India’s leading provider of ICT services, Tata Communications, has cleared the Advanced Assessment Partner program requirements and obtained Nectar Network Assessment Certification, the company said in a press release.
The program is aimed at help enterprise customers identify partners that are certified to leverage Nectar’s Perspective solution to design, deploy and report the results of network assessments for both cloud and on premise UC deployments, including Microsoft Skype for Business Online.
Nectar-certified advanced assessment partners have to be demonstrative of their abilities in the area of voice, UC, data networking and how UC traffic affects data networks. Other than that, other important criterion includes having to demonstrate how to design, deploy, and use a particular product for a Microsoft Skype Operations Framework (SOF)-aligned network assessment as well, the company said in a statement, stating that two other companies along with Tata Communications namely, Carousel Industries and Co-Mergent have got similar certifications globally.
All partners must demonstrate strong functional knowledge of voice, UC, data networking and the impact of UC traffic on a data network. Partners must also go through comprehensive training on the Perspective product and how to design, deploy, and use it for a Microsoft Skype Operations Framework (SOF)-aligned network assessment.
Today, more than 120 partner person hours have been dedicated to the Advanced Network Assessment Program certification process offering much benefit to partners. For example, Tata Communications can now significantly reduce the chances that any network trouble spots will arise by having the tools they need to create a successful UC environment for their customers.
David Spears, the Global Product Director of Microsoft Cloud Solutions for Tata Communications said that “Enterprise customers can become easily overwhelmed when it comes to planning and managing a new UC deployment. Until the enterprise fully realizes the amount of traffic that is going back and forth on its network, it can never truly prepare to fully adopt a UC deployment.
Our certification with Nectar on the Advanced Assessment Program, helps us deliver on our commitment to the success of our global customer base. Our global infrastructure ownership, combined with the Nectar powered network assessment capability, allows Tata Communications to provide an in-depth understanding to our customers on their Unified Communications network readiness, and creates an unmatched advantage for our service offerings.”
As more enterprises rollout new UC deployments, the emphasis on ensuring they work properly before full implementation cannot be understated. Without proper planning and pre-assessment of the network, a UC deployment can easily be abandoned and never fully adopted if problems arise early on.
Nectar’s Network Assessment Program aims to educate its partners on the significance that pre-assessment services play in the adoption of UC technology. Enterprise customers want to be secure in the knowledge that they have a partner backing them up who understands the complexities of their UC environments, from multi-vendor to geographically distributed enterprises. Certified assessment partners will have the tools and knowledge necessary to support their customer’s networks and meet the needs of the ever growing enterprise environment.