Internet has become an important tool for doing business in India. The ability to do business at the speed of thought is every enterprise’s dream, and the Internet is an enabling tool for the purpose. This brings into picture the ISPs. But before deciding in favor of a particular ISP, an enterprise should ponder over the parameters listed below and weigh all options:

n Estimate the Right Bandwidth: This is the first thing to look for if you are going for a high-speed connectivity. For constructive use of the Internet as a business tool, planning for an Internet connection becomes important. How much bandwidth does your company require?

What is the objective of investing on the Internet infrastructure? How does it relate to the company’s overall objectives? First of all, you must decide upon the benefits that are expected from subscribing to an ISP. Estimating the right bandwidth requirement is a critical step.

Evaluate the ISP’s backbone: This will help you predict the kind of speeds you will get with that ISP’s services. If the ISP is promising you the bandwidth that is available on the backbone, find out how many users are there. The more the users, the slower the speed will be. One may go for an E1 link and later realize that the throughput is nowhere near 2 Mbps. This is very important considering the fact that most of the ISPs are not so keen to offer service level agreements (SLAs) because they themselves do not get it from their bandwidth provider.

n Extent of Coverage: If your business necessitates connectivity with your remote offices, you should go for an ISP with a national presence. If your offices are concentrated at certain locations you have the option to go for a good national ISP or any serious regional ISP.

n Points of presence: Accessibility of one’s ISP is of crucial importance. How fast can you approach your ISP and get response from it? The more the PoPs, the better the chances of not getting a busy signal.

n ISP’s Track Record: You should also take into account the ISP’s prior experience, i.e. whether providing Internet services is its core competency or not. The history of performance and brand image in the market counts a lot. Never judge on the basis of the number of clients that the ISP has. In fact, fewer number of clients may mean better bandwidth for you.

Ask the ISP to provide you business cases of earlier projects executed by it. Also, see that the ISP is having carrier-class equipment, redundancy and robustness in its network and services.

n Insist on Service Guarantees: In India, service guarantee is still regarded a premium. Many service providers simply refuse to provide any service guarantees. With ISPs being allowed to build their own international gateways and use alternative media of last-mile access, it’s high time that you as a corporate insisted on signing SLAs. You can start by asking the ISP to guarantee that your dedicated connection is not down for more time than a pre-agreed period of time. If your ISP has an international gateway, then an international private leased-line should come along with a minimum bandwidth throughput guarantee. The bandwidth quality-of-service (QoS) guarantees offered by the US ISPs are upwards of 99 percent.

n Security of Data: With the heightened vulnerability of networks being exposed to security breach, it would be a better idea to crosscheck the security system of your ISP. Ensure that it’s foolproof. Since your corporate network is going to be connected to your ISP, you should insist on signing an SLA on security. This becomes all the more important if your ISP hosts your site. Also, find out if the ISP has a disaster-recovery mechanism in place or not. Find out what security guarantees the ISP is ready to provide on its network. It is also worthwhile to have a look at the ISP’s network itself to see if it is secure enough. If you an SME, it would not be a good idea to go for your own firewall, considering the cost of the security solution.

Package solution with guaranteed security features built in it. The ISP should have end-to-end security scheme that will provide true protection for sensitive data, all the way from the desktop through the service provider network to the destination LAN. An IPSec compliant service provider network that will allow full interoperability with other service providers’ networks, besides offering full service offering complete with digital certification technologies. An ISP who can work with you in terms of selecting the right level of encryption for each site and one who offers strong encryption (triple DES) would be the best choice.

n Network Reliability of the ISP: The reliability and performance level of the ISP are equally important and it is advisable to find out about the actual downtime in the last 6–12 months, notwithstanding claims otherwise.

n Services Matter, not Prices: Differences in rates of services between ISPs are very marginal and so cost should not be an issue at all. The only thing to remember is that the quality should not suffer due to cost, otherwise the whole purpose will be defeated. It is better to go for high-cost services with guaranteed connectivity rather than low-cost services accompanied with poor connectivity. Do a cost/performance comparison of various types of Internet connections before choosing a service.

n Round-the-clock Customer Care: Round-the-clock help desk is something that everyone claims to provide but very few actually offer them. Ensure that the ISP you are going for (no matter how reputed it might be), has a genuine state-of-the-art customer contact facility, which can do remote troubleshooting. The cost of calling for help is also important. There are ISPs who offer toll-free 1,600 number series, which means a substantial cost saving for the enterprise. Otherwise, if you do not reside in the same city as the ISP’s office, you might end up calling an STD number.