Ah, that's the $1000/day question! (or at least it is when I have my consulting hat on).
Key issues (and this is off the top of my head, I hasten to add)I think are:
1) removing legacy and long-term "quick-win" solutions and replacing them with redundant n-tier systems. NAS and transparent caching should be used where possible.
2) investing in core internal networks - upgrading authentication and migrating to central LDAP from RADIUS. Implementing management solutions such as Netcool, to enable proactive maintenance. Redundant systems will reduce downtime here, too.
3) stick to open standards where possible.
4) join GRIC or similar
5) begin to add usage monitoring to all services, in order to find uneconomical users and move them to alternate pricing
6) add support for mobile devices. This is the opportunity to prevent mobile operators from acquiring customers. It should be possible for a user to buy a 2.5G or better device and be able to use your services with only minimal configuration.
7) add billing systems capable of managing multiple services. Time-based billing and flatrate are commodity business models (look at AOL for an example of where these fail!). ISPs need to move away from the commodity market and find value-adds that can be used to make money... Lessons can be learnt from the behaviour of mobile operators in saturated markets, such as in Hong Kong.
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Re:
Key issues (and this is off the top of my head, I hasten to add)I think are:
1) removing legacy and long-term "quick-win" solutions and replacing them with redundant n-tier systems. NAS and transparent caching should be used where possible.
2) investing in core internal networks - upgrading authentication and migrating to central LDAP from RADIUS. Implementing management solutions such as Netcool, to enable proactive maintenance. Redundant systems will reduce downtime here, too.
3) stick to open standards where possible.
4) join GRIC or similar
5) begin to add usage monitoring to all services, in order to find uneconomical users and move them to alternate pricing
6) add support for mobile devices. This is the opportunity to prevent mobile operators from acquiring customers. It should be possible for a user to buy a 2.5G or better device and be able to use your services with only minimal configuration.
7) add billing systems capable of managing multiple services. Time-based billing and flatrate are commodity business models (look at AOL for an example of where these fail!). ISPs need to move away from the commodity market and find value-adds that can be used to make money... Lessons can be learnt from the behaviour of mobile operators in saturated markets, such as in Hong Kong.
Re: Groan!
Then you point out that the next thing is of course a two-week gap analysis, followed by project definition.
And then you introduce the rest of the team...