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FirstLight plans to ac-
quire FTLG in a move that
will merge FLTG’s privately
owned fiber-optic network,
which spans nearly 2,500
route miles in New York
State and Pennsylvania,
with FirstLight’s more than 9,500 route
mile fiber network. FirstLight recently
announced similar transactions with
Oxford Networks and Sovernet Com-
munications as well, and the resulting
total combined company will have a
portfolio of data, internet, data center,
cloud and voice services, backed by
locally based service and support, de-
livered across almost 15,000 miles of
network fiber in seven different states.
Its head count will swell as well, to to-
tal around 450 employees.
“For over a century, FLTG has
built solid, long-standing relationships
with its customers by consistently of-
fering its expertise, responsiveness,
flexibility and innovation,” said FLTG
president and CEO Paul H. Griswold.
“By combining operations with First-
Light, we are starting an exciting new
chapter in the FLTG story.”
The acquisition also will include
FLTG’s Cisco-based managed ser-
vices, which will become available
across the combined company’s foot-
print, thus expanding the opportuni-
ties for channel partners to combine
transport and managed services
together. The company will offer a
range of offerings in this department
– including hosted voice, routing
and switching, wireless and video
(via Cisco Spark) – all delivered
from its two NOCs, in Boston and
Rochester, N.Y. The company
also is teeing up a managed se-
curity offering.
“As a technology provider, value
added reseller and Cisco Premier
Certified Partner, our company has
taken much pride in developing cus-
tom communications and data net-
working solutions to meet customers’
specific business needs,” Griswold
said. “This acquisition expands the
footprint for our Cisco services and
hosted phone products, which part-
ners can combine with the local loop,
all from one company. Also, we’re
not reselling anyone’s service or
package because we develop these
ourselves in-house with our team of
Cisco engineers.”
For FirstLight’s part, the company
is equally bullish.
“Together we can bring more to
the table,” said Jessica Nava, FLTG’s
director of business development.
“We have a lot of synergy and
work with a lot of the same channel
partners, but together we can offer
them more to sell,” continued Nava.
“Before, we only offered our fiber
network and services, but now we
can offer the Cisco side. For partners
serving many of our customers, es-
pecially in the fast-growing university
and healthcare markets, the opportu-
By
Tara
Seals
Finger Lakes
Positioned for Future
with FirstLight Deal
nity to get into services will dramatically
change their value proposition.”
Channel partners will continue to earn
recurring revenue, and Griswold said that
the opportunities are moving upstream.
“We are doing more and more in
financial services, universities, the hospi-
tal space and in telemedicine, where they
need reliable bandwidth backed by ser-
vice level agreements,” he said. “Lately,
there’s been a much larger enterprise
focus, and selling, say, a 15,000-seat
phone system, is not uncommon now.
We’re also attracting great expertise –
we recently hired a new senior director of
Cisco solutions, who was at Cisco for 17
years but decided to come to us because
of the growth opportunities.”
Once the deal closes, sometime
between late August and early October,
the integration will begin. The company
expects to retain all of its employees
– though those workers may be rede-
ployed to new areas or groups – because
it will set about growing its portfolio of
services even further.
“It’s too early to understand where
everyone will be positioned since we can’t
start to migrate until the closure of the
deal,” said Griswold. “However, integra-
tion should be quick. We have network
engineers all over the place, and we’ll be
combining all forces, including those re-
tained from Oxford and Sovernet.”
Nava noted that the combined
company will maintain its penchant for
high-touch customer service and partner
support. The cornerstone of how the
company serves its customers is being
involved in the community, with local
sales and local support. As the company
gets bigger, it is taking steps to ensure
that it continues to maintain that local
presence, which is a big differentiation
point against some of the larger players
in the market.
“Yes, this is a merger and yes we’ll
be bigger, but nowhere near the size of
some others,” she said. “It’s important to
us to maintain our personal touch, our
family feel and community-oriented cor-
porate culture.”
o
F
inger Lakes Technologies Group (FLTG),
which serves business customers in New York
and Pennsylvania through its fiber network,
is about to supercharge its market position
and the opportunities for its channel partners, thanks
to its upcoming consolidation with FirstLight Fiber.
Paul Griswold
July - August, 2017
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Channel
Vision
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