Finding solutions to better your business productivity can sometimes be a long and complicated process. For a progressive Rocky Mountain Service Provider, building remote monitoring and management services for their customer’s telecommunications networks was the nucleus of their service business. But, when their clients’ management needs exceeded the capabilities of their technology, this service provider turned to ReliaTel from Tone Software (News - Alert) to provide the robust, multi-platform management necessary to meet and exceed their client’s service expectations.
Prior to implementing the ReliaTel solution, the service provider had developed a home-grown application to monitor their clients’ TDM-based Siemens (News - Alert), Mitel and Avaya PBXs. But it soon became apparent they could not continue the in-house development needed to support clients that were migrating to more sophisticated IP-based voice networks. Time and resources were conspiring against this provider and negatively impacting their ability to both support their current customer’s management needs, and respond to new opportunities.
After weighing the risks of further developing their home grown monitoring solution versus moving to a more robust, flexible commercial management solution, the service provider concluded they could not justify the resources and capital necessary to maintain and expand their home grown solution – they would never recoup the desired return on investment.
Critical next steps included setting forth a very thorough set of requirements for a monitoring and management solution that would not only replace, but improve their home grown solution, and their overall business processes.
The solution they chose would have to provide the following:
- Ability to not only monitor multi-vendor networks comprised of Siemens HiCom 300, Avaya G3 and Mitel (News - Alert) SX series TDM-based PBXs, but also advanced IP-based Siemens HiPath PBX and Avaya 8700 Media Servers.
- Flexible enough to not only monitor the traditional PBXs of its current corporate customers but also be able to monitor VoIP devices that the provider’s engineers recommended to customers to help them migrate from legacy devices to new IP-based PBX (News - Alert) systems.
- Configurable to provide a smooth transition from their homegrown solution, because all the provider’s corporate customers required 100% network availability and call center support without interruption or network outages. Any gaps in management would be a costly violation of their service level agreements.
- Integratable into the provider’s contact center and customer portal for the generation of trouble tickets. This capability would not only enable the Provider to offer enhanced maintenance contracts to their existing customer base, but it would also be valuable in attracting new customers who required more stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs).
“We realized that in order to expand our business, we needed a solution that could seamlessly replace our existing software solution that had become limited in its capabilities. More importantly, we required a monitoring and management solution that not only supported our existing client base, but one that was flexible enough to support our growing population of multi-vendor devices and mixed networks. Finally, it had to seamlessly integrate into our product portfolio to provide our customers with a strong Maintenance Service package,” commented the Provider’s VP of Operations.
The company reviewed products from Avaya, CA (News - Alert) and Solarwinds and soon realized that none of these products could meet all of their needs. Vendor-specific solutions, such as Avaya’s Integrated Management,would not manage their customers’ Siemens or Mitel devices, and pure SNMP-based solutions would not manage their customer’s TDM devices and systems.
The Provider then turned to ReliaTel from TONE SOFTWARE to provide the multi-vendor, flexible, configurable, and integratable solution that met all the company’s service business needs.
ReliaTel was the only solution available that could meet the company’s network management needs, satisfy the requirements to monitor multi-vendor networks, and be flexible enough to easily adapt to the continuously changing needs of the provider’s customers.
“Because we were switching from a home-grown software solution, the product we selected as a replacement had to work seamlessly so our customers would not suffer any downtime or interruption of service. The ReliaTel solution not only met, but exceeded our expectations. Tone Software engineers worked closely with our engineers and support teams to quickly implement ReliaTel. As a result, our customers experienced a smooth transition with no loss of service,” stated the Provider’s network operations manager. .
With the successful implementation, the provider has now expanded their use of ReliaTel beyond the initial monitoring and management of network devices to full integration of ReliaTel into their customer care center, and deeper support for their customer’s PBXs through ReliaTel’s traffic reporting capabilities.
“With the adoption of ReliaTel, our maintenance contracts have become a strong selling point for our services. But, more importantly, by eliminating development and support for our home-grown solution, we have been able to invest and focus more on our core business. We’re certain that ReliaTel and Tone Software will continue to be a key element of our successful business growth strategy” reported the Provider’s VP of Business Development.
Jessica Kostek is a channel editor for TMCnet, covering VoIP, CRM, call center and wireless technologies. To read more of Jessica’s articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Jessica Kostek