Starkey swaps out MPLS for managed SD-WAN

On a more strategic level, the Aryaka project is helping Starkey achieve its mission to “service our customers better than everyone,” Hanson said.

Starkey’s latest product innovation is its Genesis AI hearing aid, which features a new processor, improved sound quality, sleeker design, better comfort and longer battery life. In addition to developing and manufacturing digital hearing aids, Starkey is focused on every aspect of the business, including marketing, custom solutions, on-demand support, industry advocacy and continuing education.

“When we can provide a stable, high-performance environment for everything from bringing new products to market to shipping products to customer service, billing, receivables, all of those functions, that is absolutely part of our fulfilling our vision,” Hanson said.

Based on his prior experience with Aryaka, Hanson was confident that the transition to SD-WAN would go smoothly during all phases of the project, from planning to implementation to monitoring of the system once it was up and running.

“Yes, they have great technology, but their willingness to meet us where we’re at has been really the critical qualifier in continuing our relationship. Nothing is ever perfect; implementations are never perfect, relationships are never perfect, but they’ve always come across as, ‘We’ll do what’s right for you, we’ll make this right.’ And that’s really what you need from critical partners.”

Looking ahead to other possible technology projects, such as SSE or SASE, Hanson said those are being evaluated. “When we have specific use cases, we will look at these evolving models.”