24-by-7 Service, Inc. Putting service back into telecom www.pbxplus.net A New Paradigm for Enterprise Telecom Management Proactively Managing PBX+ Risks and Ownership Costs A 24-by-7 Service White Paper
24-by-7 Service, Inc. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Situation: Managing Today s Telecom/IP Resources is Costly and Risky Businesses managing telecom and data systems often find their efforts hindered by the sheer complexity of their telecom infrastructure, which often includes multiple vendor products and voice technology platforms distributed across a wide geography. As levels of complexity grow, so does the probability for system outages. Given the revenue/cost implications of failures, executives are in dire need of the flexibility to manage support costs and reduce the risk of system outages. For most enterprises, either full-service maintenance contracts or third-party service providers falls woefully short in providing the right balance of cost and risk. Challenge: The Telecom Support Dilemma: Over Pay or Assume Too Much Risk? Market trends and economics push CIOs toward one of two support extremes: (1) paying too much for full-service maintenance contracts with equipment vendors or third-party service providers (high cost/low risk), or (2) incur system failures by relying on self-maintenance (low cost/high risk). For most enterprises, either one of these support alternatives falls woefully short in providing the right balance of cost and risk. The high cost/low risk option enlists the resources of PBX manufacturers (or third parties) to provide full-service maintenance. These ever more expensive maintenance agreements are primarily designed to react to errors and failures. Even with their high costs, this approach falls short of most CIOs expectations of preventing service outages, and too often leaves businesses to shoulder the impact of partial or even complete system failures. Also, these contracts tend to require an ever-expanding degree of customer responsibility. The low cost/high risk option relies on an organization s internal telecom and IT staff for ongoing support. Unfortunately, most internal support groups lack the economies-of-scale to justify adequate support tools, reporting mechanisms, training resources, etc. In contrast to the support of data devices, voice systems are rarely monitored in a proactive fashion. Very few internal support groups are equipped to actively monitor business communication systems closely enough to foresee and neutralize preventable failures before they become major outages. Solution: Reduce the Risk by PROACTIVELY Monitoring Systems and Managing Information Whether assuming the operational cost/risks inherent to in-house support or paying for over-priced manufacturer support that still involves system outage risk, CIOs need a means to augment their current arrangements, remove system-operation risks and reduce their telecom support expenses. PBX+ is a complete telecom support services solution that detects and reports on potential telephony problems before users are impacted. The system s proactive surveillance capability significantly reduces the likelihood, frequency and duration of outages. PBX+ ensures the availability and performance essential for telephony and call center applications. Using a secure, online portal, PBX+ unifies system management of multiple telephone and data platforms into a single view providing integrated monitoring, reporting, document storage, and ticketing capabilities. Result: PBX+ Reduces Ownership Costs AND Improves System Reliability and Performance PBX+ equips support teams with time-saving, web-accessible tools that expand their capacity to proactively manage a diverse mix of PBX/IP-Telephony (IPT) and adjunct devices across a wide geography. Enterprise IT/Telecom teams and maintenance service providers alike gain efficiencies over traditional methods and reactive support techniques. With PBX+, CIOs reduce risks by gaining proactive monitoring and management of telecommunications infrastructure and its providers.
