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Communications brokers to demystify the market Irish Independent - April 2001 |
A new consulting and brokerage company has entered the Republic's competitive business communications market. Comms-Online, based in Dublin's Guinness Enterprise Centre, aims to unite hosting and bandwidth service providers with client companies that may not have the knowledge or expertise to make the best communications choices for their needs. "We're the only independent consultancy and brokerage dealing with these organisations within the corporate market with the endgame of demystifying the process," says Cormac Reid, Comms-Online managing director. "There's a bit of a buzz around town and not that many people know what's out there." The company was established in May 2000, and has been actively trading since the beginning of this year, albeit with some 'stealth', according to Reid. He says that Comms.Online will operate both an online and offline strategy, ultimately with the goal of developing an online bandwidth exchange where businesses will be able to post their bandwidth requirements and ask carriers to bid for it. A library of information resources will also be available online. For now, however, the company is concentrating on developing its offline aspects. "Our methodology is that we need to have a sustainable offline business model as well as having an online business," he says. "The online side was the initial spark we want to provide an online bandwidth exchange that would be a business tool for our customers. "Consider it like a financial terminal for buying and selling shares." Offline, the business is already well up and running, with client relationships starting with a free communications evaluation. "If I go into a customer, I would look at what their communications strategy is. "I then manage their service level and administer the deal. I deal with our partners for and on behalf of our clients. "We also provide migration programmes when we can bring them from one to another." On the bandwidth side, Comms-Online target customers range from SMEs to large corporates, while hosting consultancy will be focused more on the higher end e-commerce companies or ultimately the communications companies themselves. Reid says that the hosting market is currently the subject of much confusion. "I believe that the evaluation criteria used in choosing the correct data centre partner is clouded. People just aren't educated in the Irish market. "They need to be looking at both the service model and the get-out clause. "Is this IDC even going to be in the country for the next two to three years? There are a lot of players out there but who's going to be sustainable?" Comms.Online makes its money from the service provider companies to whom it brings business does this make it a lot harder to be truly 'independent' when it comes to recommending the best options to clients? "Not every data centre will suit every scenario," says Reid. "Ultimately, we have an even-handed relationship with the data centres on our books, and we have been selective in the ones we have chosen." E-UPDATE by Una McCaffrey
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