Converged IT services provider Colt has given small and midsized businesses a 'cherry pick' option through a new portal named Colt Ceano.
Aiming at SMBs is nothing new for the company, but it is aiming to crank up this side of the business by making it easier for them to make short term choices.
Colt Ceano has evolved from the company's SmartOffice, which operated in a similar manner, but includes a broader range of services and is said to have a simpler interface that should help companies in picking the services that they want and dropping them when not needed.
It enables SMBs to pay only for what they need, scaling up and down as required, adding and removing services through the portal without any capital spending.
All of the services are covered by a single contract. They include internet connectivity, voice over IP, Microsoft Lync 2010, SharePoint 2010, Soonr Workplace for virtual project workspaces, hosted virtual desktop services, managed virtual firewalls, virtual servers, cloud backup and disaster recovery services.
They are hosted in Colt's data centres with firewall and backup, and underpinned by the company's pan-European fibre network.
James Eibisch, Research Director for IDC, commented: "SMBs need clear and affordable services that are simple to use and can be scaled. Being able to cherry pick from the services available and pay only for the services and capacity they need is the key."
