Cisco is about to launch a new managed services offering for telecom service providers that want to target SMBs

May 27, 2011

1 Min Read
Cisco Set for Telco Managed Services Push

Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO) appears to have identified a gap in the telecom managed services market and is set to unveil a new white-label offering for operators in the coming weeks.

Cisco will attempt to sell the managed service -- called SmartOps -- to telecom operators looking to break into the difficult but potentially lucrative SMB (small and medium-sized business) market.

The idea is that operators would put their own brand on network and applications management services that would be run from a Cisco data center by the router giant, which would provide the customer premises equipment (CPE) and take care of the service delivery and management on the telecom operator's behalf.

That would involve being able to deliver against some strict service level parameters, but applications delivery management is something Cisco has been working on of late. (See Cisco Turns Up the Apps Delivery Dial.)

Cisco believes it can tempt telcos to sign up for SmartOps as it would provide a way to have yet another go at breaking the SMB market while minimizing infrastructure and setup costs and keeping risk to a minimum.

Of course, the operator would still have to build a marketing plan for the SMB service, something the operators have been notoriously poor at doing.

Detailed information about SmartOps is scarce currently as the service is not expected to be officially announced until towards the end of June.

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading

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