Despite the recession, some CLECs and service providers are flourishing by knowing their strengths and listening to customer needs. xchange magazine sat down with former communications consultant John Macario, who is now the senior vice president of product strategy and management at Metro Ethernet-based transport and managed services provider Optimum Lightpath, to discuss where the opportunities are now and going forward.
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| Optimum Lightpath's John Macario |
xchange: What’s at the heart of a successful communications strategy in today’s economy?
John Macario: It’s crisp and precise and classic. You need to know the market, what customers you’re targeting, where your competencies lie, and whether you actually have an ability to get the products to market that you need to. The differentiator for successful CLECs is understanding how to fit the strategy to action, pulling the teams together well to get a product out efficiently that is very different from other products out there. You need to be able to say, “we can go in and do this now.”
X: How can a provider move beyond competing only on price?
JM: In our case, we're sitting on this target-rich market [in New York]. And we’re able to differentiate the services, based on the economic value. However, our goal is to continue to evolve our product line from transport to a full portfolio of voice products and into other managed services. Having apps down the road targeted to vertical markets that are near and dear to our hearts is a big initiative. And it’s that kind of evolution that’s absolutely required to grow.
X: So the price conversation goes away, eventually?
JM: It’s just augmented. The conversation about value is still important. Take the New York financial industry, which ironically is a big area right now for us. Our value proposition for this vertical is about offering more value and with better economics, because that plays well in a customer base that’s having a tough time with spending. We work with financial services companies that are downsizing, shutting down locations. They have circuits in those locations and when they shut down, they don't need the circuits but might just be switching the traffic to another office. We’re able to provide bigger pipes and better service and consolidate their traffic pretty quickly and efficiently.
X: Are there tailored strategies to consider for other verticals?
JM: In health care, it’s about understanding their unique challenges. We're also riding a wave right now, because national politics have raised the profile and the need for electronics medical records to a huge degree. There are all those bits and bytes that need to be stored and cared for. So it’s smart to execute a strategy to offer an array of services that match up to this need. In our case, we have 98 percent of hospitals on Long Island, and 70 percent of hospitals in our footprint are customers. That’s because we listen to their specific concerns.
