How to Operate Your BTOP Network for Profitability LightSquare believes in the benefits the Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP) grants promise for your community and we want to help you be successful in delivering that promise. As a BTOP grant winner, you are building a broadband network to deliver services to rural or under-served communities. The grant will pay for the infrastructure, but what happens after the fiber is run and the network is built? LightSquare can help lower your operating and capital costs while delivering top-notch operational knowledge, software applications, computer infrastructure, and highly skilled engineers, developers, and project mangers. LightSquare employees have years of experience securely delivering advanced network services such as MPLS, L2VPN, VoIP and IPTV to government, businesses, and residential customers including Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Multi System Operators (MSOs), and the Department of Energy National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). 24 x 7 Operations Are Expensive Your customers require 24x7 support, but manning a 24x7 Network Operations Center is expensive. You need a minimum of 6 people, which become very stretched when someone is sick, on vacation, or away at training. You also need engineers to perform higher tier work and to handle escalated issues.You’ll need a minimum of two higher tier engineers. 6 Tier I NOC Engineers at $40,000 per year 2 Tier 2 Engineers at $55,000 per year Assumes Tier 3 escalations will go to the vendor or reseller Loaded costs with 20% for benefits and overhead: (6 * 40,000) * 1.2 = $288,000 (2 * 55,000) * 1.2 = $132,000 Total cost for NOC employees = $420,000 per year or $35,000 per month Depending on where you operate, these costs may be lower or much higher. This also assumes you can find people in your region who are qualified. This estimate is just for salaries and benefits of running a very lean NOC, it does not account for the software, hardware, electricity, real estate, or people required to operate and maintain the applications and servers that the NOC uses to provide your customers the support they need. Those costs can easily exceed $5000 per month. For most BTOP grant winners, LightSquare can deliver a high-touch, 24 x 7 Tier 1-3 NOC for less than $10,000 per month, saving you $300,000 or more annually. 888-364-0803 [email protected] http://lightsquare.us Contact Michael Baker 650.743.7720, [email protected] LightSquare LLC 7500 West Lake Mead Suite C9, MS 619 Las Vegas, NV 89128 Phone: 888-364-0803 Fax: 702.262.0692 www.lightsquare.us © 2011, LightSquare LLC. All rights reserved. Make Your Move! LightSquare's NOC is a proven, cost-effective solution that delivers excellent network performance, minimizes security risks, and frees IT resources for strategic initiatives that create real business value. High Touch Network Operations Center LightSquare believes that communication and compassion drives effective monitoring and support. The LightSquare managed services methodology is built around an environment of constant communication with each other and with our customers. This methodology helps meet and exceed expectations, continuously streamline processes, become more effective and save our customers time and money. LightSquare monitoring is developed with a focus on service delivery. This means that systems are instrumented to determine whether or not they are providing service to your customers. Monitoring should not be based on whether a device “pings” or not. Monitoring is meant to reflect how the system is performing its designed purpose. LightSquare constantly refines its monitoring systems to ensure proactive action can be taken before outages occur. Truck Rolls - The Key to Profitability A well-trained operations center can resolve problems without sending a service technician to the customer’s site. Should a site visit be required, diagnostic tools and training for your field service technicians can help them pinpoint the problem and resolve it on the first visit to the customer’s premise. Truck rolls cost money and repeat truck rolls lose money. In rural locations, you simply cannot afford a repeat truck roll. Assume it costs you $500 to acquire a new customer, and you charge $250 per month for services. 3 visits to this customer at $150 per visit costs $450. You actually lose money in the first 3 months, and you may lose the customer regardless! Acquisition cost = $500 3 Truck rolls = $450 Monthly rate = $250 Acquisition and truck rolls expenses: $500 + $450 = $950 3 months revenue at $250 = $750 Profit = Revenue - Expenses: $750 - $950 = ($200) As you can see in the example to the left, truck rolls are expensive and key to controlling your cost. How can you expect your service technicians to resolve problems with IPTV or VoIP if they lack the proper tools and training? How do you troubleshoot IPTV or VoIP problems if you lack the proper network instrumentation? How do you correct these problems if you lack skilled network engineers? 888-364-0803 [email protected] http://lightsquare.us Learn More Get the entire white paper to learn more about how LightSquare can help you, your community, and your anchor institutions benefit and profit from your BTOP network. Download the white paper, Maximize Your Profits With Your BTOP Network here, or call us at 888.364.0803 or email ([email protected]) today to get started. We can help scope your project, start developing your processes, and begin the instrumentation of your network so you have a seamless transition from installation to operations, getting you, your anchor institutions, and paying customers to work more quickly.