Verizon Business targets retail, branch offices

Verizon Business is going after retail outlets, branch offices and other smaller remote locations of large corporations with new managed service offerings that extend the reach of services already used at headquarters and larger offices.

Based on Cisco Systems’ Integrated Services Router, which Verizon Business will install and manage, the new capabilities include local area networking and security and content management, offered cost-effectively for a remote location without a separate IT staff, said Chip Freund, director of managed services product marketing at Verizon Business.

The service was developed because corporations in key industry segments such as retail, hospitality, restaurant, banking/securities and insurance are seeing as much as 70% of IT resources consumed by branch offices, where they are least likely to have on-site support staff. As more routine applications are being done electronically, Freund said, it is more important to have these locations seamlessly tied into the corporate infrastructure.

“We are seeing a distributed workforce growing significantly,” he said. “At the same time, there are more automated tools. In the insurance industry, for instance, a remote agent had very little IT connectivity; they wrote policies and [mailed] them to headquarters. Those policies are now being written online, and as a result, network connectivity becomes mission-critical to generating business. In general, more and more IT resources are moving to online and real-time transactions.”

Corporations want a comprehensive approach that also enables them to guarantee security of corporate data and assets, Freund said.

“We think the managed ISR solution is really hitting a sweet spot for retailers, insurance companies, banks and other companies with small collections of users who need mission-critical network connectivity,” he said. “As a managed service provider, Verizon Business brings 18 years of experience managing 3700 customer networks over a vast array of technology.”

The company is also taking on CLECs such as New Edge Networks and XO Communications that have targeted these segments as well.

The Verizon offering uses the Cisco ISR to replace multiple devices used for access and security. It provides a firewall and intrusion prevention as well as an Ethernet LAN, hardware-based caching of frequently accessed content and content filtering to enforce corporate policies on Internet access. Customers can choose from among three managed service offerings -- Managed Wide Area Networking, IP VPN Dedicated or Internet Dedicated-Managed.

“We deploy it [the Cisco ISR], configure it, turn it up and watch it 24 by 7,” Freund said.
Verizon Business has been managing these devices since they were introduced two years ago as traditional routers on private IP networks and now has 15,000 deployed, he said, but the new modules with the extra services make the devices cost-effective and more appropriate for smaller remote locations.

“Now, you don’t have to run traffic back to headquarters to go through firewall and content filtering,” he said. “Internet traffic goes straight to a site without having to be backhauled to headquarters, which makes it more cost-effective but maintains acceptable use policy. For example, you can install a customer kiosk in the store that only goes to catalog site.”

The Managed Internet service to which these capabilities can be added is a U.S.-only service, but the IP VPN capabilities will be available globally by year’s end, Freund said.