Customer-Aware Service Management for Telecom and Data Service Providers

Transcription

1 Customer-Aware Service Management for Telecom and Data Service Providers Definition A customer-centric or customer-aware service management system represents a new approach for network service providers to create and manage services such as digital subscriber line (DSL), virtual private networks (VPNs), asynchronous transfer mode (ATM), and Internet protocol (IP) services. A customer-aware system enables the sharing of information about the network, customers, and services between several areas of an operations support system (OSS). The system embeds information about the network, customers, and services into the service management features and includes awareness of a customer s equipment, services, problems, and service quality. The result is a service management system that yields superior end-to-end control and visibility of services, with a greater understanding of the customer experience. Overview Providers of telecommunications and data networking services are recognizing that they must make customer service and responsiveness to customer needs a top priority. This awareness stems from increased competition to deliver the most advanced, flexible, and useful services. It reflects the rising demand for services such as VPNs, integrated access for voice and data, DSL, managed routers and integrated access devices (IADs), and service self-provisioning. At the same time, for customers to rely on these services for critical business functions, the services must have carrier-grade availability and reliability. They must also have highly responsive customer service. Adaptation to these new rules of competition requires a significant shift in the existing business model, as well as the OSS that supports the model. Service providers must have greater visibility into individual customer s service experience and how network performance issues impact that experience. For example, customers want service level agreements (SLAs) that are meaningful and enforceable. Service providers who can couple strong SLAs with proactive,

2 comprehensive customer service will have higher customer loyalty, less customer churn, and higher profitability. To enhance customer loyalty, many service providers are enhancing their use of items such as customer-care systems and customer-relationship management packages. However, a much stronger link must be established between customer information and the service management tools than typically exists in today s network operations center (NOC). Service providers will face even greater challenges providing adequate customer support with fragmented, networkcentric OSSs. Topics 1. The OSS Fragmentation Problem 2. Placing the Customer at the Core 3. Benefits of Customer Awareness 4. Collaboration between Systems 5. Summary Self-Test Correct Answers Glossary 1. The OSS Fragmentation Problem Commonly deployed OSS structures and services are typically network-centric because they are oriented around the tasks required to manage network elements. A typical network service provider will deploy a variety of edge and core network gear from a range of vendors, depending on the type of service to be delivered. And most network management and service management systems are multiple, vertically oriented tools focusing on network management tasks. These discrete systems can be highly effective at a narrow range of tasks. However, because of the disconnected nature of the typical OSS structure, these systems have very little visibility into specific customer information. Customerfacing systems, such as billing and customer care, are largely disconnected from the systems managing the network and services. Service activation and assurance eventually become unwieldy processes, as the service provider s staff must use a variety of highly specialized, discrete 2/10

3 applications to accomplish tasks associated with establishing and monitoring services. Figure 1. Fragmented, Network-Centric OSS Overall, network-centric systems cannot answer questions such as the following: How has an individual customer s service performed over time, and how has this performance compared to the SLA? Which customers are regularly hitting the upper end of their designated performance threshold, and might they be candidates for service upgrades? Which customers are served by specific network elements, and how overbooked are those elements? How does this affect performance against those customers SLAs? The service management process is further complicated by the variety of element management systems that network equipment vendors often use to manage their gear. This approach can require a provider to turn to a variety of different systems to handle configuration of various elements. As a result, the level of complexity and the risk of provisioning failure rise. In summary, service providers typically rely on three types of management systems, often in combination: Vendor-specific element managers a system that controls the configuration of switches, routers, and edge devices 3/10

4 Vertical management applications typically executes single application of service-oriented tasks such as service provisioning, performance monitoring, and fault management Third-party customer-oriented applications used for order tracking, billing, SLA monitoring, and similar customer-oriented tasks 2. Placing the Customer at the Core The new business model for managing services places the customer at the center of the provisioning and service assurance processes. It shifts the focus away from managing only network elements to correlating network events with specific customers and services. The customer becomes the core of the network model. To achieve this, service providers need to build a knowledge base that is available to all service management applications that interact with the network. That knowledge base must be populated with customer-related information and specific service instance information. Through this new knowledge base, direct associations can be made among service instances, customers receiving the services, and status of network elements carrying those services. This leads to customer-awareness, permitting the instant correlation of any event, device, or service with a specific customer. In addition, for a system to make full use of this new customer-awareness, the system should have the tightest integration possible between the primary areas of service management provisioning, discovery, fault management, and performance monitoring. This integration can help ensure that network, customer, and service data is gathered, utilized, and presented in a consistent way, increasing the usefulness and effectiveness of the overall system. Figure 2. Customer-Aware System 4/10

