Added flexibility: now available for your customers with Telstra's Adaptive Networks

At Telstra Vantage this week, Telstra officially launched their new network connectivity solutions suite, Adaptive Networks. Our team have taken a deep dive into this new offering, and have broken down what this means for you and your customers.

Telstra have highlighted three focus areas which are covered by Adaptive Networks:

• Adaptive Connectivity: Flexible month-to-month, no-lock-in contracts with a choice of network and connectivity options, allowing customers to adapt their technology at speed as their needs change.
• Adaptive SD-WAN: Investment in Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) capabilities to help customers harness the potential of hybrid networking, and smart integration of 4G and 5G with fixed networks.
• Adaptive Core Networks: Investment in Telstra’s core networks, including the expansion of Telstra’s flagship Next IP fibre network, Telstra Programmable Network, NBN connectivity and 5G to enable a move toward API-based flexible IT infrastructure.

Impacts for you and your customers 

In a nutshell, this new offering means new opportunities for you and your customers. 

More flexibility and control 

Adaptive Networks really does put control back in the customer's hands, and that’s exciting especially given the need for adaptability and innovation that 2020 has thrust upon businesses of all sizes. Innovation really is the name of the game for businesses that are continuing to thrive, and adding flexibility to technology solutions for businesses allows them to expand and contract along with the market.

Seamless remote workforces

Even before Covid-19, we were seeing remote workforces developing, especially across industries where the sales team was always on the road or where worksites were located far from head office. The last 6+ months have only increased the number of people needing access to cloud applications and file storage so that they can work anywhere and everywhere, as most of us have moved to WFH.

Add to this the reliance many businesses have on O365, and let’s look at the fact that it’s a bandwidth-hungry application – businesses need to move to solutions that allow this business-critical application to run at optimal speeds without impacting other crucial applications.

So the backing of a network that is fit for purpose is vital in operating a business that can deal with the complexities of a remote workforce.

Streamlined provision of services 

Multiple services can now be run through the same fibre, whereas previous iterations of a Telstra setup required multiple services running through multiple fibres. This increased the likelihood of technical issues and increased the cost for the customer. The removal of both of these concerns means your customers will be able to spend less time on IT problems and more time growing their business.

Another aspect of Adaptive Networks that is going to please customers is the range of contract options. From month-to-month through to long term, having a choice gives customers more control over the services they want to use and how they want to be contracted for them. Our prediction is that being able to add and subtract solutions as they need to will lead to more customers trialling options that may have been too difficult to gain approval for in the past.

Faster setup

Faster rollout makes everyone a winner. Knowing your customers can get started quickly will put your mind (and theirs) at ease. We’re now seeing businesses making up for lost opportunities that occurred during Covid-19 lockdowns and flow-on restrictions, so any reduction in lead times can make a huge impact. Set up can be completed in days or weeks, which is a significant improvement on previous timelines.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. As we move into 2021, we’ll see more and more businesses taking advantage of Telstra’s new offerings. So for your early adopter customers and anyone who needs a technology revamp to stay competitive, now might be the right time to start talking about Adaptive Networks.