Network technology has become a crucial part of almost every industry in the world. Whether it’s manufacturing, hospitality, financial services, transportation, retail or education, reliable networking infrastructure has become an indispensible requirement for seamless operations.

1. | |JULY 2014
20CIOReview
Internet & Telephone, LLC
recognized by magazine as
An annual listing of 20 companies that are in the forefront of
providingCisco Technology Solutions and impacting the marketplace
Editor-in-Chief
Pradeep Shankar
2015
CISCO
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
20 MOST PROMISING
Description:Company:
Internet & Telephone,
LLC
A provider of first-class
IT Support, phone
service and Internet
connections.
Key Person:
Paul C. Cissel,
CEO
Website:
www.itllc.net
CIOREVIEW.COMCISCO SPECIAL
T h e N a v i g a t o r f o r E n t e r p r i s e S o l u t i o n s
20Most PromisingCiscoSolutionProviders2015
N
etwork technology has become a crucial part of almost
every industry in the world. Whether it’s manufacturing,
hospitality, financial services, transportation, retail
or education, reliable networking infrastructure has become
an indispensible requirement for seamless operations. The
tremendous transformation in the network technology has lead
to high speed connections, optimized virtualized workloads
and the ability to transfer large volumes of data. This has made
video conferencing, cloud storage facility, and e-education,
a very common part of human lives. However, still there
are unprecedented opportunities to encourage, enable and
empower its potential.
One of the pioneers in networking revolution—Cisco
provides the core networking elements and intelligence
services to the organizations to gain competitive advantages
and increase market share. Numerous companies partner with
Cisco to bring the networking benefits to their clients. From
a company that offers structured cabling solutions to build a
strong IT infrastructure to the one that deciphers machine to
machine communications for human understanding, in this
edition of CIO Review, we bring to you “20 Most Promising Cisco
Solution Providers 2015”. The listing features the best vendors
providing solutions and services in partnership with Cisco. The
companiesfeaturedhaveshowcasedextensivebusinessprocess
knowledge, in-depth integrated and innovative strategies
combined with talent base across locations. A distinguished
panel comprising of CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, analysts including CIO
Review editorial board has decided the top companies that are
at the forefront of providing value added solutions in the Cisco
ecosystem.
JULY 27 - 2015

2. | |JULY 2014
21CIOReview| |July 2015
34CIOReview
I
n today’s world, productivity hinges
on the ability to collaborate quickly,
effectively and remotely. “Users
want smartphones, tablets, laptops and
every kind of mobile device. But they
do not want to be tethered to a wire,”
explains Paul Cissel, CEO, Internet
& Telephone. As a result, Internet &
Telephone has partnered with Cisco to
deliver collaboration and networking.
Based out of Methuen, MA, Internet &
Telephone is a premium partner with
Cisco. “Collaboration should be fun -
and assisting customers to collaborate is
really an important part of our company,”
reveals Cissel.
Internet & Telephone offers Managed
ITand a full telecom-suite.The company’s
Customer Account Managers (CAMs) are
trained to implement custom solutions
and the company’s standard technology
stack is based on core Cisco equipment
that can be deployed for small, medium
and large business. A standard practice at
I&T is to develop a 3-5 year IT roadmap
for each customer and then meet quarterly
to review and adjust the plan. “It’s an
important part of the roadmap, and Cisco
has been great about listening to the
marketplace,” says Cissel.
Following the seven layer OSI
(Open System Interface) model, Internet
& Telephone has a unique onboarding
process and has found that developing
smart business processes is a foundational
must-have for success. CEO Cissel
and CTO Doug Smith attended ITIL
(Information Technology Infrastructure
Library) courses, which comprise a
set of practices for IT management
that align IT services with the
needs of business, which is
not an easy undertaking. The
ITIL framework —processes,
procedures, tasks, and
checklists designed to enable
any organization to establish
a baseline from which it can plan,
implement, and measure IT initiatives
— is published as a series of five core
volumes, each of which covers a different
stage of IT service management.
“We’ve identified 115 specific
customer touch points from the time we
first engage with a client to the end of the
first 12 months,” says Cissel. “To help
prepare our employees for each customer,
we follow a philosophy called ‘Know
Thy Customer,’ which involves quizzing
our employees on a daily basis about key
information they should know about each
customer. And we developed a series of
documentation and remediation reports
that tie into the roadmap linking our
whole team to our customer’s success.”
Internet & Telephone invests heavily
in people, tools and processes. With a
strong focus on certification, the company
delivers excellent service from Cisco-
trained engineers.
OnerecentexampleofI&T’sexpertise
is how they assisted a local bank to make
significant technical improvements and
financial savings with Cisco solutions.
The 16-branch bank faced challenges
in IT cost overruns and complexity. “We
consolidated their infrastructure from
forty eight to four Cisco virtual servers,”
claims Cissel. “We also implemented an
all Meraki solution making access easier
and more secure across all locations.”
Over a three-year period the bank saved
almost six hundred thousand dollars by
implementing Internet & Telephone’s
solutions.
Movingforward,Internet&Telephone
is implementing tighter security for their
customers, to bridge the gap between
daily functionality and monitoring
practices. “We believe in providing
excellent service, performing significant
research, leveraging our partnership with
Cisco – and having fun,” says Cissel.
Internet & Telephone
Serving Businesses with Effective Communications Strategy
Technology
has changed
dramatically, but the
need to communicate
and collaborate never
will — and that’s
where we’re keeping
our focus
Paul Cissel
2015
CISCO
SOLUTION PROVIDERS
20 MOST PROMISING