It should come as a surprise to no one that WLAN vendors all have one undeniable thing in common, they’re in business to sell network gear. We’re not saying this is a bad thing, just that the point deserves consideration. Even the most consultative and knowledgeable account managers are compensated by putting their equipment in your hands. The problem is, too many organizations view their advice as actionable, strategic guidance.
We all love a good product road-map presentation but relying solely on this information to dictate the management of your WLAN lifecycle can be a big mistake. We’ve seen clients make costly “strategic” investments in newly released products only to later find them completely incompatible with their existing architecture. Conversely, at a recent conference, we heard from an IT manager looking to switch vendors out of frustration that he wasn’t sufficiently aware of an approaching end-of-support date. His organization had become reliant on the vendor to provide strategic direction and they failed to provide adequate runway to budget for a network-wide upgrade. And, it goes deeper than just knowing when to upgrade. Relying purely on a vendor to make hardware recommendations can be risky. Recommending the flagship model AP isn’t bad advice, after all it is “the best.” Certainly a sales rep won’t be as concerned about your bottom-line as you are. With APs making up a large portion of the overall WLAN cost, with many organizations seeing little or no difference in performance.
From the very beginning, Velaspan made a conscious decision to not sell hardware. By only offering professional services, we’re not tied to any particular WLAN vendor. This allows us the freedom to right-size deployments to meet our clients unique business requirements. From vendor/architecture selection, to network design, and ultimately life-cycle management, the guidance we provide is in your best interest and yours alone. For nearly 15 years, your network’s performance is the only thing we sell.
Business-bolstering wireless starts with the right wireless partner. Contact us today for better connectivity.
