transforming the business telecom industry...
TRANSCRIPT
SUCCESS TeraGo Networks
TransformingSEE WHAT CHANGES TERAGO NETWORKS HAS MADE TO BECOME
ONE OF CANADA’S PREMIER IT END-TO-END SOLUTIONS PROVIDERS.
What does it take to be the largest cloud business in Canada? The perfect combination of
telecommunications and IT solutions, a network that spans across Canada, and a successfully
implemented transformational plan.
TeraGo Networks has all of these components, allowing the organization to provide the
capabilities needed to address its clients’ secure data flow and management requirements. The
company’s fully Canadian-owned infrastructure spans 46 different markets, providing business
customers with Internet and voice access, and more recently data center and cloud services.
“Your data is one of your most significant assets—and impairment of your data and its movement
can significantly impact your business,” the company shared. “By providing an end-to-end
solution—all the way from your IT infrastructure in the office to your IT resources in the cloud—
your company can reduce the operational and capital costs of managing your own equipment,
while significantly reducing the risk of data loss.”
TeraGo Networks started as an access company that sold Internet access and point-to-point
connectivity primarily using fixed wireless microwave technology. Since its foundation however,
the Internet access market has become highly competitive, with the Internet moving towards
a commodity level of need among users. TeraGo realized it needed other products to stay
competitive in the market, and has since moved into data centers, cloud computing,
and voice solutions.
TeraGo only serves B2B clients with no retail customers, allowing them to focus on the various
solutions an enterprise would need to stay connected to its clients, each other, and its work.
the Business Telecom Industry
SUCCESS
“TeraGo has a level of flexibility that the big guys just can’t match.” - Ryan Lausman, COO of TeraGo Networks
April 2016 | thebossmagazine.com | 5
Ryan Lausman, COO of TeraGo Networks,
believes that in the world of telecom, speed,
innovation, and highly efficient scaling are the
keys to success. He is very happy to be with
a mid-market telecom company like TeraGo,
as it is large enough to offer a wide range of
products and solutions but flexible enough to
offer highly customized solutions.
“Our speed to market sets us apart,” he said.
“We’re not the big corporations in the industry,
but we have the same capabilities. We also
have the ability to offer support and care like
the small guys. Even though I’m the COO, I talk
to customers and help them deal with issues if
they arise. TeraGo has a level of flexibility that
the big guys just can’t match.”
This flexibility has been enhanced by TeraGo
Network’s commitment to its transformational
plan, which was introduced in the first quarter
of 2014. Since then, many of its main strategies
have been successfully implemented. This
means the business has transitioned from a
network services provider to an end-to-end
data solutions provider; the product set has
expanded to include data centers and cloud
services; and that a full suite of IT solutions are
available to serve enterprise customers.
Lausman shared that a few years ago, TeraGo
Networks came to a point where it had no
other option except to transform: its main
legacy BSS and OSS systems were a decade
old and had grown organically to a point of
instability, other systems had a lot of custom
code that complicated things, and trying to
upgrade software was next to impossible.
“TeraGo Networks started as a small company,
but the original systems the company started
with don’t grow very well. For example, we
tried to upgrade a version of our accounting
software, but at the end we got a big bill with
no increase in functionality or productivity.
That’s why we needed to institute this
transformational plan.”
TeraGo Networks has been able to institute
much of this plan at a breakneck pace.
Lausman, who has a history of working
in the fast environment of startups, knew
firsthand that the faster a company can
make changes successfully, the faster it can
reap the financial rewards.
He and the other leaders at the company also
knew that getting into cloud computing was
the key to expanding the company’s product
offering. Cloud service providers are relatively
new to clients, so TeraGo Networks is making
every effort to help enterprises understand
just what they need, and what is possible
to provide.
“We’re on the cutting edge of what a cloud
service provider can do. There’s a lot of
complexity around billing and offering services
effectively in this market. Customers consume
the cloud at all hours of the day in very
complex, customized use. So we’ve created a
tool for customers that allows them to monitor
their usage.”
The challenge with offering this tool is that
custom control software doesn’t exactly exist
in the form that TeraGo Networks needed it to
when the company set out to offer this service
to clients. This led to piecing together the bits
that did exist in the industry, and then pulling
the industry along to understand what service
providers like TeraGo need.
April 2016 | thebossmagazine.com | 7
SUCCESS
8 | thebossmagazine.com | April 2016
The need for a client cloud tool like this, as well as the
need for the infrastructure for the cloud itself, led TeraGo
Networks to make strategic acquisitions within the industry.
“The fastest way for us to get into a new product category
was to acquire an established organization already in the
field. We’re not a software developer and didn’t have the
capabilities before to offer cloud services, so through our
complete company overhaul we acquired RackForce and
BoxFabric.”
RackForce, a cloud services provider, and BoxFabric, an
IaaS managed cloud hosting company with a Tier3 data
center, brought their expert knowledge of the cloud as
well as a client base with which to start TeraGo’s new
product line.
A small team was responsible for integrating the new
acquisitions into TeraGo, which was no easy feat. It added
more complexity to an already complex system, meaning
the integration of software and maintaining multiple
billing systems.
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“I was personally involved in a lot of the work,”
Lausman shared. “When there’s a small team
leading the charge, you can really control
the outcome a lot better. Stewart Lyons, our
CEO, was involved every step of the way. If
leadership isn’t hands-on like this, it’s easy for
the outcomes to be siloed off.”
With the foundation of the transformational
plan in place, TeraGo Networks can move onto
the more complex goals of the strategy while
continuing its focus on its current customer
base. Lausman wants to make sure TeraGo
is caring for its current client base as the
company grows and puts new plans in place.
In terms of the transformational plan, the
next phase will focus on front-end office
applications, including CRM, provisions,
and billing.
“The new offerings in this arena are
compelling,” said Lausman. “They are cheaper
than the old legacy systems, and speak to the
evolution of how software is sold today. We’re
in final vendor selection and will move onto
deployment soon.
“It’s a much better time to be doing this than
six or seven years ago. Core productivity
software has become a lot better. Once we
have all of the pieces in place we will have
the platform where we can introduce new
products quickly. This way, our systems can do
the hard work, and we can focus on what truly
makes TeraGo great—our customers.”
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MISSIONCRITICALWIRELESSINFRASTRUCTURE
TeraGo55 Commerce Valley Drive West, #800Thornhill, ON L3T 7V9 Canada
Ph: 1-866-837-2465 Fax: 905-707-6212www.terago.ca
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