CenturyLink extends cloud services to SMB customers

January 22, 2014 | By Sean Buckley

CenturyLink (NYSE: CTL) is bringing its cloud services down to small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) with the debut of its Managed Office service bundle. The offering is intended to provide a higher level of customer service to SMBs, like what is available to larger enterprise customers.

Using a mix of network, hosted VoIP and cloud capabilities, customers that sign up for the Managed Office suite will be able to get a host of IP services and custom support.

In addition to Managed network and Hosted VoIP, CenturyLink will offer Managed CPE, Hosted apps and cloud storage, and security software. These services will be complemented by Managed install and training, one-stop customer support and scalable, per-seat pricing.

Creating a suite of cloud services that are specifically packaged for the needs of the SMB makes sense. This segment typically lacks the capital to support a large IT staff that can implement complex communications solutions.

The new SMB service package comes at a time when CenturyLink is positioning itself as a full service IT and managed services provider for any size business customer. Earlier this week, the telco rebranded its Savvis data hosting subsidiary as CenturyLink Technology Solutions as a way to better align the business unit and parent company.

CenturyLink can also apply the Managed Office bundle to both its existing SMB customer base and previous customers that may have churned to another operator.