Business Optimization

Truly optimizing your Service Assurance function is a journey, one that can be significantly more productive with a Trusted Advisor. At NTI we understand that Service Assurance is a means to an end. That end although unique for each corporation is focused around customer experience and satisfaction with the services they receive. This sounds simple but a few corporate strategies turn into many operational goals. Those goals require even more tactical plans that need more staff to deliver the resulting tactics. NTI has deep experience working with service operations and NOCs to assure that your cascading Service Assurance processes and tactics are optimized to serve your corporate strategic business goals. 

Not every Carrier Service Provider will have the same strategic goals.  As such they should not have the same Service Assurance Program. That’s why NTI Business Optimization utilizes DATA to maximize your Service Assurance program.

When we finish our Service Assurance solution implementation, you can clearly articulate what Service Assurances means to the business and measure how it is achieved throughout each of your organizations.

Service Assurance Solutions and Consultancy
The NTI Service Assurance program team works with you to ensure your Service Assurance function is optimized and operating in a manner that best contributes to a positive end-user/customer experience. Why is that important?  Renenue, the life blood of a Service Provider’s business comes from engaged customers who utilize and want new features. So, it is likely that your corporate strategy focuses on some key customer value propositions. Everything else should be a means to that end.

NetBoss has the talent and experience that understands the key to delivering world class network operations is the alignment of your strategy and Service Assurance function. We apply over two decades of in-depth NOC product and implementation experience to our comprehensive set of offerings carefully coordinated to meet your specific needs.
Four distinct services are offered:

• Defining and measuring Service Assurance
• Strategizing to achieve Service Assurance Mapping and Alignment
• Re-aligning to Transform processes to achieve goals
• Continually Assess by realizing the Business Optimization Center

Defining and Measuring Service Assurance

The NTI consultancy practice is based on maximizing customer experience and Service Assurance. We understand that a specific definition of Service Assurance must be designed for your business NTI wants to augment your thought leadership. Based on your strategic imperatives, we can model a resource and component management strategy to ensure that your Service Assurance function is operating optimally. We advise operators on the best-fit model for their specific environments and can back that up with the requisite process alignment exercise.

However, the true measure is your end-user/customer experience. In tumultuous times operations can limit their thinking and visibility to the resource and service layer components and assume that if these measures are positive, implying a positive end-user experience. NTI knows this is not always the case. To truly measure your Service Assurance, you must evaluate and act according to your customer experience. We can help you:

• Measure.  NTI has the capability to deploy the requisite measurement tools to give you true visibility of your customer experience in real-time. With appropriate sampling, NTI can give you an indication of what your customer’s are experiencing right now, while they are using your services. We provide the temp environment that truly samples your existing Customer experience in real-time.
  
• Report.  Using Dashboards (With Netboss XT), or standard tabular reports, NTI can show you where you are performing well and what areas need attention.
  
• Analyze.  NTI can help you analyze the data and enter into informed decisions.
  
• Advise.  Whether it’s misalignment of processes or operational enhancements, NTI is your trusted advisor. A comprehensive recommendation is done at this stage, outlining where your organization needs to go and what steps it needs to take to truly drive a delightful end-user experience.

NTI brings “fresh eyes” to your organization. If you have ever wondered whether or  not the management of your Service Assurance function and customer experience is truly serving your strategic goals, NTI can provide the answer by reviewing your:

• Strategic Directives: These corporate directives are typically longer term, cross-functional strategies, e.g. “Increase Market Penetration.”
• Operational Goals: These management goals are typically measured quarterly, across process boundaries, and have single management ownership, e.g. “Market Price Leadership”.
• Tactical Objectives: These organizational goals are typically measured monthly and owned by the department, e.g. “Undercut Market Price by 10%.”
• Tactical Tasks: These departmental tasks are typically measured daily, e.g. “Reduce MTTR and cost by 15%.”

A small number of corporate strategic directives launch many tactical objectives and tasks. This usually results in gaps between the strategic and tactical objectives that minimize their effectiveness. By leveraging NTI’s formal and informal deep-dive approach you can identify and measure if you are truly leveraging your Service Assurance tools and resources in a manner that serves your strategic direction. Whether you plan to offer the best ISP experience or the lowest fault repair times, NTI will investigate whether your Service Assurance processes and individual resource objectives are aligned.

• Define Strategy.  Start with a clear-cut definition of what Service Assurance means for your organization. NTI knows that “Service Assurance” does not have a one-size-fits-all nature. NTI produces the maxims at this stage that truly encompass what a Service Assurance program should mean for your specific business.
• Realize Goals.  A full understanding of your strategic intent and goals is garnered at this stage.
• As-Is Assessment. -The next step is a deep-dive, As-Is assessment of your current NOC or Service Assurance functions and processes. The findings of the AS-IS assessment is then mapped against your strategic goals and a comprehensive gap analysis is produced.
• GAP Analysis. NTI can then advise on GAP closure as is deemed necessary.

