Their ground breaking Virtual Network Operator solutions, offered in three different flavours, provides a way for resellers to cut out the middle man when selling Ethernet and DSL circuits and gives them the valuable opportunity to take a step up from being a reseller by gaining full control of the entire service.
If you’re a reseller with an eye on something that will differentiate you from the crowd, M247 offers you some powerful game changing choices such as the ability to negotiate with your chosen suppliers and interconnecting them and their services directly into your own M247 virtual network. However, you are not just restricted to your chosen preferred suppliers for each and every connection. You can keep your options open with a simple additional interconnect to the M247 aggregator network that will instantly open up an extensive set of complimentary carriers and services, allowing you to fill in the gaps and provide the exact service your customers require. M247s VNO gives you easy access to Cable & Wireless, Talk Talk Business, BT Wholesale, BT Openreach, Colt, Fibrespeed, Exponential-e, Virgin, O2 Wholesale and Kcom.
As we all know, the best pricing from suppliers on broadband, is if take a L2TP connection. Now the M247 VNO opens up this whole new world to resellers and provides the ability to buy at the best possible prices coupled with the greatest flexibility.
The three VNO options from M247 are “Self-Managed”, “M247 Managed” and “Fully Virtualised” and the right choice, if you’re a reseller looking to take advantage of this opportunity, will depend on the level of technical expertise and resources you already possess.
Becoming a Virtual Network Operator unlocks a whole world of services at the pricing points that resellers have been longing for. All of this is underpinned by expert advice and support from the UK based support team operating 24 hours a day, 365 days a year from M247’s state of the art datacentres. M247 is empowering you to be as flexible as you wish but you don't even have to take your onward transit (the bit from your virtual network to the internet) from M247. You can connect to a wide range of suppliers in M247’s facilities or you can connect to M247 directly. The M247 Managed and Fully Virtualised solutions each make use of the extensive M247 network and although the bandwidth is shared, your customers connections will never be contended.
Equipment can be placed in a number of M247 data centres to provide diversity to your service and if you want to provide your own hardware, as with the M247 Self-Managed solution, then they allocate a generous amount of dedicated, secure and lockable rack space in your chosen data centre and, depending on your geographical location, this can be in either London or Manchester, whichever is closer to you. If you choose to provide your own equipment, M247 says it’s more than happy to help source and advise in this area so you have access to the very latest kit at very competitive prices.
If you choose a M247 Managed or Fully Virtualised solution, then equipment is located along with M247’s shared customer services which will generally be located in London. The M247 Managed solution runs on equipment that is owned by M247 but has been dedicated to you. In a similar way the Fully Virtualised solution makes use of the extensive M247 network and hardware infrastructure and is shared with other M247 customers.
Whatever solution you decide is best for you, adding a second location to your service will increase your resilience. Connectivity is provided between both sites and out to the internet, allowing them to run autonomously in case of a full single site failure. If you are looking to provide ethernet circuits then M247 strongly advises building out in 2 locations as early as you can. M247 Sales Director Paul Sillars also recommends that “resellers should consider providing their own IP space as this can create a more branded solution for their customers. Resellers may also choose to apply for their own Provider Independent IP allocation or even become a full RIPE member. We will be happy to advise and discuss the advantages and we are also happy to allocate you space within our own IP ranges if you don't want to apply for your own”.
So, at last, you have a nice new Virtual Network, but you need the tools to make it work smoothly and give your customers what they expect. Many customers already have their own control panels in place but M247 offer a range of white label and brandable tools, for availability and quoting, that can be easily linked with your chosen suppliers. These will display the margins and prices that you define so at last you’re free to compete in a real world market. M247 also gives you access to a white label ordering and provisioning system via a brandable market leasing control panel that can process your orders and directly interact with your suppliers and equipment.
Now you have a nice Virtual Network and have increasing numbers of DSL and ethernet customers but how do you interact and support them? Pauls Sillars says “Let us take the strain. Your customers can gain access to our extensive 24/7 UK support team that will be branded to continue the uniqueness of your offering. If you have chosen to manage your solution yourself, we know that you may from time to time need a little extra help. As part of our VNO solutions we have a partner support add on that gives you peace of mind that you can call us any time for that little bit of reassuring advice”.
Direct relationship with supplier; leverage L2TP supplier pricing; access to M247 aggregation network; dedicated rack space; choice of data centre location; 24x7 UK support; white label control panels for quotations, availability, ordering and provisioning; white label end user support; choice of 3 solution levels – what more can any reseller want? M247 says they will discuss any bells and whistles if you visit them on Stand 22 at the Convergence Summit South where Paul Sillars and his team will be happy to explain more about how the M247 VNO solutions can be made to make you more profitable.