Automation and integrationStreamlining <strong>the</strong> delivery of complex, custom<strong>so</strong>lutionsby Milan Belohoubek, Director Pre-sales Engineering, Bell Canada and Ittai Bareket, CEO, NetformxThe ability to efficiently design, redesign, sell and implement custom <strong>so</strong>lutions is at <strong>the</strong> heartof success in today’s communications environment. By applying automation and integrationto <strong>the</strong> task of <strong>so</strong>lution management, service providers can significantly increase productivity,reducing <strong>the</strong> time required to design complex <strong>so</strong>lutions from days and weeks to just a fewhours.Milan Belohoubek is Director, Pre-Sales Engineering at Bell Canada. Mr Belohoubek has spent <strong>the</strong> last 28 years in <strong>the</strong> high technologyindustry. He spent 19 years as a member of <strong>the</strong> Nortel Networks technology team prior to joining Bell Canada in September 2001.Mr Belohoubek holds a Bachelor of Engineering Science degree from <strong>the</strong> University of Western Ontario and obtained his ProjectManagement Professional certification from <strong>the</strong> Project Management Institute in 1998.Ittai Bareket joined Netformx in 2000 before being appointed CEO in <strong>the</strong> summer of 2005. Prior to Netformx, Mr Bareket held variouspositions at Mercury Interactive Corporation (now HP) including President of Mercury Interactive Japan K.K. and General Managerfor Japan and Korea.Operational excellence enables serviceproviders to quickly meet <strong>the</strong> business demand<strong>so</strong>f customers. Rapidly evolving customerrequirements combined with <strong>the</strong> increasingcomplexity of advanced telecommunications<strong>so</strong>lutions presents opportunities as well aschallenges for service providers. Providersthat utilize automation to rapidly respond tochanges enjoy distinct competitive advantages.But providers mired in manual, non-integratedprocesses typically endure losses in productivitythat translates into missed opportunities andunhappy customers.Bell Canada has demonstrated how <strong>the</strong>ability to efficiently design, redesign, selland implement custom <strong>so</strong>lutions is at <strong>the</strong>heart of success in today’s communicationsenvironment. By applying automation to <strong>the</strong>task of <strong>so</strong>lution management, <strong>the</strong> serviceprovider has been able to reduce <strong>the</strong> timerequired to design complex <strong>so</strong>lutions fromdays and weeks to just a few hours.In one particularly impressive implementation,<strong>the</strong> company conducted a case study todocument <strong>the</strong> results achieved for a largeenterprise customer. The <strong>so</strong>lution involveddeploying an extremely complex MPLS(Multiprotocol Label Switching) networkacross more than 1,200 locations with a multiphasedrollout plan. The service provider’ssystem engineers were able to take advantageof automated <strong>so</strong>lutions management to quicklyand easily design a proof-of-concept to buildout and test a sample network.Using design templates that employ standard,reusable components for various profiledefinitions or recommended <strong>so</strong>lutions, <strong>the</strong>provider was able to quickly respond to customerchange requests. The ease and efficiency with24 • North America 2010
Automation Mobile payment and Mobile integration systemsaccesswhich <strong>the</strong> engineering and sales teams were ableto respond to <strong>the</strong> customer’s needs helped secure<strong>the</strong> sale.Previous approach to <strong>so</strong>lution managementprevented rapid response timesComplex <strong>so</strong>lution offerings must be amenableto dynamic change, enabling <strong>the</strong>m to be rapidlyreconfigured to meet <strong>the</strong> unique needs of a widerange of customers. However, most providersare faced with lengthy design and sales cycles.Many business processes were previously rootedin inefficient procedures. <strong>As</strong> a result, inaccuratespecifications were able to make <strong>the</strong>ir way intodesigns and proposals - not only because of<strong>the</strong> large number of ‘moving pieces’ but al<strong>so</strong>because different internal organizations could noteffectively collaborate with each o<strong>the</strong>r.Today, service providers are increasinglyusing automation to overcome <strong>the</strong> manychallenges that prevent system engineers ando<strong>the</strong>r per<strong>so</strong>nnel from effectively and efficientlycollaborating on large projects. Customers oftenmake several iterative changes to designs toadjust price points, redundancy requirementsand o<strong>the</strong>r factors, <strong>so</strong> design validation hasgrown into a multi-step, time-consuming effortfraught with miscalculations.Design, configure and validateAmong <strong>the</strong> many hurdles that per<strong>so</strong>nnel typicallyhave to overcome are <strong>the</strong> numerous tasksrequired to ga<strong>the</strong>r information that is dispersedand often maintained in different formats.Labour-intensive processes not only increaseopportunities for errors, but sales engineers<strong>so</strong>metimes lack <strong>the</strong> expertise to correctlycollect and report <strong>the</strong> complete <strong>so</strong>lution-designinformation that is required.