Case Study: MSP Taps Tone Software for NOC Management

Global Network Operations Ltd. (GNO) is a leading provider of 24/7 managed services for both enterprise and carrier clients throughout North America and Europe. With state-of-the-art network operations centers (NOCs) in both Tampa, Fla., and London, GNO manages the critical network operations of voice suppliers, wireless and optical providers, calling card operators, ISPs and bandwidth brokers. With more than 10,000 client devices supported, the success of GNO’s business is evident.

Business Problem:

GNO began operations in 2002 and built its business to provide critical surveillance and monitoring services to their Telecommunication and Internet Service Provider clients. The vision was clear: If GNO provided a strong suite of managed services, its clients could move away from expensive self-owned and self-maintained network facilities that strained their profit margins. These clients could slash the tremendous overhead costs of supporting their own NOC, and re-invest that capital in more profitable, revenue-generating activities.

To succeed, GNO knew they needed a strong monitoring and management solution that supported legacy TDM technologies still commonly used, as well as a solution that was advanced and flexible enough to support the next-generation IP networks its clients were rapidly adopting.

“The cost of ownership for resources, networks and particularly for data center space has risen considerably, while the profit margin on communications services has steadily decreased. The old business model of all companies owning their network operations center no longer makes competitive and economic sense,” said Tom Brunette, president, GNO. “For companies to even consider outsourcing their network monitoring and management services to us, we needed a solution that expanded our NOC management capabilities beyond what our clients could internally deliver on their own.”

GNO saw the perfect service opportunity when they were tapped by a major Avaya Platinum reseller to take over management of more than 1,000 customer PBX devices. To win the reseller’s business, GNO knew its NOC management service had to exceed the capabilities of the proprietary Avaya tools the reseller currently used. GNO aggressively searched for a monitoring and management solution that could meet several advanced requirements.

Comprehensive support for Avaya devices was critical, but if the solution was to provide added business value it also had to monitor and manage TDM- and IP-based devices from Nortel, Mitel and Cisco. Monitoring facility devices such as door “contact closures” also was required. In order to manage diverse customer networks, multiple connectivity options were needed including dial-up, SNMP and buffer boxes.

Strong Avaya traffic and performance reporting capabilities were necessary, and the solution was also required to support “cut through” remote access that enabled NOC engineers to remotely access, troubleshoot and maintain the end-customer’s Avaya devices.

High scalability to grow as new customers were added was crucial, along with robust security to allow each reseller a view of only their own customers’ network elements, without allowing access to other customer networks or configuration information.

Extensive notification functionality was necessary, including both escalation and flexible delivery methods so GNO clients could effectively provide first line technical support to its end customers. Using advanced notification features, GNO clients could gain a competitive advantage by offering their end customers stringent service level agreements.

Solution:

GNO evaluated two leading network monitoring and management systems, but both fell short of the functional requirements and expectations. They then evaluated the ReliaTel Management solution from Tone Software and immediately appreciated its flexible capabilities to manage diverse TDM and IP based devices from Avaya, Nortel, Cisco and Mitel.

During the evaluation, GNO saw that ReliaTel easily established access to end-customers’ networks based on their configuration through pure IP connectivity, dial-up, serial, buffer boxes or other methods. GNO then used the ReliaTel pre-configured Foundation Kits to quickly implement full fault and performance management for numerous customer devices.

When the evaluation concluded, GNO selected ReliaTel as their primary NOC management solution. They immediately took advantage of the ReliaTel private-label option, branding the solution’s Web interface for clients’ use, and providing each GNO client with a secure view of their end-customers’ network landscape.

“We evaluated two leading NMM tools prior to selecting ReliaTel as our management solution to support our Avaya reseller opportunity,” said Adrian Robinson, managing director, UK operations. “The key to selecting ReliaTel was its capability to match the strong functionality of Avaya’s proprietary tool, and the flexibility to allow our clients to seamlessly add new customers with multi-vendor environments.”

GNO chose the ReliaTel solution from Tone Software for several key reasons:

And because ReliaTel provides the ability to manage many manufacturers’ devices, GNO’s client was able to extend support to all of their end-customer’s network devices and appliances.

Business Result:

Through ReliaTel, GNO delivers a strong operational management solution to its clients that provides both significant economic advantages, and the ability to immediately support a broader range of voice and network technologies for their end customers.

GNO’s vision and business model of providing outsourced NOC services has proven to be a resounding success, and ReliaTel has been a key component of that success.

As businesses continue to migrate to new IP based voice technologies, GNO’s clients can rest assured they’ll have the management flexibility they need to capture more service opportunities and drive more revenue. The results are sure to be a win-win situation for everyone.

“Utilizing ReliaTel as our NOC management solution has helped to accelerate GNO’s business growth and profitability,” said Brunette. “We can now provide management services for a broader range of TDM and IP technologies, and we can deliver that service at an attractive price that has significant economic advantages for our clients.”