How To Improve Visibility On A Cell Tower With An Edge Tech Dashboard For Claro

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1 Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility Integrating existing information and tools and streamlining workflow for improved operational efficiency Case Study Edge Technologies, Inc Campus Commons Dr. Suite 101 Reston, VA

2 Introduction For nearly a century, the Puerto Rico Telephone Company (PRTC) has been the main telecommunications provider in Puerto Rico. Today, PRTC is operating under the well-known Claro brand and serves more than 1.8 million customers with a wide range of advanced voice, data, broadband and wireless services. In a competitive industry, Claro continues to evolve their service offerings and to take progressive steps to continuously improve their customer service. Having made a significant investment in monitoring and managing their networks and services, Claro was looking to leverage that investment to provide their Network Operations Team and company leadership with improved visibility into service availability and performance while at the same time improving the efficiency of the problem resolution workflow. Claro partnered with Edge Technologies to jointly architect and deliver an advanced visualization solution that would meet Claro s current and future needs. Project Goals and Challenges At the outset of the project, Claro identified several areas where there was room for improved and more efficient workflow and visualization of key events, metrics, and performance indicators: Geo-located visibility into the status of the Claro 2G, 3G, CDMA, and LTE mobile networks, Metropolitan Area Network, Cable Network, and power outages Map-based visual correlation between events, tickets, and service outages Improved Mean Time to Isolate (MTTI) problem root cause Detailed visibility into mobile network KPIs Single Sign-On for a variety of IBM Tivoli Software products The Alternatives Before choosing to implement the Edge Technologies solution, Claro considered two other alternatives. Internal Development Claro investigated the possibility of developing a system in-house consisting primarily of Google Maps overlaid with status indicators but this custom development proved to be too time- 2 Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility

3 consuming and difficult to maintain. Once they saw that Edge could build a prototype in a matter of a day s time using their off-the-shelf capabilities and integrations the decision became an easy one. Utilize Existing Tools While some existing products had their own dashboard capabilities, none were capable of fully unifying the workflow in order to meet the project goals. The Edge Technologies Approach After the initial demo and the subsequent rapid development of a prototype, Claro saw that Edge could deliver quick time to value and low risk with the COTS-based approach. The map capabilities and the majority of the desired integrations were already in place. Additionally, Edge s extensive experience with the IBM Tivoli Software products and proven success in integrating these tools provided an added level of confidence. The Solution The solution is comprised of multiple sets of dashboards used for monitoring: 2G, 3G, CDMA, and LTE mobile network towers DSL network DSLAMs, VRADs, and MXKs Claro s Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) Power outages One of the first steps down the path of jointly developing a solution was to create simple mockups for each high-level dashboard and the related drill-downs. These mockups provided the blueprints that would be used by the Edge Solutions team as they developed and implemented the system. Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility 3

4 Figure 1. Original mockup of Cell Tower dashboard Figure 2. Actual Cell Tower dashboard 4 Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility

5 What these relatively simple before and after images don t illustrate is the power of the underlying system. The combination of enportal and AppBoard from Edge Technologies was used to provide: Secure Single-Sign-On with domain/role-based privileges and views Proxied views of existing web-based content from several IBM Tivoli applications Data-layer integration with some of these same data sources for completely new dashboards Integration of Claro's trouble-ticketing system, IBM Tivoli Service Request Manager (TSRM), with geo-location of outages by technology overlaid onto a map An integrated database used to cache and manipulate data from external systems in order to allow for required visualizations, improve overall system responsiveness, and reduce load on external systems A consistent, Claro-branded look and feel throughout, seamlessly integrating existing views from other tools with powerful new visualizations Figure 3. System data source integration Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility 5

6 The Edge Technologies system completely masks this complexity from the end users. Based on their login credentials users are provided with Single Sign On to all required applications and directed to the appropriate dashboard. They don t need to know where the data is coming from they just need access to the right data. As they move from high-level dashboard to drill-down, the needed data is seamlessly integrated. Figure 4. Elements of a drill-down dashboard 6 Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility

7 Figure 5. Example of a 2G KPI dashboard The Benefits While the system was still under development it began to prove its value. When an equipment outage occurred or a fiber was cut, one glance at the dashboard immediately quantified the impact and gave both operators and the leadership team the information they needed in order to assess the issue and take appropriate action. This improved visibility directly translates into faster Mean Time to Isolate and contributes to improved efficiency and communication as issues are identified, understood, and resolved. In the initial pilot phase of the project, problem isolation times were reduced by an average of 72%! For Claro, additional benefits include optimizing the investment and getting the most value from their existing IBM Tivoli Software tools and having a foundation for visualizing other areas of the business. The building of the dashboards drove the need to provide improved data integrity filling in informational gaps and validating the accuracy of the data sources. The operators benefit from having Single Sign-On access to intuitive, simple to use, and visually appealing dashboards. Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility 7

8 For customers, the improved service and availability are all that matter. Conclusion Edge Technologies transforms existing tools and information into improved visibility, streamlined workflow, increased operational efficiency, and ultimately, satisfied customers. We do this by creating integrated views with personalized perspectives of information that can be shared with diverse audiences wherever and whenever needed. By combining data in new ways and representing it visually, individuals can derive greater context and meaning from existing information and make better decisions faster. Edge delivers clarity in a complicated world. Edge Technologies, Inc Campus Commons Dr., Ste. 101 Reston, VA sales@edge-technologies.com 8 Case Study: Delivering Superior Customer Service through Improved Visibility