PBX+ The Challenges of Managing Converged, Multi-Vendor Telecommunication Infrastructures Historically, large organizations would standardize on a single PBX vendor for their telecom equipment and support needs and have a large, in-house, technical support staff. This paradigm changed as the result of consolidation trends and cost reductions. Today s business environment is multi-vendor, multi-location with small support staffs. Today, CIOs and telecom managers face three primary challenges: 1. Maintaining high availability and performance of phone systems Rapid growth, through mergers and acquisitions, has left many enterprises managing a diverse set of proprietary telecommunication systems (multi-vendor, multi-location). On the other hand, corporate cost-cutting measures have eliminated the large, highly trained, in-house telecom support teams. 2. Identifying better options for support, whether vendor-supplied, third party, or in-house With regard to telecom support options, CIOs and telecom managers find themselves either paying more than is reasonable for the perceived security of a manufacturer s reactive support plan or they attempt to save money by opting for a self-support in which they use their own under-trained and understaffed organization. Enterprises that choose costly vendor maintenance find that this approach is far from problem-free. While ignoring minor errors, these support resources focus on resolving major outages but often miss the root cause. Furthermore, proactive monitoring is not part of their support strategy. At the same time, the trend of escalating ownership costs associated with today s telecom systems motivates many organizations to move away from expensive, direct support contracts in favor of leveraging their in-house telecom/it support staff and/or engaging third-party contractors. Unfortunately, most organizations have neither the expertise nor the economies-of-scale to develop a technology platform that will enable an in-house support staff to proactively monitor or consistently deliver timely repair and restoration when telecom outages occur. 3. Migrating from a legacy TDM PBX to IP-Telephony Immediately replacing legacy TDM voice systems with newer IP Tel technologies is not necessarily the answer. For example, IP-Tel is driven more by the intent of lowering support costs through a unified ( converged ) infrastructure than by saving transport/networking costs, especially with long distance rates dipping below a penny per minute. Yet it takes time to successfully deploy new infrastructure, further compounding the challenges facing today s CIOs. Whether the enterprise runs on a legacy TDM PBX or IP-Tel infrastructure, executives are still charged with reducing ownership costs and minimizing the risk of down time. Unfortunately, most organizations have neither the expertise nor the economies-of-scale to develop a technology platform that will enable an in-house support staff to proactively monitor or consistently deliver timely repair and restoration when telecom outages occur. Clearly, telecom-dependent enterprises need a telecom support platform that provides proactive protection, rapid problem resolution, and applicability across multiple platforms. Ideally, this infrastructure would provide telecom managers with a singular, detailed view into all telephone, data and related devices (such as a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) and CSU (channel service unit)), as well as site information such as Telco records and escalation procedures. This singular view would maximize the capabilities of existing support personnel and would, above all, ensure that all communications systems operate at peak efficiency. Finally, this solution should also provide enterprises with a comprehensive and proactive approach that allows their support technicians to quickly respond to errors before they escalate into larger problems.
24-by-7 Service, Inc. Proactive & Ongoing Diagnostics: Keys to Managing Complex Telecom Environments When it comes to personal health and longevity, most people understand that taking proactive measures such as exercising, eating the right foods, having regular checkups, and managing weight are all essential factors for a healthy life. Waiting to take action after a major health crisis (such as having a heart attack) is too late. Catastrophic events require drastic and costly approaches to resolve the crisis (Figure 1). Just like a healthy lifestyle, proactive measures are required to maintain the health of telephony and data systems and to ensure that malfunctions will not disrupt the business. In the same way, proactive measures are required to maintain the health of telephony and data systems and to ensure that malfunctions will not disrupt the business. Once critical contact center systems go down, customer relationships are impaired, center and agent productivity is diminished, and revenue is impacted. Often the marketing required to repair damage to the company s reputation can cost far more than implementing a system to proactively spot problems before they occur. The Importance of System Performance Reporting Figure 1: Proactive vs. Reactive Measures Proactive management of telecommunication infrastructures requires the production of performance reports to assess traffic, call volume and internal stress loads. Generating these reports on a consistent basis reveals trends and potential problems at an early stage. This capability is particularly important for server-based telephone systems such as IP-PBXs which require more customer management as compared to traditional, monolithic PBXs. Unfortunately, urgent demands on most (lean) enterprise telecom staffs place trend analysis and system performance reporting at a lower priority. In general, corporate support staffs have been reduced to a level where they can only react to problems. As a result, most support staffs no longer have the time to produce performance reports or proactively review them to search for trends that should be actively managed. The Importance of Telecom Information Management The ability to immediately access essential system information is critical for the management and timely resolution of equipment and network issues. Unfortunately, similar to performance and traffic reporting, maintaining accurate support information, such as circuit identification records and escalation procedures, is a low priority for most telecom staffs, especially when managing a large number of sites. Therefore, today s enterprises need a way to simplify telecom information management while providing accurate information and automated, proactive reporting. Such a solution should also provide a high degree of accuracy across all primary and peripheral telecom-related systems to support better management decision-making, while delivering a cost structure that will satisfy enterprise budgetary requirements.
