July 1998

• Avesta Answers the Call for Service Level Monitoring
• Singing the Praises of Eicon's DIVA
• Bay Networks Appeals For Protocol Enabling Voice
  And Data Network Convergence
• SiteBridge Keeps Web-Based Customer Service Simple

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Avesta Answers the Call for Service Level Monitoring
Avesta Technologies, Inc., has introduced Trinity, an Information Technology (IT) service management solution. According to Avesta's Barbara Sannerud, Trinity was developed to address IT service integrity issues to meet the business requirements in complex and distributed environments. Trinity allows organizations to immediately identify the cause of service disruptions and minimize downtime by isolating problems and assess their impact on business and IT. Trinity workflow management and reporting also allows organizations to provide automated policy-based customer support for IT services.

The solution offers real solutions for today's IT managers by addressing an old problem from a new perspective. Trinity manages networks, and improves availability and service levels, while identifying operational risk. Using a dynamic object-oriented model of the managed enterprise, Trinity represents a dynamic IT environment - automatically characterizing network problems. It enables managers to assess performance, determine the impact of service outages on their businesses, and diagnose the root cause of an IT service problem. In addition, Trinity improves workflow, such as problem escalation procedures and trouble ticketing, and makes relevant documentation immediately accessible to IT managers for efficient problem correction. Designed as a scalable solution, Trinity is fault tolerant, self-managing, and supports 24 by 7 operations.

Avesta also announced general availability of Niagara, the Customer Service desktop application for its Trinity solution. Niagara is a Java-based desktop that integrates multiple views of critical IT and business information streams. Niagara combines IT information - such as alarms, performance statistics, operations news, billing information, and service level reports - providing an overall management perspective of service delivery to customers.

When used with Trinity, Niagara's ability to integrate real-time and historical dynamic content can be used by service providers to deliver a "just-in-time" management perspective of service delivery. Featuring push/pull content subscription capabilities, personalized filtering, and custom notification based on content, Niagara provides the customers of service providers with the right portfolio of IT information to make better business decisions.

Niagara is available today as a Trinity application. It will be followed up by availability as a universal desktop for business and IT information management applications such as billing, asset management, service management, and telecommunications applications. Niagara is bundled with Sun Microsystems' Hot Java Web browser and also supports Microsoft Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator Web browsers.

For more information, contact Avesta at 212-285-1500, or visit the company's Web site at www.avesta.com.

- Greg Galitzine, CTI� magazine

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Singing the Praises of Eicon's DIVA
I recently met with Peter Geier, Eicon's ISDN marketing manager for the Americas, to discuss the company's new external DIVA T/A ISDN modem (Figure 2). The external terminal adapter is the first of its kind, combining the advanced functionality of Auto-SPID and Auto-Switch detection with AO/DI (Always On Dynamic ISDN), resulting in flexible bandwidth management and advanced voice calling features. The external device supports a full complement of analog devices, including standard telephones and fax machines, and is also designed to integrate the small office/home office (SOHO) environment into a single ISDN line to provide high-performance data transmission and secure access to corporate networks and the Internet.

According to Geier, "Eicon is bringing the technical depth we acquired as the world leader in PCMCIA cards to the desktop with our new external modem. This modem reflects the fact that there is more to remote access than speed…users need the flexibility and functionality that will allow them to conduct true multitasking."

The modem has a throughput of 128 Kbps - up to 512 Kbps with on-board compression. Supported phone services include caller ID, call waiting, holding, transfer, three-way calling, and distinctive ringing. The DIVA T/A ISDN modem's Auto-SPID and SPID-Wizard features make installing ISDN as easy as a traditional modem. (Auto-SPID is an industry initiative that automatically negotiates the connection to the service provider by downloading the SPID numbers from the digital switch.) SPID-Wizard automatically runs through all of the possible SPID numbers to interface with the provider's switch. Combined, these features mean true plug-and-play ISDN connectivity.

The Eicon DIVA T/A ISDN modem supports Windows 95, NT, and 3.x, as well as OS/2 and DOS, and includes serial and ISDN ports, two analog ports, and 10 LED indicators. The modem is compatible with many leading access servers and routers that adhere to such industry standards as Multilink PPP, BACP, Stacker-LZS, MPPC, Ascend Compression, PAP, SPAP, MS-CHAP, and CHAP support and encrypted authentication, including Secure ID.

