Small Businesses Offering Wi-Fi Services – at What Service Level?
.
3. Network Management:
- Are the ISPs included in this agreement?
- Are they using multiple ISPs for redundancy or is one “sufficient?”
- What amount of bandwidth are they providing and what sort of traffic do they expect?
- Do they intend to limit bandwidth based on filtering and traffic types?
- Do they have averages for connection numbers and bandwidth speed requirements?
- How does it break down?
- Who manages the ISP relationships?
- Who manages the internal network?
- Who is responsible for break/fix of the equipment at the various company locations?
- What are the SLAs for fixing problems?
- Is anyone on location from the provider for management and break/fix or does the local crew manage that independently?
- Is there hardware on-site if replacement is needed or at a location nearby with a SLA-guaranteed arrival and installation time?
- Where do all those responsibilities lie and what are the SLAs associated with that?
4. Facilities Management:
This encompasses management capabilities, consoles, responsibilities, SLA times and criteria, what is managed vs unmanaged.
Will there be a third-party provider contracted to do some of the work or will internal staff have to handle it?
Summary
Small business owners need to treat the decision to provide Wi-Fi services to its customers like any other business decision.
Without the appropriate business case analysis a small business owner is likely to ask for a “best practice” solution that may or may not satisfy the true objectives and requirements. After all, a “free” Wi-Fi service may be free to the user but is not without its costs to the provider.
Related articles:
Is your Brand Positioning the Real Thing?
4 Questions For Perspective and Balance
5 Considerations to Properly Price Products and Services
Millennials and Bikes Lanes Key To Small Retailer Sales Success
