When this partner checked in with a long-time marketing agency customer, they expected a business-as-usual conversation. What the partner didn’t expect, was that the customer’s company had recently acquired another agency – one with international locations. In addition to their three existing domestic locations, the new entity would include an additional New York office, plus one in London and one in Zurich.

As you can imagine, the partner was caught off guard. How would they keep this project on-track, especially considering time zone differences and potential language barriers? Would they be able to get quotes in time? How would they deliver a solution that included unfamiliar transport vendors in three countries on two different continents with vastly different time zones? It was enough to make anyone’s head spin.

CHALLENGES WITH INTERNATIONAL SOLUTIONS

International opportunities are hard, we get it. Having the right partner on your side to help you navigate the pricing process, network complexities, and other challenges that come with tackling an international network is key.

Bringing together two formerly separate entities meant that two networks had to be combined under a single platform that worked for their entire staff and enabled the new business to move forward. Like in every agency, collaboration was crucial to their success, so they regularly sent hundreds of large files across the network every day. Video-conferencing was another critical application for ensuring projects stayed on track and communicating across offices and with customers. To ensure their productivity and to account for future growth plans, they needed to increase bandwidth.

GLOBAL SD-WAN SOLUTION

Once Nitel was engaged, we began setting expectations with the customer. Communicating that this project may take a little longer than usual because of the international complexities was important. Our project manager provided padded timelines to account for any difficulties encountered while obtaining quotes and communicating with providers overseas. To keep the project on schedule, the program manager scheduled recurring status calls with the provider in the morning to take advantage of common working hours across time zones.

FAST, RELIABLE ACCESS TO RESOURCES

Nitel’s team of engineers recommended a solution to deliver internet connections at every site. The network also included global SD-WAN services. Because the agency was already using Microsoft Azure to store their design files, Nitel’s engineers suggested Cloud Connection services to improve the performance and security of that data traffic.

The customer was particularly pleased to learn that Nitel’s 24/7 NOC would be available to support all locations, regardless of time of day. They also benefited from the simplicity of dealing with a single provider across all of their locations.

In the end, the customer benefited from Nitel’s international relationships as they were able to increase the bandwidth across all locations while decreasing overall network costs. At the same time, the customer knew they had Nitel as their single point of contact, and the Nitel NOC was available around-the-clock, should any issues occur.

Do you have a customer looking for an international solution? Let us help. You tell us where your their locations are and we’ll do the rest.