Wide Area Network (WAN) Service Milestones

Service Milestones for Wide Area Network (WAN) Services

In my opinion, it seems like carriers have gone backwards in WAN installations and it has become more cumbersome in spite of the technology available. Part of the problem, again, in my opinion, is that proper expectations are not established upfront by the Sales team to the end-user. The reality, is most carrier Account Teams are not aware of the process as they should nor do they fully understand the sequence of events.

Based on a recent experience installing a WAN and IP Services, I thought it might be beneficial to post the actual Service Provider Milestones and Descriptions. This include:

Order Creator:  The order is submitted once the contracts are signed by the customer and the sales team. The sales team sends the order to the Front End Ordering team. The order is then handled by a Customer Service Specialist (CSS)/FEO. The CSS team member then writes the initial order on the MDS form.

Firm Order Delivery (FOD): The Assembler generates this date and the date helps to confirm customer's order(s) and service requests internally. The Assembler sends Access Service Request (ASR) to the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC) if the LEC confirms acceptance, FOD Date is posted and a PON is generated.

Purchase Order Number (PON): Once the LEC acknowledges the order a PON Is sent back to the Service Provider.

Universal Service Order (USO): Once the order has been submitted to the Order Manager by the Order creator, the information will be verified by the OM and then the order is released.  This process generates the USO.  The USO number is used to track updates and status for each location.  You can use SOTS, EFMS or IOS.

Firm Order Confirmation (FOC): This milestone is met after the site survey has been completed by the Engineer who generates a letter to the customer highlighting customer’s site requirements if applicable.  Internally, the LEC (Local Exchange Carrier) issues key pillars or milestone dates including service delivery dates. If the site is within the Service Provider footprint FOC’s due date is approximately 16 days after FOD.  If it is outside the Service Provider footprint, it is approximately 22 days.
*If this date is missed the PM is responsible for initiating escalation.

Design Verified and Assigned (DVA): End to end facility design and verified (For internal design team only)

Wired &Office Tested (WOT): End to end facility design wired and tested (For internal design team only)

Record Issue Date (RID): End to end facility design complete (For internal design team only)

(EAD)Access Circuit Installation: This service milestone takes place after FOD , FOC and the internal infrastructure is completed.  The circuit is installed at customer’s site by the Local Exchange Technician
*If EAD is missed, the PM is responsible for initiating and following up with the escalation process.

(CTA) Circuit Tested Available:  This is a test conducted to confirm the success of the circuit installation after the Service Provider has supplied equipment to the data circuits and routers.
*If CTA is missed, the PM is responsible for initiating and following up with the escalation process

Pretest:  A technician goes out to the customer site and test the circuit. This is primarily done for IPFLEX orders

Porting:  Number porting is the handoff of a phone number from one carrier to another at the request of a customer. (If Applicable).  The porting is scheduled by the Order Manager

Test and Turn Up (TTU): Once the router installation has been tested, the Service Provider will prepare to perform the Test and Turn-up of the Service on the Scheduled Due Date and Time.   During this process a technician will only be dispatched to go to the customer premises to assist with this process if the customer paid for onsite install, which is an extra charge. If the customer selected Tele install then the customer is responsible for connecting the smart jack to the router.

* The Order Manager will contact the customer during this process in order to verify all information and to go into details regarding the necessary steps and or requirements to be met by the customer before the TTU date.

Due Date:  This date represents the day that the Service Provider guarantees to be completed. (*if date is missed, reach out to your OM)  It also starts the billing process.  If the DD comes and the customer is not ready (CNR) the billing still starts. (Reach out to AM to inform them of the situation)
*Due Date will be changed if any Risks or Delays comes up that will affect milestone dates

*Escalation process

1)      Generate an email to the  Order Manager and if applicable any online tools/portals

2)      If no response within 48 hours raise it to the OM’s Manager and copy your AM

3)      If still no response within 24 hours go to your AM who will raise it to the Director’s Leve

 

 

 

 

An Easy Way Business Can Save Money on the Telephone Bill

When I first got into the Telecom Industry it was 1983. I would call 100 business a day explaining how I can save them 30% off their phone bill by switching to a new long distance carrier. Fast-forward to 2011 and I MIGHT be able to save customers 30% to switch carriers, however, it is 30% of a much smaller number. A lot of the time it's not worth it to switch.

What I have found in the Telecom Industry today, especially for larger customers is that significant savings is in auditing the existing carrier and contract renegotiation.

We have found hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings auditing the phone bill in the following areas:

1. Do we still use this service? Many times a service has been upgraded to a larger bandwidth or an office has closed, however, the company forgot to disconnect the service - and they keep paying month-after-month.
2. Am I actually receiving my contract rates? I cannot tell you how many times a customer tells me "we are under a contract" and then find out the contract was only partially implemented or never implemented meaning the customer never received the savings that was promised.
3. Bogus charges on the bill. These are unauthorized charges for things like voice mail, pagers, pc support, etc. I have no idea how they got on the bill and furthermore, no one can explain it to me.
4. Misapplied taxes. Most telephone bills carry several miscellaneous taxes. These can range from 15% to 80% depending on the city and local jurisdiction. Many of these may not apply. Plus many organizations are exempt and they should not be paying these taxes anyway.
5. Is there grant money? There are various programs for Healthcare and community-based organizations that give you a discount on services. Once you are approved, you still need to make sure the Telecom provider applies the discount.

