ChannelVision Magazine

CORE COMMUNICATIONS D uring the last two decades NHC has built a reputation as a technology provider helping companies navigate the ever-changing communications landscape – from frame relay to ATM to MPLS, and beyond. NHC provides a powerful communi - cations stack that’s split into three layers, the first of which is the network layer. “Layer one is all about the network,” explained NHC CEO Doug Fabbri - catore. “In today’s world, businesses are accessing a variety of networks throughout the day. These networks have evolved away from the legacy telco private or internet network and instead comprise a truly dynamic and intertwined ‘everything’ network. Users of these networks expect rapid deploy - ment and scalability, along with hyper- fast performance. Their applications depend on these expectations.” NHC delivers these network con - nections both privately and publicly and with great precision. “Our network layer is fast, scal - able and available anywhere in the country with a diverse range of de - livery options,” added Fabbricatore. “Additionally, these networks are fully supported from presale to delivery and billing by NHC for a one-source connectivity solution.” Layer two is the overlay. “Our overlay is where the rubber meets the road,” Fabbricatore contin - ued. “This layer is the focus of growth for NHC, as well as our partners. Here we provide cloud-native applications like VoIP, UCaaS, contact center and collaboration, as well as advanced data services like SD-WAN, disaster recov - ery and cybersecurity.” The third layer of the stack is the managed layer. “Our managed layer ties everything together, and this couldn’t be more important than the current as-a-service world we’re in today,” Fabbricatore said. “This is most important for today’s customers. We man - age all the elements we’re selling, whether it’s network, an overlay or both. The customer needs someone to manage these compo - nents effectively, with transparency and with their best interests in mind. NHC does this. Every day.” According to Fabbricatore, there is a significant amount of innovation and integration happening in the managed layer. “As an example, when we deploy a software defined network for a multi- site, nationwide customer who is heavy in VoIP, collaboration and AWS traffic, we’re rolling a coordinated failover plan for all their network connections, re - gardless of who the underlying network provider is. We optimize the network availability and our application delivery, and we give the customer a view of all of this through a single pane of glass. I don’t know of any competitor who is aggregating these services together for the end customer and billing everything on one invoice. We’re truly ‘THE Com - munications STACK Provider’ in the whole sense of the phrase.” Vice president of marketing and business development Glen Nelson of- fered some additional commentary on the changing communications market and why NHC is positioned for contin - ued success. “We’ve seen an evolution both in terms of the solutions our customers are looking for and a corresponding change in demand for servic - es and revenue/commissions beyond just network access,” Nelson explained. “If you go back to when we started 18 years ago, the market was very siloed and focused on providing network access. Agent partners sold separate POTS lines to a telecom de - partment and internet and data lines to an IT organization. Now, the voice and data services are run on public and private IP managed by an IT depart - ment. The emphasis for our industry has shifted from principally providing network access to as-a-service appli - cations and managed solutions.” According to Nelson, access is only one part of the equation. “What every agent partner out there has realized, just like we have as ‘THE Communications STACK Provider,’ is that you can’t expect to grow a com - pany or agency on access alone. You have to sell the stack, which makes your services far more strategic to the customer and greatly increases the rev - enue per customer location that we’re all looking for.” While getting customers to a full stack should be the end goal for every agent partner, partners are encouraged to migrate them in stages. “One of the things that we focus on is integration by evolution,” Fab - bricatore continued. “Our partners can go to an enterprise or larger customer and provide a step-by-step plan from NHC to adopt and deploy our UCaaS. Perhaps initially we deliver a basic NHC: It’sAll About the Stack By Gerald Baldino E H T Communications STACK Provider ™ 48 CHANNEL VISION | March - April, 2020 NHC CEO Doug Fabbricatore