For more information, contact the company at 514-745-5500 or visit their Web site at www.eicon.com.

- Greg Galitzine, CTI� magazine

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Bay Networks Appeals For Protocol Enabling Voice
And Data Network Convergence
"A gateway to the SS7 network is an essential element to the integration of telecom networks and the Internet that will allow users to operate in a seamless environment for voice and data services." That statement is the crux of Bay Networks, Inc.'s informational Request for Comment (iRFC) to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). The iRFC outlines the need for an open, industry-standard protocol that supports interworking between Signaling System 7 (SS7) network elements, and the Internet. It specifically describes the architecture for an SS7 to Internet gateway incorporating a Bay Networks remote access server (RAS). The adoption of such a protocol would create an easier, uniform way for the two networks to "speak" to one another. The announcement reinforces Bay Networks' commitment to the development of a SS7 protocol to globally integrate voice and data networking in service provider networks.

The Access Signaling Protocol (ASP) specification is a critical move, as increasing bandwidth demands are causing service providers to use SS7 as an option for off-loading data traffic from the PSTN. "The convergence of the telecom and datacom networks depends not only on allowing traffic to flow, but in creating a network that controls where this traffic flows," noted Daniel Pitt, vice president and director of Bay Networks' Architecture Lab. The open standard could also increase the number of revenue-generating services providers can offer their customers. SS7 networking is the primary means used in the PSTN for control of circuit-switched connections, and value-added PSTN services such as toll-free number translation, calling card validation, and intelligent network services.

The release of the iRFC to the IETF should foster the development of SS7 gateway software across multiple platforms (including Unix and Windows NT). Bay Networks and several companies including Stratus Computer and ADC NewNet have reviewed the specification to date. The protocol is available to Bay Networks' partners. For additional information on the Access Signaling Protocol, contact Kieran Taylor at Bay Networks 978-916-1490, or take a look at the informational Request for Comment at www.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-ong-ss7-internet-gateway-00.txt.

For general information, contact the company at 800-8-BAYNET, or visit their Web site at www.baynetworks.com.

- Dara Bloom, CTI� magazine

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SiteBridge Keeps Web-Based Customer Service Simple
SiteBridge Corporation, formerly Social Science, visited our office to introduce their entry into the Web-enabled call center customer service market, CustomerNow. CEO and president Wendell Lansford explains the concept of the software simply, by noting CustomerNow enables the same ubiquity of e-mail, but in real-time.

CustomerNow enables real-time visual collaboration and chat between a live Customer Service Representative (CSR) and an online customer. The software is based on the company's proprietary WorksEverywhere technology, which means it works on all browsers (Java and non-Java), all computing platforms, and through firewalls and proxy servers. Users are not required to download or install software, since the platform is completely Web-based. WorksEverywhere dynamically analyzes and adjusts to the customers' computing environment when users click on the button to connect to an agent. It will even default back to a non-Java interface if it determines the customer's Java is, as Lansford puts it, "flaky." That's something some other Web-enabled customer support solutions can't do - your customers have to use Java, or not use the solution at all. "E-commerce enterprises want to reach all existing customers and all potential customers," added Lansford. "The reality is that Java doesn't go far enough - it doesn't work on all browsers and a lot of businesses disable it for security reasons. We dynamically serve interfaces optimized for each user's unique environment - only those users who have a Java-capable platform get Java, other users get an HTML interface."

CustomerNow provides an obvious benefit for users with only one phone line, since it allows customers to receive live service or support without disconnecting from the Internet. SiteBridge claims that companies can save an estimated 80 percent of 800-number call costs by directing customers to Web-driven interactions. CustomerNow also supports secure, encrypted (using SSL, Secure Socket Layer, which supports up to 128-bit RSA encryption) communication channels allowing users to exchange sensitive information such as credit card numbers or proprietary corporate information.

Lansford also explained that CustomerNow is meant to be integrated into a call center's call management software - they are aiming to work with leaders in this market such as Genesys (www.genesyslab.com) and AnswerSoft (www.answersoft.com). For more information, contact the company at 212-645-8700 or visit their Web site, which contains a worksheet to calculate your potential ROI for CustomerNow, at www.sitebridge.com.

- Dara Bloom, CTI� magazine

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