OSSs:Beyond the Spreadsheet

Posted 05/2000

OSSs:  Beyond the Spreadsheet
By John Borden

The spreadsheet is the entrepreneur's dream come true. Many new business ventures have been conceived, grown, managed and monitored using data-rich collections of columns and rows. But there comes a time when the enterprise's complexity outgrows spreadsheet capability, and the cell-based clutter can jeopardize competitive effectiveness.

This scenario applies in any number of high- and low-tech industries, but is especially true in the competitive telecommunications marketplace. A self-imposed QoS level--99.9 percent availability of the PSTN--creates an unofficial "bar" by which all telecom operations are measured. To compete effectively, you need to belly up and then beat the incumbent at its own game.

Although spreadsheets bring you to the table, only intelligent, flexible operational support software, such as a configuration management system, can keep you there. As telecommunications service options--and providers--continue to expand, recognizing the limitations and problems of spreadsheet management and understanding there are better solutions are the real keys to transforming an industry wannabe into a full-fledged player.

Learning From Mistakes

Both wireless and competitive LECs provide excellent examples of how competitive market situations dictate a need for unified network information and configuration management systems.

These competitive telecommunications upstarts have reinvented a seemingly conservative industry and have provided business and residential customers with service choice, innovation, variety and lower rates. Consequently, they've been rewarded with unprecedented growth.

Recent events among the major cellular and PCS carriers offer a prime example. The recent introduction of nationwide one-rate plans hit the right needs buttons for hundreds of thousands of wireless customers. Yet many network engineering groups were still caught short providing sufficient network capacity to meet that demand.

This problem is an all-too-familiar scenario. Big buckets-of-minutes plans drive increased customer usage, resulting in strained network resources and reduced ability to react. The carrier struggles to add switch capacity, re-home cell sites or provide backhaul relief. It is often too little too late; customers--as well as the carrier's reputation--suffer.

Some likely culprits are manual network design, engineering and management. What worked well in the entrepreneurial days of system turnup and early operation outgrew its usefulness. The advantages of lean-and-mean operations lose their impact as network complexity grows. Tracking ongoing equipment additions and routings can lead to network clutter and confusion.

No operational support system can guarantee adequate capacity is or will be available in situations of unprecedented demand, but the right configuration management system can identify potential trouble spots quickly and painlessly, allowing carriers to become proactive instead of reactive.

Many of the major wireless carriers, as well as the CLEC community, have learned the importance of automated inventory configuration and engineering documentation systems.

These systems provide a complete inventory of network equipment down to a card, port and time-slot level. They also track the inventory of existing circuits, leased connections, microwave paths and SONET facilities, along with a complete assignment database of the end-to-end routing of circuits through those resources.

The same data can be maintained in a conglomeration of spreadsheets, but when their numbers approach 20,000--as in some actual cases--the consequences are dire. Productivity and responsiveness suffer, and time to market is jeopardized easily.

In fact, the same characteristics that brought these lean competitive telecommunications carriers their success--an ability to respond quickly to customers' needs with quality service--can lead to their eventual downfall or, at best, keep them from achieving their true competitive prominence and potential.

Besting Good Old Ma

CLECs and next-generation carriers are the most recent competitive telecommunications providers to find that configuration management systems are more a necessity than luxury. They battle daily with ILECs, which, thanks to their Bell system roots, are firm believers in and heavy users of OSSs.

But the ILEC systems have their feet planted firmly in the flower power and disco generation of OSSs-- light-years behind today's configuration management system capabilities. The trunk integrated records keeping system (TIRKS) was introduced in the 1970s and stood as the basis for inventory and network management systems for decades.

If it didn't work with TIRKS, in many instances it didn't happen. Ring-based network topologies, for example, are as foreign to ILEC OSSs as ATM is to your grandfather.

Modern configuration management systems provide a unique opportunity for CLECs and/or the eventual Internet-based LECs to supersede their landline competitors and beat them at their own game. The benefits can be substantial.

Efficient systems allow the service provider to spend more time using information than looking for it. While a CLEC may lack engineering staff comparable to an ILEC, it can make up the deficiency with engineering intelligence.

You may be fortunate to have "Chuck," the crack facilities engineering guru who's been with you since day one and knows the network like the back of his hand. He and his homegrown spreadsheet tracking system may have prevented disasters or saved the day many times. But what happens when Chuck is no longer there?

A modern configuration management system provides you with the equivalent of a thousand Chucks who are available around the clock, don't take coffee breaks, and don't surf the net on company time.

When It Counts

Configuration management systems can pay big dividends when it comes to your customers. Imagine calling high-profile customers to inform them of a problem and when it will be fixed before they've had an opportunity to realize what is happening. How many ILECs can boast that level of customer QoS? The reality is most customers will appreciate a quick response in trouble situations.

Consider a network outage example. A number of customer high-capacity circuits go into alarm simultaneously. The odds are there is a single, common component failure. But what and where? Your spreadsheets may hold the answer; however, time is the
critical element. Each minute of downtime represents potential lost revenues for you and your customers--not to mention newfound doubts about service quality in your customers' eyes.

After a bit of shouting and finger pointing, you work through your maze of stand-alone or linked spreadsheets and find the problem; the circuits come through the same port on a 3-to-1 cross-connect. But that's only half the battle. You now need to isolate and troubleshoot the failure source. Is it yours or the LEC's?

Eliminating the guesswork and reducing the critical time element is the advantage with modern configuration management systems. If you lose a high-capacity transmission path, the restoration process is a few mouse clicks away because the system can readily isolate and identify the affected area.

Through a graphical interface, you can visually select the affected circuit paths. Clicking on a visualize button, you are presented with a conjoined schematic depicting all equipment components between A and Z ends.

Seeing a common T3 channel, you initiate loopback testing to isolate the failure to a particular piece of equipment. You notify the ILEC that the problem is theirs and specify exactly where the failure occurred. The ILEC dispatches for the repair, and with luck, the circuits are back online in short order.

With a configuration management system, point and click replaces point and panic. You minimize downtime and lessen the impact on your customers. Even your customer service bureau will be thankful for the calls they don't have to answer.

Eye on the Future

In addition to these service and productivity gains, configuration management systems can help competitive carriers better utilize existing capital assets and be prepared for whatever the future may bring.

Chances are, if you are not tracking your network capacity, you are not using it to its fullest advantage. CLECs have not enjoyed the stock price run-ups seen in revenueless Internet startups. And in an equipment-centric market such as telecommunications, every dollar counts and access to capital is king. Configuration management systems can help ensure all equipment dollars are spent wisely and when and where necessary.

Without a flexible and adaptive configuration management system, carriers cannot easily incorporate new equipment models and configurations into their inventory and service offerings.

John Borden is president and CEO of Granite Systems Inc. (www.granite.com). He can be reached at (603) 625-0100.

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