I was desperate for a real business relationship that focused on the services I needed and the level of support I have come to expect over the years from the "Great American Telecom Companies of Yore." Alas, they are all gone now. However, looking across the ocean, I found a quickly rising telecommunications carrier who was outstanding in the area of relationship-building and offered my company unbelievable service levels for my global telecommunications requirements, all of it at a significantly lower price.
So, I did what any customer would do: I crafted a three-year deal that saved my company a huge sum of money and have had the same account manager since the signing of the contract. Since the deal was signed and implemented two years ago, I have had only two carrier outages, and they were less than five minutes each. When was the last time you could say that to your boss?
There is one year left on the contract now, and I'd like to open up the bidding on the next deal to an American firm. Is there a carrier that has the drive to oust the incumbent and offer better, faster, cheaper service? And a consistently stable contact, who knows my business? If you're not ready to offer me that, you're not going to sell me any minutes. Want to know why? Ask the last guy.
(Steve "Doc Net" Nitenson has been helping run large-scale IT operations since the early Jurassic period, including stints at Kaiser Permanente, National Semiconductor, Quantum, Visa International and NANOmetrics. Currently, he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Technology Management.)
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