supplier to the right client at the right time. I should point out that this not an opinion-based piece, it is absolutely a knowledge and experience-based piece and therefore I need to back that up.

While I cannot claim to be the only Enterprise Multi-Location Aggregation / Consolidation Subject Matter Expert in the industry, nor am I all knowing, but I have done this more than most. To some, the founder of the Nationwide Multi-Location Account aggregation model. So, If you would like background on me, please feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile.

Here; https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/jay-morris-1847137/

Now on to defining aggregation and the most common approaches. The Type of aggregation or service consolidation can vary significantly along with the benefits, risks, and overall value proposition. I will not go into a deep dive on each, but I will touch on the primary benefits and risks associated with each of four primary approaches. There are certainly hybrids to each, so maybe there’s 6 or 8 or 10, depending on how you slice it, but these are the most common, particularly in multi-location models like retail, restaurant, senior living, and alike. There are other verticals that fit this model as well. In simplest terms, (however this is a mouthful) I refer to them as; Low-line-count per location-high-line-count per customer accounts.  

On a side note, while there are some clients that may also seek to outsource MS 365 among other desktop and local LAN support functions into this Aggregation model, I am not including that in these Type casts nor am I including CyberSecurity or MSSP’s. I’ll save that for another day.

Now, let’s dive right in.

Type 1.

Everything IT Related in a “single body to hug” / “single throat to choke” / “single pane of glass” Service Provider Model. Hosted Voice Seats, Primary and Failover DIA/Broadband Circuits, Handsets, Routers/ Firewalls, maybe a POTS lines or two, Managed Services, Truck Rolls, Staging, Billing, a Portal, and a Partridge in a Pear Tree. In other words, most or all of IT related service provider expenditures.

I should point out as well for those who may not be aware, whether you are considering an ILEC, CLEC, ISP, MSP, or otherwise, it does not matter, they are all reselling or repackaging some or all components of an aggregation solution, no matter who they are. It is simply a matter of how much of it is resale or rebill.

When Type 1 is a fit, typically the greatest number of benefits are going to be achieved. Such as; a single invoice, less finger pointing, soft dollar savings, hard dollar savings, billing accuracy, a single number to call, better process integration and typically some form of SPOC (single point of contact) high touch customer care model, all wrapped up in a single-pane-of-glass Portal. Clear visibility through the network, simpler trouble shooting not to mention simply because you know, they know, everyone knows, they have it all, you’re important. So most calls client to supplier result in you getting to someone you know with a double click of the heels and friendly voice. And then there’s the power and flexibility that comes with an aggregator having all your circuits which they can leverage against ETF’s and possible construction costs, which is another benefit.   

The primary risk with this model is that if you want a divorce, you’ll require reinstalls for all the circuits. (Given most underlying carriers will not allow you to move from one reseller to the next, like you can do with a POTS line reseller.) Other risks include equipment ownership like handsets, routers and alike, but often that can be mitigated with the right T&C’s in your MSA. Technology Advisor and particularly those who are SME’s in this space, can assist you with numerous options to lessen these risks.  

Type 2.

Two or More Aggregators. One for Voice (SIP, Hosted/UCaaS) One for Circuits (or split with one for DIA Aggregation and one for Public Broadband Aggregation) Then optionally One for Managed Services, One for Truck Rolls, and or One for Equipment Handsets, Routers, SD-WAN and alike, or a hybrid of all the above depending on the supplier. This approach gives some customers the peace of mind, they don’t all their eggs in one basket. While hosted voice is pretty much subject to a single source, however if you are building your own internal UCaaS network, some of those restrictions are somewhat mitigated. You may not want total aggregation or consolidation simply because you love your MSP, but they don’t resell or integrate voice, or you’re happy with you ISP aggregator but not a fan their hosted platform solution(s) and so on.

The benefits may still include fewer invoices, better customer care with still fewer people and processes to conform to or to get you supplier conform with. You can still receive many of the benefits outlined in Type 1 Like soft and hard dollar value, fewer points of contact, fewer varying processes, fewer invoices, and typically better customer care given less throats to choke. And finally, it allows you to be less dependent on a single supplier or the comfort the supplier(s) have slightly less glue on you. 

The risks include all the risks outlined in Type 1 with the added risk of some finger pointing, more swivel chairing, heightened frustration trying to adapt to more suppliers’ processes or they yours, agreements that may not co-terminate, possibly less leverage on ETF’s and likely, some loss in soft and hard dollar cost savings. 

Type 3.

TEM (Telecom Expense Management) which comes in all types, flavors, and sizes. Some just show you what you have in a Portal. Some do that, and they pay the individual bills for you. Some go back and audit all your current and past bills to recover improper or unregulated fess. TEM’s typically charge a SaaS or licensing fee, while others may have fees and make money from supplier commissions as well. Some have deep technical support, while some have none. Many want you to run all tickets through them, while some TEM’s don’t want any part of that. Almost all TEM’s are different in some way yet with TEM, the customer remains in contract with each local supplier regardless of who they are. TEMS are not resellers, if they are, there not a TEM anymore, then they are a CLEC, or ISP, etc. TEM’s value also can offer some comfort of unbiasedness. That said, that should always be the policy of every Aggregator and Technology Advisors or TEM’s you work with, period! Sadly, that is not always the case, but it should be. I’ll be authoring another piece on that in the future.

