CEO Blog
Do the Right Thing
May 6th
The past few weeks I have spoken about what it takes to be a successful business in the new economy. One of the Carriers I mentioned was Verizon Business. I do want to make note, Verizon Business is one of our largest vendors and when it comes to metro services and Internet services, we highly recommend them to our customers. Verizon Business has often worked with us when issues arise, regarding business downturn, chronic services, and delayed installations. Verizon Business is still a valuable partner and a reason why Intelletrace has been so successful.
What is has been going on in the industry over the past two years, many layoffs and moving of people, experience and knowledge at the engineering level is slowly disappearing. As networks evolve, merge, and are groomed, more and more problems seem to be arising without any reason for such an outage given by the Carrier. Carriers are taking days and sometimes weeks before they are figuring out what might have happened. Often time, we hear the problem is fixed, but the Carrier has no reason why the outage may of occurred and cannot really be confident that it will not happen again. Finding the correct people who understand the network is taking too long.
A service provider cannot afford to have such a luxury with a customer. A service provider must act quickly, be proactive, and provide solutions to limit the problem from every happening again. When problems arise, Carriers need to act quicker, stop making excuses, and DO THE RIGHT THING. Stop worrying about contracts and work out a solution so both parties WIN. All Carriers must start acting this way for them to succeed in the new business world and continue to gain market share.
Advantages of Being a Neutral Carrier
Feb 23rd
Due to holidays and lots of snow in Lake Tahoe, I took a little break. I am back and busier than ever. Companies still need lots of bandwidth to handle their growing networks. Here is one story on why being a neutral Carrier and having access to many different fiber networks, has many advantages.
Recently Intelletrace provided a 200 meg point to point from Sacramento to Oakland. Near the end of the installation process, the Carrier Intelletrace chose, ran into problems of building out their fiber network to Sacramento. Our customer had deadlines. Intelletrace acted quickly to search out another Carrier who had capacity to meet our deadlines. We found Time Warner Telecom… Time Warner Telecom recently have begun to build out their network in the Sacramento area over the last year and had plenty of capacity to fit our needs. However, we had deadlines. We were a little concerned if Time Warner Telecom could meet our deadlines. We needed to be turned up in 15 days. Most Carriers take 45 to 60 days to turn up a circuit of this size, even when they have capacity. Time Warner Telecom turned up and was ready to go within our deadlines.
I should also mention Time Warner Telecom also came through for us during the Thanksgiving holiday. This time it was a 5 day deadline. Time Warner Telecom came through with flying colors. Although, the Time Warner Telecom footprint is limited, I believe they have a very good niche in the marketplace. I look forward to doing more business with them.
Taxes, Taxes and MORE Taxes
Dec 9th
You are probably wondering what are all the taxes doing on my telecom bills. Property taxes, 911 Taxes, Federal Excise Taxes, Carrier Access Recovery Fees, are just some of the charges which show up every month and it seems a new one is popping up every quarter. I cannot keep up anymore… Telcom taxes are still a gray area and neither a Carrier or the Government has been able to explain it to me. Why should I pay property taxes on a data line? I do not own the line, I am leasing it. It is not my fault, nor should I be penalized, when the Carrier does not run their business properly and over borrow on projects. Read the rest of this entry »
The Golden Ticket To WallStreet
Nov 25th
With a spin from Willy Wonka, Verizon Business has been touting their new Golden Route as the quickest connection from Chicago to New York. The financial folks on Wall Street cannot get their information fast enough. Milliseconds can cost or save them millions, depending if you are a Bull or a Bear. I guess they believe this is their ticket to riches…
Verizon Business is stating roundtrip latency at 17.9ms. From current users of the circuit, we are hearing 18.2ms, is the actual performance. Even at 18.2ms, I believe, this is still the quickest route from Chicago to New York.. Intelletrace is offering some great rates for this route at the 2.5gig and 10gig speed.
Give us a call for more information.
Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.
Coming Through In The Clutch
Nov 23rd
A Carrier was behind schedule and needed assistance for a quick turn up. Being a small company, they just did not have the resources to search for the best Carrier to provide the services and the man power to get this installed quickly.