PBX+ PBX+: Simplifying Telecommunications Infrastructure Support PBX+ (Figure 2) is a combination of Software as a Service (SaaS), technical support, and professional services offerings that solve the dilemma of having to choose between high costs or high risks. PBX+, a comprehensive monitoring and information management platform, is delivered via a secure online portal that enables superior control of the entire infrastructure, unifying the management of multiple telecom and data platforms and peripheral devices into a single viewpoint. The PBX+ online portal provides integrated monitoring, reporting and document storage, alerting, and ticketing capabilities. The automated monitoring and reporting modules within PBX+ provide detailed system and telephony-related information necessary for delivering high availability and robust performance that is essential in maximizing functionality and uptime. PBX+ Leverages Existing Resources to Ensure Robust Enterprise Class Availability and Performance Figure 2: Solutions and Resources of the PBX+ Solution Suite PBX+ includes four integrated solution modules that work together to solve today s telecom-related support and performance challenges. The modules are as follows: 1. Monitor+ is a comprehensive monitoring platform (proactive health checks and reactive alarm processing) whose results are delivered via a secure online portal. Monitor+ automatically monitors and manages enterprise voice and data assets, alerting the appropriate resources to problems and exceptions, and enabling authorized users to easily access and control both voice and data systems using the unified PBX+ portal access. Monitor+ remotely monitors nearly all PBX and IPT makes and models, as well as other devices such as CSUs, Switches, routers, UPSs, etc. PBX+ is a combination of Software as a Service (SaaS), technical support, and professional services offerings that solve the dilemma of having to choose between high costs or high risks.
24-by-7 Service, Inc. Monitor+ also reduces enterprise operating costs by providing advance notice of potential telephony errors before they cause major outages. As a result, the enterprise experiences fewer emergency service calls and/or unnecessary part replacements. Monitor+ sends alerts from the network operating center (NOC), enabling device-specific escalation procedures. The result is an effective resolution of problems and minimizing the risk of expensive failures and downtime. With Report+, support personnel can review archived reports via the secure PBX+ portal, quickly identify patterns and spot problems that ensure more continuous, cost effective voice and contact center services. 2. Report+ meets the challenge of maintaining high availability and performance by automatically creating and archiving traffic and performance reports. Report+ enables business and technical staff to actively manage trends and exceptions. Historical trends related to internal component-to-component and external capacities and constraints are captured. In addition, Report+ proactively notifies the appropriate individuals if customer-specified thresholds are exceeded. For example, if a trunk-group-busy threshold is met, the appropriate contact(s) are immediately notified. The Report+ Threshold Alert feature is independent of alarms defined by the PBX manufacturer. Report+ takes and securely files snapshots of various traffic reports, internal port and processor utilization(s) and other essential metrics. By reviewing archived reports via the secure PBX+ portal, support personnel can quickly identify patterns and spot problems. These snapshots are created on a daily or hourly basis and are archived for researching intermittent or past symptoms. This ensures more continuous, cost effective voice and contact center services. 3. Service+ consists of remote network operations centers (NOCs) and field technical services that are available to supplement or replace direct manufacturer support. Requests for MAC (moves, additions, and changes), cabling installation and break-fix repair requests are managed via a secure, web-accessible ticketing system. Using this service, support personnel can efficiently track projects, requests and trouble tickets across multiple platforms and time zones. Service+ improves inter- and intra-company collaboration. It includes a complete service request and ticketing system that solves the problem of timely notification of PBX and IPT-related problems. By using a common access point, support personnel can remotely track all actions that have been taken to rapidly resolve their telecom problems, without increasing the number of support personnel involved. 4. Advisor+ provides on-demand subject matter experts along with well-defined, structured methodologies to provide business-driven recommendations for enhancing or transitioning telecom/call center platforms. A core competency of the service is aligning people, processes, and technologies with business objectives, particularly in environments with large or multi-site contact centers. In contrast to an equipment sales organization, the Advisor+ offering extends the life of existing assets and leverages existing technical support resources.