When it is all said-and-done, most business can save 20-30% on their phone bill by doing an audit of what they currently have. LME Consulting is able to do all the leg-work and analysis. There is very little resources and involvement the customer has to spend. Just give us the bills and we work with the carriers. And the good news is if we don't find anything you don't have to pay us, its free.

Please go to our website at www.lmeconsulting.net, email us at rich@lmeconsulting.net, or call us at 916-601-1961 for more information.

Things We Learned When Faxing Over an IP-Based Telephone System

Here are some of the things we learned when setting up fax machines over an Asterisk-based system.

1. If using Sangoma cards and T1/PRI make sure you have the synchronization cable.
2. The cable that come with the Sangoma A200 analog cards are smaller than most RJ11 I have ever seen. We cut the fat plug off of one side and punch down the wires to a 110. The smaller plug than goes directly into the analog card.
3. If it is an all-in-one fax, you may want to enable Error Correction mode. We found this in the "Settings" mode than go to "Advanced Settings".
4. If there is a problem with fax quality it is probably NOT the cable no matter what anyone tells you.
5. The biggest surprise was that our Kernel was too old. Our Kernel is version is 2.6.9. Sangoma has told us there is "noise" on the line and you need to upgrade to at least .18 to make a difference. Our vendor has said they do not support upgrading our Kernel to anything above.9.

In conclusion, if running a few fax machines keep them on dedicated lines and do not attempt to run through an Asterisk-based system. If you have several fax machines, use a fax server or subscribe to an efax service.

Contact Rich at rich@lmeconsulting.net or 916-601-1961.

Metro Ethernet is Gaining Speed

I remember in 2003-2004, MPLS was the big buzzword going around IT shops. Almost as controversial as VOIP, it created a lot of debate between Network Architects and WAN Engineers. Architects liked it because it was any-to-any (no PVC’s), supported Quality of Service (QoS) for voice/video, and depending on carrier, last-mile agnostic (could be Frame Relay, PPP, ATM, Ethernet, etc.). Engineers liked it for the above reasons too. However, they felt they lost some control and visibility of the network once it entered the carrier core IP Cloud.

Of course the main benefit was lower cost so these networks got hugely popular and by 2008, 80% of enterprise customers had some version of MPLS with their network. MPLS has actually become the de facto WAN standard.

I do see another WAN or MAN product picking up a lot of steam especially for regional companies – Metropolitan Ethernet. The three big benefits are:

1. Scalable bandwidth. I can grow from 10 Mg to 100 Mg – or even a Gig without having to upgrade equipment or deploying a lot of resources to make this happen.
2. Cost. A DS3 (45 Mg) of MPLS service cost in the $5500 to $6000 range. I have seen 100 Mg Metro E product for $1800. WOW! You can get twice the bandwidth for one third the price.
3. Local diversity. There are regional players who have glass in the ground that are a legitimate solution and can offer a great replacement or enhancement to the Local Exchange Carrier (LEC). We are actually seeing a lot of growth in this area using a Carrier A and Carrier B approach where Carrier A is the LEC and Carrier B is an alternative company (cable or power). Hopefully, the routes/paths are diverse. This avoids a lot of special construction cost.

Metropolitan Ethernet does have its limitations. For one thing, as the name implies, it is “Metro” so if you need to connect Miami and San Francisco it might be the right solution. But it can be used as a transport method to a core network (MPLS?). Also some Metro E players can extend outside of the LATA gaining great cost efficiencies.

Another limitation is QoS. Metropolitan Ethernet delivers Class of Service (COS), not QoS. With CoS, the network administrator must ensure the network will not be over-committed with high-priority traffic. If you have a Gig link and allow 100 Mbps of priority traffic on the link, CoS should work.

LME Consulting has experience in designing, provisioning, and supporting WAN/MAN products from a variety of carriers. Call us at 916-601-1961 or e-mail us at rich@lmeconsulting.net to help you design your next network.

I am Sold on Hosted VOIP

We have been evaluating Hosted VOIP products for months for resell purposes. I had been skeptical of hosted systems for a few reasons; latency, cost structure, and overall reliability. However, market demands require us to have a product so we chose VOIPStreet because of their price structure and call quality.

We have been tickled with how well the product works. It allows business to do things that literally transforms the business. Many of the constraints are gone, multiple locations can look like one and customer service calls get handled properly. The call quality is not as good as the PSTN but it is definitely cell-phone quality.

The cost is what is so impressive; $100 for ten extensions (with ten Voice Mail boxes), two lines, free local, free long distance, and most of the features you would expect in a state-of-the-art PBX. Any SIP compliant phone will work, however, a good percentage of our customer’s forward extensions to cell phones. Set-up time blew me away. We had a small system built within 20 minutes.

I see all kinds of opportunities for the following customer scenarios.

1. Any customer with multiple locations.
2. New business with uncertain growth expectations.
3. Customers that need a temporary system.

LME Consulting is a certified VOIPStreet partner. Call us at 916-756-4258 or email us at rich@lmeconsulting.com and we will help you design, plan, and install your communications system.