NetBoss Process and Tools Optimization Services focus on telecom operations and network operations center (NOC) service process improvements. We work side-by-side with your team to assess your network environment and recommend a more effective and efficient operating solution that encompasses your people, processes, and daily operations.

By optimizing the efficiency and capability of your network management systems, methods, processes, and personnel, we ensure that your infrastructure investments provide maximum returns, maintain the best possible customer experience, and are aligned with your business objectives.

The re-engineering NetBoss experts are experienced professionals with the global perspective required to tackle any operations optimization challenge. The NetBoss professionals have NOC management experience with a proven history of successfully working within telecom, utilities, public safety, and transportation fixed and wireless service providers worldwide. NetBoss experts are people you can trust to help you best utilize state-of-the-art process improvement techniques to reach your operational objectives.

We surpass the “cookie cutter” approach that squeezes you into a highly leveraged environment and deliver tailored solutions. We allow a high degree of flexibility and innovation in our ultimate recommendation.  NetBoss uses a unique, modular re-aligning process built on decades of experience.

Your success is our success. We seek partnerships not vendor relationships. The NOC process re-engineering consists of four phases to achieve these goals:

• Deep Dive AS-IS Assessment
  This phase consists of an in-depth review of your current Service Assurance strategy, structure, and NOC Service Assurance processes. Depending on the size of your organization and the availability of appropriate stakeholders, this phase can take anywhere from one week to a few weeks. A list of processes and their associated strengths and GAPS is produced during this stage. This is critical for scoping the re-design phase to follow. Using a consultative approach, NTI will help you identify the processes for re-design.
• Process Design and Resource Review
  The identified scope of processes is re-designed at this stage. The timing is based on the scope. The outcome of this phase is a comprehensive “Process Book,” which is accompanied by resource requirements/recommendations that need to be considered during implementation.
• Process Implementation and Operational Readiness
  NTI can assist with the implementations of newly identified or refined processes. As your Trusted Advisor, NTI can walk you through this exciting and sometimes uncertain time, making sure that the new processes are implemented in a manner that truly brings value to your business.
• Ongoing Continuous Improvement
  After an agreed period of time, NTI can be called in to evaluate the newly implemented processes and report on their performance.

NTI understands the importance of how your valuable Service Assurance metrics relate and correlate to the rest of your business. Our flexible dashboard environment allows you to incorporate metrics from Netboss XT and other in-house systems to see what really matters through Business, Strategic, Operational or Technical views.

NTI supports a Business Optimization Center, a virtual place to quickly view the KPIs necessary to effectively run your business.  To support this concept, NTI has imbedded comprehensive Dashboard/Scorecard capability in our NetBoss XT product.  Our targeted Service Assurance Dashboard has the capability to build real-time, cross-functional views of your business, allowing you to see how many areas of your business are functioning individually and more importantly, in relation to each other. Seeing how your business strategy is performing laterally across your business functions allows you to make informed decisions and take relevant actions.

Our Consultancy group can work with you and your team to design the dashboards that truly make sense for your business and strategy. As the interface between business management and technical delivery teams, we ensure that you have the reporting tools necessary to add value to your business operations. NTI ensures that you have access to Scorecards that give a real-time indication of your current performance against your chosen strategy by leveraging:

• Dashboard flexibility and openness
• NTI insight and extensive industry knowledge
• A trusted partner relationship

Business Optimization Relies on Line-Of-Sight.

NetBoss solutions provide a “line-of-sight” concept – This is ensuring that a continuous connection between your Customer Experience, Services Layer and your underlying Resources is always maintained, while all the time serving  your Strategic intent and Goals. NTI ensures that the KQI development for your establishment is done in a manner that the most critical resource and service layer measurements/KPI’s are incorporated by means of analyzing the Key Factors in your environment.

The outcome means that you can evaluate your Strategic direction by having visibility on your tactical tasks and initiatives.

Customer Experience is the Primary Focus

NTI deploys our Service/Operations Level Measurement Model when measuring your Customer Experience. We walk you through the compilation of the Service Level Specifications and KQI’s that are truly important and relevant to your company’s goals. This stringent and complex task is supported by our team of world-class consultants. NTI understands that your Customer experience is the key to your Business… Our model is born out of Industry Standards, and coupled with our expertise, will lay a solid platform for your overall Service assurance Program.

Data Consultancy	Four Views	Line of Sight	SLA Management