MPLS Leads to Improved Efficiency, Communication and Security at Diverse Businesses

By Ed Silverstein, TMCnet Contributor

Multi protocol label switching (MPLS) connections are now necessary for most businesses located worldwide in many different industries. Healthcare and mail delivery are just two of the sectors where improvements were seen with MPLS upgrades.

In one recent example, TMG Health selected Level 3 Communications (News - Alert), an MPLS provider , because of the firm’s need to have access to a secure and redundant network for its health-related accounts for its important government customers.

TMG Health provides government-sponsored health plans, and it benefitted from Level 3 expanding its network to include the customer's new national operations center located in Jessup, Pa., as well as other data centers. Level 3 gave TMG high-bandwidth for the company’s data centers and call center.

"Level 3's network solution makes us an attractive provider for our clients, and enables us to prove to existing and prospective clients that they can entrust us with their sensitive healthcare information," Chris Haran, chief information officer of TMG Health, said in a recent statement. "In addition, the fact that Level 3 owns and operates the entire network supporting our headquarters in Jessup – and protects it with a multi-layered security portfolio – allows us to reassure our customers that their sensitive data is secure. We couldn't have expanded our operations center there without Level 3's support."

TMG Health provides Medicare Advantage, Medicare Part D and Managed Medicaid plans. It’s a subsidiary of Health Care Service Corporation (HCSC), what is believed to be the largest customer-owned health insurer in the United States.

On its part, Level 3 MPLS/IP VPN service provides an economical, secure, private and interconnected service over a MPLS network.

"We are pleased that our network solutions are helping TMG Health better serve the needs of its clients and expand its core business," Andrew Crouch, Level 3 regional president of North America added. "We understand the need to secure sensitive healthcare data and believe that our offerings are ideally suited to the unique requirements of the healthcare segment."

In fact, across many sectors and industries MPLS can make businesses stand apart from their competitors.

TTPost, which provides postal services in Trinidad and Tobago, provides registered mail, courier services, package tracking and express mail. But it had many challenges in communication among its many offices.

Devon Phillip, TTPost marketing manager, said a technology gap existed between operational and administrative processes and each of the company sites, according to TMCnet. More efficiency was needed, as was improved communications.

“One of the biggest challenges was in service failures with its WAN (wide area network), and the ability to proactively monitor and manage network circuits was enjoyed only after a substantial effort on the part of the admin team,” TMCnet added. “At the same time, the sheer quantity of individual circuits caused significant overhead for the corporation.” It needed to move to MPLS, and computerize and automate most of its operations.

With MPLS, companies improve their communications and efficiency, as well as increase time to market on innovations. In addition, market data becomes business intelligence.

These are all important needs and MPLS has become a key tool for the 21st century for enterprise throughout the globe.