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Increasing the Upside of Ethernet for Wholesale and Enterprise Services Matt Herdlein, Executive Director, Product Management, Telcordia Ethernet has grown from an enterprise IT standard to a viable carrier-grade technology. In fact, for wholesale and enterprise services, end-to-end Ethernet can have significant advantages. It’s generally easier to manage, and equipment and operations tend to be less expensive. Carrier and Metro Ethernet do have their challenges, especially where service-level agreements (SLAs) are involved. Ethernet services typically run over a heterogeneous mix of old and new equipment, increasing the challenge of managing performance metrics such as availability, latency, jitter and loss. Wholesale and enterprise customers demand high quality and consistent reliability, and they want proof that metrics are being met. Anything less than contracted performance levels can result in steep financial penalties. You Can’t Manage What You Can’t See Ethernet wholesale and enterprise service problems can have a significant impact on several departments within the service provider’s organization. The common root cause is invariably lack of end-to-end visibility. Customer Care doesn’t know what’s going on or when it will be fixed, leading to long, expensive calls with unsatisfied customers. Operations doesn’t find out about most problems until complaints are reported, and then often ends up fixing the symptoms rather than the root causes, leading to problem recurrence. Marketing is unable to offer and deliver premium SLAs. The answer is a robust service management solution that delivers near-real time insight into the entire Ethernet network, enabling effective Service Quality Management (SQM), Customer Experience Management (CEM), and SLA management. Such a solution monitors the end-to-end service experience in near real-time via defined Ethernet performance metrics, such as service availability, jitter, maximum throughput, latency, and loss. All of the collected data is aggregated and filtered to deliver relevant quality information to a variety of internal users. Simplifying the Complex Whether for enterprise services, or for cell backhaul or other wholesale services, Ethernet rides over complex networks with many potential points of failure. A near-real-time, easily understood graphical view of service performance and customer experience lets service providers cut through the complexity. A service management solution should present the status of locations, availabilities, quality indices, etc., so users can quickly detect and respond to service degradations and disruptions. Smart drill-down capabilities are necessary to enable fast identification of root causes. Since the solution makes irregularities in monitored metrics immediately visible, developing problems can be spotted and proactively addressed before they effect the customer. Ideally, a service management solution platform should be vendor and technology agnostic to easily interface and integrate with various types of data sources, including Probes, Fault Management, Performance Management, and Trouble Ticketing Management Systems. This allows the platform to present a single view that includes all relevant systems, eliminating “swivel chair” monitoring of multiple systems in the network operations center. Automated compilation of impacted customers and services, service topology, and service status streamlines the fault-to-trouble ticket process.
Reaping the Benefits Internal departments impacted by wholesale and enterprise Ethernet services should see an immediate improvement in their ability to manage the customer experience. Operations is able to systematically identify and solve network, service, and device performance issues such as configuration problems, traffic overloads, etc., rapidly identifying the root causes of service disruptions and preventing future disruptions. This results in lower mean time to resoltuion (MTTR) and fewer trouble tickets. Customer Care gains a single, aggregated, end-to-end view of the customer’s status, so they can respond quickly and intelligently to customers. Calls are shorter, saving costs while improving customer satisfaction. Visibility to existing, relevant trouble tickets also allows representatives to avoid the creation of duplicate trouble ticket. Marketing and Product Management know in advance if the network is capable of supporting premium SLAs. They can track and offer SLAs on various Metro Ethernet products to different customers, increasing competitiveness and revenue. Proactively monitoring minimizes violations and prevents SLA penalties. KPI and KQI tracking provides proof of the high level of service delivered. In addition, the reported information allows personnel to better understand service usage patterns and customer behavior, leading to better informed product development, packaging, and pricing decisions, as well as better capacity build-out plans. Increasing the Upside of Ethernet An ideal Ethernet service management solution enables faster and cheaper trouble response, proactive customer care interactions, smoother service introductions, and better operational intelligence. For providers of both Metro Ethernet, and Cell Backhaul services, it’s a solution that more than pays for itself with shorter customer care calls, better SLAs, and the ability to live up to them. It allows problems to be solved before they affect revenue, while improving the planning and deployment of resources for problem avoidance. For more information, please contact Matt Herdlein, Executive Director of Product Management, Telcordia at mherdlei@telcordia.com or visit our website.
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