PBX+ Concluding Summary With so much of today s business success dependent on business communication systems, corporations can no longer afford to settle for traditional reactive ( break-fix ) service models. Even miniscule reductions in system availability can result in communications problems or outages, damaged relationships, and missed business opportunities. Therefore, enterprises must find ways to keep their telephony systems functioning and reduce associated support costs. Until today, CIOs had to choose between the lesser of two evils: Pay dearly for full-service maintenance contracts, or rely on some form of self-support with limited support tools and often-inadequate problem-solving capabilities. PBX+ from 24-by-7 Service, Inc. is a highly effective, flexible solution suite that empowers enterprise support personnel, or third-party support organizations, to detect and correct minor telephony errors before such issues escalate into more serious problems. PBX+ provides a bridge between expensive, full-service manufacturer maintenance contracts and in-house support by changing the support paradigm from reactive to proactive. This allows technical personnel to minimize potential outages before they can escalate into costly business issues. This proactive strategy is further streamlined by web-based access to an ongoing archive of reports, configuration, design and other enabling information. There are four bottom-line advantages that enterprises with large, mixed and/or complex telephony environments will realize with PBX+: + Lower Total Cost of Ownership PBX+ reduces support and maintenance costs associated with telecom systems, contact centers, and supporting a diverse mix of platforms. + High System Availability and Performance With PBX+, outages of enterprise communications systems and contact center applications are rare and of shorter duration. Employee productivity and customer service are improved with better system reliability. + Better Options for Support With the monitoring, reporting and trouble ticketing capabilities of PBX+, enterprises streamline collaboration and communications with internal and external resources. Companies can use proactive monitoring to resolve minor errors before they cause major problems. PBX+ provides the flexibility to optimally balance support costs and risks, reduce total ownership costs, and improve overall business performance of enterprise telecom assets. + Easier Migration from Legacy TDM PBX to IP-Tel PBX+ delivers an infrastructure for telephone system support. Because this infrastructure is not dependent upon a single vendor, PBX+ supports a company s migration to newer technologies. The PBX+ flexible solution suite enables enterprises to gain control of a diverse mix of PBX, IPT and adjunct servers under a single, integrated tool set that enhances the productivity of existing technical support resources. This proactive service offering improves system reliability/availability while actively managing system performance and carrier facilities. CIO s gain the flexibility to more optimally balance support costs and risks. Finally, total ownership costs are reduced while improving overall business performance of enterprise telecom assets.
About 24-by-7 Service, Inc. 24-by-7 Service, Inc. is a management owned and operated corporation, headquartered in the Denver Technological Center. The company was founded to provide the flexible and responsive service that all but disappeared during the telecommunications bubble of the early 2000s. The founders and employees consist of top performers from the sales and services ranks of Avaya, IBM, Siemens, Rolm, J. D. Edwards, US WEST and smaller entrepreneurial technology companies. 24-by-7 s tag line, Putting service back into telecom captures the personal and professional passion of each employee. Currently 24-by-7 has contracts with AFL Network Services, Ciber, Inc., Comcast, Time Warner and Ford Motor Credit Corporation. 24-by-7 Service s national footprint has gained the attention of enterprise telecommunication executives looking for a single point of contact for quality, cost-effective national support. In addition to PBX+, 24-by-7 Service also offers: Network Readiness Assessments for voice over IP (VoIP) deployments WiFi+ for managing extensive wireless networks Project management consulting and project management software Wide range of maintenance service offerings Cabling For more information on how PBX+ can solve your enterprise telecommunication maintenance, service and support challenges, please visit our website at www.pbxplus.net or contact us at info@pbxplus.net. www.pbxplus.net 24-by-7 Service, Inc. Putting service back into telecom 7303 S. Alton Way, Suite A Centennial, CO 80112 800-739-4113 www.24by7service.com 24-by-7 Service, Inc., and the 24-by-7 Service and PBX+ logos are registered trademarks of 24-by-7 Service, Inc. 2008