5 This model makes customer-aware end-to-end service management possible. For example, suppose a customer contracts for transparent local-area network (TLAN) connectivity (such as Layer-2 VPN) between New York and Chicago. The network service provider provisions the service, and the customer-aware system automatically populates the fault management and performancemonitoring database with the details on the contract s parameters. In the knowledge base, the information about the customer and this service is directly linked to the network resources configured to carry it. If a switch fails along the route of the TLAN, the fault management system flags the fault and correlates it with the service and the customer. The service provider can call the customer with a status report before the customer is even aware there is a problem. 3. Benefits of Customer Awareness A customer-aware system leads to faster, more efficient, and more personalized customer service. With proactive customer relations, a service provider can call a customer to alert them of a service outage before the customer is even aware of the problem. Customer-aware service providers have a real-time view into network events and how those events affect any given customer. Furthermore, the level of alert tied to various events can vary in accordance with the customer s SLA. For example, if the system receives a data-loss alarm, the customer-centric system will link that alarm with customer information. If the customer has premium-grade service, the event will be flagged as a critical alert. If a customer with standard service is affected by the same event, the system will report a major alert. This gives the service provider the ability to fix problems for the most important customer first or to address an event affecting the most customers. Customer-aware management also leads to marketing and sales benefits. Service providers can easily determine when a customer hits a predefined performance threshold. The provider s customer-relations group or sales staff can then contact the customer and suggest a service upgrade. Customer relations also can benefit tremendously from detailed, customerspecific service-instance histories. It becomes a very simple matter for the customer-aware system to log every event affecting a particular customer, even one with multiple services. The result is a detailed and very valuable record of the customer s experience. On a broader scale, greater knowledge of how network resources are assigned helps service providers plan resource allocation and conduct capacity planning. 5/10

6 4. Collaboration between Systems No service management system can manage everything, however. The service provider now needs to integrate the customer-aware knowledge base and service management tools with surrounding OSSs, including the customer-facing systems, sometimes called business support systems. The most effective way to do this is by using application programming interfaces (APIs) and extensible markup language (XML) interfaces. Through the API, a service provider can export alert information to a troubleticketing system. Likewise, service-usage and SLA related information can be sent to the billing system. Event and alert information can be reported to a central fault management system. In much the same manner, an inventory system can receive data on network elements, port cards, ports, and trunk links. The flow of information can go both ways. For example, a customer-facing ordermanagement system can feed information into the customer-aware provisioning system. There, the order-management system provides customer data that starts the correlation between customer, network, and service, which becomes vital for service management later. In fact, once the service management system can slice out the data relating to one specific customer, the service provider can take the next logical step. They can let customers provision services themselves. In such a scenario, the customer can see only the network data pertaining to them. Then, for example, the customer can up the bandwidth for two hours to support a videoconference. Through the APIs, this change is reported to all functional areas, such as billing, performance monitoring, and fault management. 5. Summary Ultimately, a customer-aware OSS is a strategic tool to help a service provider adopt a more customer-focused approach to business, improving customer satisfaction and loyalty, enhancing service differentiation, and leading to greater profitability. Service providers who adapt to the new rules of competition must make a significant shift in their existing business model and the OSS that support that model. Those who can couple strong SLAs with proactive customer service will benefit from a competitive edge through service differentiation. 6/10

7 Self-Test 1. Commonly deployed OSS structures and services are typically. a. effective at handling a wide range of tasks b. network-centric c. horizontally oriented d. connected 2. According to this tutorial, service managers typically rely on three types of management systems. Which of the following is not one of those? a. vertical management applications b. vendor-specific element managers c. network relations d. third-party customer-oriented applications 3. The new business model for managing services places the network at the center of the provisioning and service assurance processes. 4. To achieve a customer-aware system, service providers need a knowledge base where direct associations can be made among service instances. 5. Which of the following was not cited in this tutorial as a primary area of service management? a. provisioning b. fault management c. performance monitoring d. interrogation 7/10

8 e. discovery 6. With proactive customer relations, a service provider can call a customer to alert them of a service outage before the customer is even aware of the problem. 7. No service management system can manage everything. 8. It will eventually be possible for customers to self-provision services. Correct Answers 1. Commonly deployed OSS structures and services are typically. a. effective at handling a wide range of tasks b. network-centric c. horizontally oriented d. connected See Topic According to this tutorial, service managers typically rely on three types of management systems. Which of the following is not one of those? a. vertical management applications b. vendor-specific element managers c. network relations d. third-party customer-oriented applications 8/10

9 See Topic The new business model for managing services places the network at the center of the provisioning and service assurance processes. See Topic To achieve a customer-aware system, service providers need a knowledge base where direct associations can be made among service instances. See Topic Which of the following was not cited in this tutorial as a primary area of service management? a. provisioning b. fault management c. performance monitoring d. interrogation e. discovery See Topic With proactive customer relations, a service provider can call a customer to alert them of a service outage before the customer is even aware of the problem. See Topic No service management system can manage everything. 9/10

10 See Topic It will eventually be possible for customers to self-provision services. See Topic 4. Glossary API application programming interface ATM asynchronous transfer mode DSL digital subscriber line IAD integrated access device IP Internet protocol NOC network operations center OSS operations support system SLA service level agreement TLAN transparent local-area network VPN virtual private network XML extensible markup language 10/10