Intelletrace searched out the best Carrier for these services (Time Warner), negotiated a competitive price (which was cheaper than what they had paid in the past), and processed the order immediately. Within five business days, we turned up the circuit and met the customer’s deadlines.
“Wow, you are good…”, was the first reaction. The best reaction, was they placed another order with us. This business understood the value and the outside resource, like Intelletrace can bring. We love when customer’s have deadlines and rely on us to make it happen.
Challenging Times…
Nov 6th
I am coaching my son’s basketball team. I got hooked in the last minute, when the league was desperate for coaches. Being I love the game (although I am too old to play anymore), I thought it would be fun to start teaching it. How tough can it be?
Running a basketball team of 4th graders, is like running a company. I have been part of Intelletrace for 6 years now and I never had a challenge like this one. Teaching all levels. Some having never played before and others going on their 3rd year. The attention span is short and when the kids are not busy, the chatting gets going and the minds start wandering. It can be compared to the work environment, when people are not busy with work and are not motivated by their managers or leaders to be productive. The gossip begins and the breaks seem to get longer.
I am going on 4 weeks. The experience has been great. We got beat up pretty bad in the first game, but we know what we need to work on and have set a benchmark on what to improve on.
I will keep the blog updated as the season progesses. I look forward to the challenge and seeing improvement after every practice.
Buying from a Middle Man
Nov 2nd
I still find it hard to believe people look at resellers or switchless Carriers, as just a middleman. At least get know the company, to make sure they have references, the experience, and the knowledge of providing the services. In this day and age, people must look at all options and give every option their full attention. Especially, when that solution is the least expensieve way to go.
People have no problem working with a middleman on the most expensive purchase they will ever make, a HOUSE. The majority of house buyers get a loan through a broker and never deal with the bank directly. Why would you? A broker takes the headaches out, deals with the bank, and shops around for the best interest rate. When I have a problem or question, I deal with my broker.
How many times are people going to let the Big Carrier, delay projects, not deliver on time, not return calls, no proactive updates, incorrect billing, and give bad information? It is time to keep an open mind. We need to start understanding not only what we are buying, but who we are buy from.
Saving Money and getting Diversity
Oct 21st
A nuetral Carrier has many advantages which I have blogged about before. The biggest advantage is the ability to work with all the Carriers to get the best deal for our customers.
Recently, we had a customer who wanted to save money but at the same time get diversity in their network. This required a great deal of research to make sure the routes of the services did not overlap and work with the Carriers to make sure capacity was available to keep the costs down. After doing our due diligence, we were able to work with the existing Carrier and get capital expenditures approved to create new routes for our customer. Not only were we able to find new routes for our customer, we were also able to lower their costs by 30% withont ever making a change to their network! This process might have taken a few weeks to complete, but it created a win-win-win for all parties involved.
Are you ready to do business with Intelletrace???
A Boutique Carrier
Oct 15th
Being a boutique Carrier, Intelletrace goes the extra mile to find a solution for our customers.
A perfect example was a non-profit TV station, who needed to send large files to and media company on the East Coast. We first suggested the non-profit TV station, stay with the same network provider as the company on the East Coast. Being a nuetral Carrier, we can provide a non-biased opinion. We did the research and found out the company on the East Coast was using XO and American Fiber Systems for their ISP.
We went evern further and found out American Fiber Systems is using Global Crosing and Level 3 for their IP backbone. With 3 different Carriers to choose from, we recommeded Level 3. We were able to provide a cost efficient solution and provide a Cisco router, less than what she got directly from the Carrier, for an internet DS3. Being a non-profit, she was thrilled. We saved her money, provided a single solution, and saved her time, because she didn’t have to shop for a router.
Intelletrace just did not provide her a cost efficeint solution. We did the research to make sure the service she was getting is going to be the best option for her. Something the large Carriers would never do.
Marc Alciati
Age: 42
Gender: Male
Industry: Telecommunications
Occupation: President CEO
Location: Novato : CA : United States
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