<strong>As</strong>sembling all of <strong>the</strong> required information,which is typically maintained in disconnected‘silos’, requires an inordinate amount oftime and fur<strong>the</strong>r increases <strong>the</strong> challenges ofproducing superior <strong>so</strong>lutions. Overlapping,uncontrolled processes introduce inefficiencies,inconsistencies and contradictions, which makesit difficult to synchronize and manage changes.Fur<strong>the</strong>r complicating matters is <strong>the</strong> fact thatcustomers often request proposals that includenon-standard equipment, non-standard serviceofferings, or a combination of both.Simplified and integrated processes ensureconsistency, accuracy and successful proposalsBy automating and integrating <strong>the</strong> end-toendprocesses involved in design, sales andprovisioning, Bell Canada has been able todramatically streamline workflows andsimplify work procedures for staff. All of<strong>the</strong> provider’s designers use <strong>the</strong> automated<strong>so</strong>lution that includes a centralized repositoryof accurate data on more than 200,000networking components. The repositoryal<strong>so</strong> employs an expert decision-support<strong>so</strong>ftware engine that uses over two millionrules to automate <strong>the</strong> process of analyzing anddesigning network <strong>so</strong>lutions.A separate but integrated repository containsall of <strong>the</strong> design blueprints for <strong>the</strong> <strong>so</strong>lutionsproduced on behalf of customers. All of<strong>the</strong> information about hardware, <strong>so</strong>ftware,dependencies, slot allocations, port allocationsand network topology are clearly documentedand within easy reach. Utilizing this approachto developing designs and proposals enablesper<strong>so</strong>nnel to easily employ best practices as aroutine part of <strong>the</strong>ir daily jobs.By integrating, automating and simplifyingprocesses for <strong>the</strong> sales support and sales teams,<strong>the</strong> provider is now able to more quicklyrespond to customer changes and customerrequests for customized, non-standard <strong>so</strong>lutions.Additionally, deployed <strong>so</strong>lutions are preciselyaligned with customer requirements. Serviceproviders and <strong>the</strong>ir customers benefit from thisautomated approach to lifecycle managementbecause future updates and expansion plans canbe implemented efficiently.With an automated approach to <strong>so</strong>lutionmanagement, service providers are eliminatingmanual processes and significantly accelerating<strong>the</strong>ir lead-to-order response times. Disparatetools that were previously used to support <strong>the</strong>sales and implementation cycles are beingdiscarded. Additionally, <strong>the</strong> integration of variousconfiguration tools and applications has openedup productive collaboration across organizationalentities and per<strong>so</strong>nnel.By using such an automated, structured andrules-based approach for capturing designinformation, Bell Canada now has <strong>the</strong> ability toperform a ‘one-click’ analysis that highlightserrors for missing information or conflictingdefinitions. Flags for non-standard componentsand inaccuracies in <strong>the</strong> design are immediatelyhighlighted, and numerous options for addressing<strong>the</strong> situation at hand are now immediatelyavailable to designers instead of scattered acrosstools and organizations.O<strong>the</strong>r benefits of an automated and fullyintegrated <strong>so</strong>lution include:• All design diagrams are automaticallygenerated and provide a precise,diagrammatic description of <strong>the</strong> <strong>so</strong>lutionand network topology.• An automatically generated bill ofmaterials report provides a list of CPE(customer-premises equipment) standardand non-standard elements included in <strong>the</strong><strong>so</strong>lution, addressing both new and existingequipment.• A design summary report describes <strong>the</strong>highlights of <strong>the</strong> <strong>so</strong>lution for a quickoverview.• A detailed design document provides <strong>the</strong>internal technical documentation for <strong>the</strong>service provider’s staff.• A customer design document providesan attractive, customer-facingpresentation that illustrates <strong>the</strong> final listof services to be <strong>so</strong>ld along with a readilyunderstandable diagram of <strong>the</strong> proposed<strong>so</strong>lution.One click document generation: Bill of Materialsand Equipment Configuration hierarchyUsing automation and integration has not onlyaccelerated <strong>the</strong> sales cycle but has al<strong>so</strong> enabled<strong>the</strong> provider’s sales team to spend more time onreal design issues and less time on tedious copy/paste and clerical functions. The time requiredto respond to customer requests has beensignificantly shortened by standardizing pre-salesprocesses via <strong>the</strong> use of baseline templates andrelated design tools. Additionally, <strong>the</strong> proces<strong>so</strong>f handing-off design information betweenteams has been greatly improved by enforcingconsistency in <strong>the</strong> processes of ga<strong>the</strong>ring <strong>the</strong>requirements and producing <strong>the</strong> design.Quick re-designs are possible because staffcan begin <strong>the</strong> process from a known anddocumented ‘as built’ state. A shorter salescycle now allows faster deployment of larger,more complex, and next-generation <strong>so</strong>lutions.Designed <strong>so</strong>lutions are al<strong>so</strong> better positioned for<strong>the</strong> successful provisioning of add-on services.Additionally, using this approach to <strong>so</strong>lutionmanagement has lowered costs for per<strong>so</strong>nnelbecause staff with less technical expertise canbe utilized to achieve greater results.Automating <strong>the</strong> requirements-ga<strong>the</strong>ring andproposal-generation processes significantlyincreases productivity for service providers.Design and proposal teams can use an integratedtool to perform work that previously requiredmultiple tools and applications. Collaborationamong engineers and sales staff is easier, andcomplex, customized <strong>so</strong>lutions no longer presentobstacles to fast turnaround times. •North America 2010 • 25
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