INS moves to network management

International Network Services, a consulting firm that has quietly put together a list of carrier and enterprise clients since 1992, is increasing its stake in the booming network integration market.

INS plans to extend its reach in the service provider market-which currently accounts for 30% to 40% of the company's revenue-with a formalized framework of services and software for carriers.

"Many of our engagements have been behind the scenes and done on a case-by-case basis," said Jeff Kaplan, director of strategic marketing at INS. "We wanted to package our services in a way that carriers could understand."

INS has designed a suite of services to help carriers design, implement, staff and maintain their data networks, specifically focusing on network management and performance monitoring. Its carrier customers include MCI WorldCom, CTC Communications, Triton PCS and Wham!net.

The Yankee Group forecasts that carriers will spend $4.1 billion by 2001 for network integration, up from $2.7 billion in 1998. Kitty Weldon, program manager at The Yankee Group, breaks the spending components into hardware integration and deployment, planning and design of architecture, network operating center setup and staffing and operations support systems.

Competition among consultants is strong and there are a gaggle of players among the systems integrators, network equipment providers and regional value-added resellers. Kaplan believes INS has an edge because of its product independence, multi-integration ability and larger geographic scale. "We're not developing back-office systems like the big name systems integrators-we're focusing on network management," he said. "Many of the larger system integrator players have cost structures that prevent them from pursuing smaller, emerging carriers. Our methodologies are very elastic and can adapt very easily to the emerging environments."

"Managing the network operation center is INS' strength, and it's getting involved in the application side from a network perspective that systems integrators don't necessarily play into," said Weldon.

* Network infrastructure integration services

* Network operations support services

* Customized on-premises solutions

* Network and application performance monitoring