Cisco Systems Inc., is throwing its
hat in the digital subscriber line ring with a product it claims cuts the
provisioning process from weeks to days.
The company plans to release the Cisco Order-To-Service
solution for use in the fourth quarter 2000, with pricing dependent on the
specific provider’s network.
The software was conceived from the industry’s desperate need to automate
the DSL process between telcos, service providers and consumers. Normally
a manual process with many steps before the certification was complete, the
time to hook up a customer could be measured in weeks and months instead of
days.
Deb Milke, Trelliage analyst, said Cisco’s solution is the right answer for
an industry looking for a viable solution to the provisioning process.
“Provisioning is not a pretty word for service providers today,” Milke
said. “It’s one the main reasons why the can’t deploy service for new
customers as quickly as possible and meet the huge and growing demand for
DSL. This type of solution will be greatly welcomed in the market and will
help to ease the nightmare that many service providers have to face with
provisioning and reduce the current wait time from several weeks to a few
days.”
The Order-to-Service solution addresses the four key steps in the
provisioning process; DSL order placement, turn-up of the DSL circuit,
consumer PC configuration, and database updating and billing. Normally
handled separately, the new software makes it more efficient for customer
support representatives by providing a work-order interface to complete the
process.
Cisco teamed up with four software vendors to provide specific software
support for the product solution.
For the DSL loop order placement and loop qualification, Cisco incorporated
Quintessent Communications Inc.‘s
DSLXchange and Turnstone Systems
Inc.‘s Copper CrossConnect CX100 and Back Office
Automation software products.
Broadjump Inc., a popular
company with service providers for its splitterless solution, provides the
consumer PC configuration with its Virtual Truck Installer.
Wrapping up the process is Portal
Software Inc.‘s Infranet solution, which collects
the information from the customer and puts it into the provider’s database.
Steven Sommer, Portal vice president of business development and marketing,
said the end result is a product that will create an immediate return on
investment for providers, with faster provisioning and therefore, faster
subscriber growth.
“The time-consuming process of provisioning a DSL circuit is currently the
greatest factor limiting the growth of the DSL market,” Sommer
said. “Eliminating delays in this delivery cycle is of tremendous value to
the entire DSL industry. “