Pleasanton, Calif.-based Shaklee, with an independent sales force of 700,000 people and a small IT shop, knew that it needed world-class network services when it embarked on the growth strategy two years ago, Shaklee CIO Ken Harris said in an interview last week.

Harris hired Denver-based Virtela Communications Inc. a year ago for those network services, and said the relationship has so far exceeded his expectations -- and resulted in a payback with new efficiencies in the first year. Harris, the former CIO at Gap Inc. and at Nike -- where he said he had good luck hiring unusual and small vendors -- declined to discuss the costs involved with the Virtela deal.

Virtela is one of several smaller, upcoming Virtual Network Operators (VNOs) that have emerged in the U.S. and Europe in recent years. VNOs provide customers with an alternative to established asset-owning companies such as AT&T, said Mark Winther, an analyst at IDC. "The proposition that a VNO such as Virtela offers is that they are fast and agile and provide good service solutions in exotic places," Winther said.

Harris agrees. After Shaklee reviewed Virtela and nine other service providers such as AT&T Corp. and Verizon Communications Inc., Virtela's first test was setting up data circuits in Mexico.

"Virtela brought capabilities in Mexico that no way we could have gotten had we worked with the local telcos," Harris said. "Virtela busted their butts and worked all kinds of hours and came through in flying colors."