The benefits mirror many of the benefits in Type 1 and 2 (assuming they are also paying the bills and offering back-office support) A single portal, fewer checks to write, and it allows clients or Technology Advisor to contract with a broad range of suppliers directly while sustaining billing aggregation or consolidation. Many TEM’s also have WEM (Wireless Expense Management) component, so if you have a large wireless device inventory as well., a TEM/WEM model can make their value more appealing.

Risks vary widely, the largest of the TEM market can carry very heathy implementation, smaller ones may lower their fees, to get comped on a sale for net new growth. Also, you must consider TEM is not like network agreements. Like a circuit that you contract for a price, and it performs to these specs. The price changes, the product does not work, Bye Bye, next, move on. Software licensing or SaaS works differently, it is harder to just walk away and just say; next.  Then you’re paying for a portal whereby most of the value prop is actually free from any Aggregator in Type 1 who have a portal, so there’s that. A TEM portal by itself is not integrated into most suppliers BSS/OOS systems, therefore real-time ticketing and billing is lacking without manual intervention and therefore, not real-time.   

Finally, one must ask about the future of TEM’s when you consider Type 1 and 2 are growing exponentially and the natural decrease in billing errors lessens a TEM’s value. When you add in the emerging Type 4’s described below, I would tread carefully. This does not indicate I would not recommend one to a client, it simply means tread carefully, and “play the tape through.”   

Type 4

Now in its infancy, (relatively speaking) but recently has the attention of Wall Street and Private Equity in a big way and is considered by many as the next best thing as it pertains to the procurement and management of IT resources. All the features of TEM and it’s free. More or less.  

Not free from the standpoint of the products or services are free but free in the way accessing Amazon, or a Travel or Insurance industry portal is free. Buyers can connect with and evaluate sellers for free. Once they find it, they can quote it, pay for it, fulfil it, track it, and manage it, all with the click of a mouse in the fewest steps possible. The supplier pays the fees to them, just like suppliers pay fees to Technology Advisors or they pay their own sales reps to show up, knock on your door, and to check in with you every week or month.  (I know, please don’t shout, I hear you, you haven’t seen your sales rep in three years

So while it is true, a lot of things are missing from this model today, thus, “It’s infancy”, we are all well aware how fast a technology can go from 0-100 when some serious capital is injected into it. As tools and API’s become more common cross-carriers, cross-markets, cross-products, cross-networks, and cross-workflow, it becomes more and more a reality, and possibly a very swift reality.

I believe App Type 4’s will be highly adopted because we have become such a point and click culture. App’s control most end-user experiences. When is the last time you asked yourself, who’s circuit or network or voice trunk is supporting your Game, Zoom, Teams, Meal Delivery, Search Engine or Reservation App on your device? Most will say never, right? We do care if it’s easy, if it works, is it visually appealing, is it intuitive, does it save us time, and reduce mistakes, and then how much does it cost, can I trial it, and where can I get a coupon for it.  

We’ll see. No matter what, I suspect we are all going to witness some really cool innovations over the next 5 years so. Networks are becoming smarter, more Ai is coming, powerful analytics are now mainstream, everyone is more visual online, and technology spread between small and big biz is shrinking exponentially.

Cybersecurity is super-hot today, but tomorrow theoretically, an updated internet protocol, or new chip, in all our devices or even a thread of code no one has invented, could come tomorrow, and stamp it out like a bug.

Final Thoughts

To end users; Regardless of all the variables, technologies old and new, aggregation in one form or another is good. If you completely disagree or are closed-minded to the huge gains and process improvement, that different forms of aggregation and new tools coming to market can offer, then you simply are faced with two distinct choices. Keep building and sustaining your IT empire the old fashion way until your new CTO, CPO or Boss walks in the door and considers what you should have long ago, yet now you too are in his or her sights. Or, begin to expand your horizons now, help lead your company technologically into the future. Repurpose headcount that are slinging circuits, playing ping pong with trouble tickets, or sitting on hold with Cableco’s and Telco’s for hours on end. Not to mention the staff that’s spends all day sifting through bills to approve to send over to AP, only then requiring them to cut 100’s or 1000’s of checks physically or electronically.

Move them to today’s front lines; Namely security, business continuity, and revenue enhancing IT initiatives. Find a Technology Advisor you trust and lean on them to bring you the right suppliers at the right time, the right reasons, and for the right terms. IT procurement is already not that dissimilar to the travel or insurance industry, you get to choose the provider, the price, the terms, and you pay nothing to get that information. Stop competing with it, embrace it!  

To Tech Advisors. I always encourage Technology Advisors to be true Fiduciary Technologists. If a client asks for a DIA circuit with a $1000 budget, I may find three best of breed solutions, yet I also find one for $100 but it’s ABF, I still quote it. If I uncover an issue or see warning signs that are not visible to a client, it’s my job and my responsibility to surface and address it head on. If you uncover T&C’s that are concerning or give you pause hidden or cloaked in MSA’s and SLA’s 50 pages deep in an online document, it is your responsibility to surface it to your client and/or get it redlined. If you know a supplier cannot perform, don’t look the other way, point the way out. Do not be the Technology Advisor version of a Top Gun Maverick, namely, allowing your ego to write checks your body can’t cash. Transparency wins clients for life; no matter where automation leads us, as a Trusted Technology Advisor, you remain relevant and part of your client’s team. The alternative replaces you by the click of a mouse in the very near future. #transparency #fiduciary.