Small to medium businesses don’t have the time and, in some cases, technical knowledge in-house to constantly monitor and improve their network experience.
As part of our Telstra Business Intelligence research, in 2021 we surveyed 1000 small and medium business (SMB) employees and 450 businesses with less than 100 employees, to understand how they’re using digital tech.
The key takeaway from this research was that SMBs are falling behind on the digital adoption curve and the main reason for this was simple: lack of time and the right expertise.
More than half of the small business employees we surveyed said they wanted more support from providers to help them use tech more productively; this was coupled with some other industry insights including:
- 39% said they need more skills and training to keep up with technology*
- 24% said their main barrier to digital tools is time**; and
- 28% said they lack enabling tech or a roadmap to become digital***.
Keeping systems and applications running at their best is a specialised skillset these days, and it requires continual monitoring and optimisation.
This is something Telstra has some serious skills and experience in, gained from managing networks of all shapes and sizes, including some of Australia’s largest companies and Government agencies.
We’re now offering a new managed service to small and medium sized businesses through our Telstra Business Technology Centres.
Introducing Network Device Management
Network Device Management (NDM) is our new managed service that has been designed specifically to help businesses increase productivity, gain cost efficiencies and greater control and visibility of their Network Device performance.
NDM provides a service desk team that acts like a member of your team, taking on the ongoing task of monitoring your network configuration, optimising performance, and providing near real-time automated alerts. This means that during service hours, they’ll pick up the phone or message you with proactive helpdesk insights and advice.
How Network Device Management works for your business
A dedicated team member works with you to build your network to your needs, then takes care of management, reporting and support.
These are the services NDM is currently offering:
- Set up – Remote management setup, configuration and testing of monitoring and alerting system.
- Monitoring and alerting – 24/7 automated remote monitoring and alerting of your connectivity performance.
- Proactive service desk – We’ll log service faults for you, and you’ll have unlimited requests.
- Incident and problem management – Reactive troubleshooting by our skilled service desk.
- Monthly service reporting – You’ll receive a summary of the performance and service tickets for your devices each month.
- Service asset and configuration management – We’ll track and report on your nominated connectivity and devices from purchase to disposal.
- Patch management – We’ll apply firmware updates and patches remotely.
- Service improvement – We’ll help you make IT decisions for your business, using analysis of trends and insights found in your monthly service reporting.
Network Device Management’s first release will only be available for Cisco Meraki routers, switch and access points.
To talk about Network Device Management and if it’s right for your business, get in touch with your local Telstra Business Technology Centre.
Things you need to know
* Venture Insights (2020)
** MYOB (2021)
*** Cisco (2020)
