Qwest Transforms Its Business Data Services Strategy through iQ

Qwest Communications International Inc. has changed its recipe for providing businesses with data services through a new initiative called iQ Networking, which is aimed at simplifying the buying experience for customers.

“We are shifting from a technology bent to application networking” says Bob Schroeder, senior director of product management VPN and security services at Qwest.

“I think Qwest iQ slows down the commoditization” of data services because it is focused at the application layer, he adds.

Through iQ Networking, Qwest allows customers to connect to the network using any available access method – be it dial-up, DSL, Ethernet, frame relay, ATM, private line, Wi-Fi or whatever – and Qwest provides those customers with various quality of service options based on their particular applications, optional end-to-end performance monitoring, a single contract and a single point-of-contact at Qwest. The iQ Networking offer also includes “advanced security” options including NAT firewall, encryption and intrusion detection.

Under the new iQ Networking model, businesses can choose from four “port” options. The Internet Port is a best-effort offer over the public IP network; Private Port runs traffic over Qwest’s private MPLS-based network; Enhanced Port offers customers various quality of service options for their traffic over public and private IP networks; and Premium Port allows customers to create their own, customized quality of service parameters over public and private IP networks.

Two new services offered through iQ Networking include 2547 BGP VPNs and customer-viewable, end-to-end performance monitoring, says Schroeder.

He explains that two years ago Qwest deployed MPLS technology in its network core for fast reroute. Now it’s leveraging that MPLS investment to also support the new VPN service. (Qwest also employs MPLS in its ATM and frame relay core network and as a result in December was able to make generally available IP-enabled ATM and frame relay services. Meanwhile, Qwest continues to build its private IP core network, which it expects to complete this year.)

The end-to-end performance monitoring service, meanwhile, will allow customers with a special box at their premises to access a Qwest Web portal through which they can view their end-to-end performance statistics. “Within months we will offer this capability,” says Schroeder. “This is not a free service” but would be an option under the company’s Premium Port, he says. Schroeder would not reveal Qwest’s equipment provider for the box, but told XCHANGE it was along the lines of the box that Visual Networks sells.

Under the iQ Networking initiative, Schroeder says, Qwest is also consolidating separate ATM, frame relay and other network operations centers (NOCs) into multiple-technology NOCs. It is condensing its operational and business systems into a single bus-based architecture to allow for faster service delivery, says Schroeder, who would not provide the names of OSS/BSS vendors involved in that effort. And Qwest is working to establish network-to-network interfaces between Qwest and other local providers to expand Qwest’s footprint, he says.

On the sales and marketing side, Qwest is establishing case teams to provide iQ Networking customers with a single point of contact and offering a single contract for multiple services and equipment.

“Qwest had not been case team-oriented,” Schroeder says, explaining that business data customers in the past called a toll-free number and were routed based on whether they had T1, frame relay, ATM or other services.

“We’re putting the human, consistent touch back into it,” he says, adding that Qwest is not increasing its budget for equipment or human capital as part of iQ Networking.

“The delivery model is part of bringing our Spirit of Service to the enterprise,” says Schroeder, referring to Qwest’s new tagline. He says the Spirit of Service initiative to date has been associated mostly with Qwest’s residential business.

Schroeder says most of the focus for iQ Networking in 2004 will be at small and medium businesses “with the goal of earning the right to serve very large businesses.”

Share this article: Email, Slashdot, Digg, Del.icio.us, Yahoo!MyWeb, Windows Live Favorites, Furl
Add this article feed to: RSS, My Yahoo, Newsgator, Bloglines