eircom wholesale and Verizon: working together to deliver world-class services for a global communications brand

As one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, Verizon needs well resourced, flexible local providers to deliver on its customers' needs. eircom wholesale's reach, innovation and commitment to openness have made it a trusted provider for Verizon in Ireland. 

eircom wholesale and Verizon have had a relationship in Ireland going back many years, originating with the communications company TCL, which was ultimately acquired by Verizon. Like many other customers, Verizon historically found itself limited when working with eircom wholesale to deliver on its customers' needs. But eircom wholesale's new "open for business" commitment to operators is changing all that, as demonstrated by an innovative new solution delivered for Verizon.

The Challenge

Verizon has a global agreement to provide communications services for a demanding financial sector client. Following a major acquisition and reorganisation at the client's enterprise, it had an urgent requirement for a fast, robust and highly resilient network to connect its new headquarters with multiple office sites across Ireland.

"Verizon is the preferred telecommunications provider internationally for this financial sector client, from the UK to India, and there are times when we need to work with local providers to deliver our global services," explained Tiffiny Quinn, Network Planning and Carrier Manager for Verizon in Ireland. "Initially I looked at using multiple carriers to deliver this Irish network, but eircom Wholesale said, 'If you give us the opportunity: we can provide the entire solution.'"

Delivering an innovative solution

Verizon wanted to suggest an innovative solution that leveraged eircom's geographic reach to meet the client's needs for resilience, and that built on eircom's ongoing next generation network (NGN) rollout to deliver the speeds the client wanted. Verizon and eircom wholesale agreed to collaborate closely on the bid and won the business in early 2009.

Team-centred project management meets the client's needs: Facing a demanding rollout schedule, the Verizon and eircom wholesale teams agreed early on to take a joint project management approach, with weekly "everyone in the room" meetings with the end client. "Our client complimented us on what a well-run project it was," Tiffiny said. "There was no blame being assigned, and any issues that arose were smoothed out, because everyone who was accountable was around the table. The program manager from eircom wholesale was also an absolute treasure – he kept things moving along and was really committed to the project and flexible."

Clear communication keeps client on side: The end client's expectations were clearly managed from the beginning: Verizon explained that eircom wholesale could deliver its desired speeds only when the NGN buildout had reached key areas; eircom Wholesale would deliver interim speeds in the meantime, a compromise that the end client accepted. The interim speeds were delivered rapidly, meeting the client's ambitious 12 week deadline, with the faster requested speeds delivered as eircom’s NGN Ethernet rollout commences.

Engineers' collaboration delivers positive progress: Cooperation between Verizon's engineers and eircom's transmission planning team was fruitful from the start, with teams exchanging technical information in new ways. "A cross-functional spark was definitely lit among the Verizon and eircom wholesale teams," Tiffiny said. "Maps were being shared and people were energised. This was an exciting project that captured everyone's interest."

Rapid productisation at eircom wholesale enables success: In addition to cooperation at the engineering level, Verizon praised eircom wholesale's ability to rapidly guide the solution for its client through the necessary product development and regulatory processes. Any solution eircom Wholesale delivers must be made available to the entire market, but such rapid development of a wholesale solution was unprecedented at eircom. "Our eircom wholesale account director was superb," Tiffiny said. "He told me that if something was possible technically and within the regulatory environment, we could do it. He reassured me that I shouldn't worry just because it hadn't been done before: his attitude was very much 'can-do' and 'let's try.'"

Verizon looks to the future with eircom wholesale

 For Verizon, the rapid, successful delivery of its client's network and the positive working relationship with eircom wholesale has opened up new possibilities for future cooperation.

 "When I'm doing a project design, I can think of the eircom network as an extension of my own network now, because I know that I can use it in the way I need to," Tiffiny says. "I have the freedom to look and see, how can I use the eircom network itself?"

As a global telecommunications brand, Verizon now has the confidence that the eircom wholesale infrastructure, and the team behind it, are ready and willing to work with Verizon to help meet its customers' needs in Ireland.

"Because there was a lack of openness there in the past, eircom wholesale had previously been my carrier of last resort," Tiffiny says. "Now they're very much an option. It's a relationship we really value."