By David Sims

"The ideal partner," says a recent white paper from Alcatel-Lucent, "will focus on creating business value for the enterprise and will have a broad range of network, services and the multi-vendor equipment experience needed to create a complete management solution."

How to choose the right partner, though? Alcatel-Lucent gives some help.

It makes good business sense to consider an outsourcing partner that can address all the aspects of enterprise network management and transformation, they advise: "The ideal partner will run and evolve the network better than the enterprise itself and do it at lower cost to the enterprise."

In other words, an outsourcing team should become part of the enterprise team. They should report to the enterprise CIO and keep a focused management team on premises with direct access to the other IT functional teams.

The right partner works directly with the CIO, manages external IT partners and suppliers and understands enterprise network technology.

The right partner will understand enterprise communications, understand voice and data carriers, both fixed and mobile and understand carrier equipment and networks of the carriers. They'll be experienced working in a multi-vendor environment and have no vested interest in the enterprise's other expense streams. They will be experienced in management and experienced in transformation.

This team, Alcatel-Lucent advises, "should take over the governance of the network including managing the service, the network team, finances, and vendors supporting the network." This means regular reports to enterprise management should detail the state of the network, updates, revisions, incidents, and performance.

An outsourcing partner "must have extensive background as a network integrator, including design and operations of network and IT environments," the paper says. "The partner must understand network technology, network topology and enterprise communications, both voice and messaging."

In addition to familiarity with enterprise networks and communications, knowledge of the carrier network is "crucial in order to maximize enterprise design and operation," the paper finds, since "today's networks are no longer just fiber and copper - the network partner must have an excellent background in mobile and wireless networks as well."