Executive Summary

• Introduction
• Proven Customer Cases
• The quest for efficiency and cost reductions
• Operators' situation today
• Ask your staff these questions
• What an Integrated Network Planning, Provisioning and Dynamic Inventory Management system is
• Improve your factory efficiency
• Reasons for introducing a Network Planning and Dynamic Inventory Management system
• Implementation and pay back time
• Customer Driven
• Unique features of Aktavara software

Introduction

Aktavara provides turnkey software that dramatically improves telecom and network operators' efficiency in bringing their services to their customers quickly and reliably.
Aktavara develops complete solutions for network-inventory-based planning, provisioning and activation.

Proven Customer Cases

The quest for efficiency and cost reductions in operations

No matter which business you are in, competitive advantage comes from continuously working with reducing cost in your operations, managing your cash flow and increasing your efficiency in dealing with the business opportunities at hand. This is a significant challenge for most Telecom Operators today - In the past, state-owned operators faced only limited competition, while new mobile challengers focused on the rush for coverage and new services.

We believe that Telecom Operators need to improve the speed of provisioning new services by:

• Automating repetitive tasks
• Re-allocating over-provisioned resources
• Optimizing the number of staff in operations
• Reducing the time-to-market when implementing new technologies
• Building a robust asset information base as a natural part of network build-out processes
• Enable sales of planned but not yet installed equipment or services
  

Operators' situation today

As you are aware, it is not easy to operate today's high tech networks. Many of the network operation staff still use binders with paper documents, Excel spreadsheets and in-house developed databases in their daily work! The network planners who were around when the 2G networks were built, do not want to go through planning a 3G rollout of thousands of sites and technology upgrades without the professional tools that exist today. Critical knowledge about how and why the network is built and engineered, exists only in the head of individuals. We believe that it is mission-critical today (and will be even more so in the future) for staff to have information at their fingertips and to be process oriented. This will result in satisfied customers and increased revenues.

Ask your network planning, provisioning and operations staff these questions

• How often do you come to a site and the equipment is not there or it is not built as the latest drawing you could find?
• How often do you find that the end equipment of a connection at the customers premises has been freed up, but not the core equipment which happens to be the responsibility of someone else?
• How long do you have to search for information in separate software tools and binders before you can start to work?
• How often do you order new equipment rather than move equipment from another site, since you're not sure why it is there or if it has been sold?
• How easy is it for you to introduce a new node in a sub network? Or to re-host a base station? Or to do an MSC split?
• Where is this equipment version from this vendor installed? Is this equipment fully depreciated or what is the book value of it? What customers are carried by this connection?
• What alternatives are available in case of failures? Which customers are affected? Which ones have Service Level Agreements?
• How long time does it take and how many systems do you have to use, to connect a new service to a customer?

What is an Integrated Network Planning, Provisioning and Dynamic Inventory Management system?

The Network Planning functionality supports the processes around adds/moves/changes/deletes in a telecom/data network, dividing the equipment and the connections into what is planned, what is installed and what is in service. Standards and rules are built in through the use of wizards to provide guidance to users who, for example, typically need to create a new base station or a new 2 Mb connection as quickly as possible. A Work Flow/Project Management/Work Order tool can be integrated for following up the execution of the implementation.

The Network Provisioning functionality automates the repetitive tasks in bringing a service to a customer, for example, to change a subscription from POTS to ADSL for a customer or upgrade them to Triple Play. A Customer Care system can be integrated to achieve flow-through provisioning from sales to installation.

The Dynamic Inventory Management functionality is fundamentally a way to maintain knowledge about the network stored in a single data repository which is available even if the network is down. It provides physical and a logical views of the network and can automatically discover new equipment as these are introduced into the network. It also shows the bandwidth, capacity, geography and services in the network and can be integrated with financial systems such as SAP or Oracle Financials.

Improve your factory efficiency by introducing a production line

A lot has been done in increasing the efficiency in attracting and retaining customers, producing invoices and receive payments, but the factory in between is often a mystery left to the engineers who understand the technology and functions of the machines. The organizational principle in a Network Operation can be built around projects or processes or both.

We believe that there are significant savings and revenues in fine-tuning network planning and provisioning and integrating with CRM, billing systems etc by using professional software, especially in multi-service, multi-vendor networks. Introducing standards and rules in automated processes when building and maintaining a network will dramatically improve quality and speed of delivery with less demand on qualified staff.

So why should you introduce a Network Planning, Provisioning and Dynamic Inventory Management system?

How quickly can a system be implemented and what is the pay back time?

A fully-configured system ready for data input can be ready within 6-8 weeks. Integration with existing BSS/OSS/Network Element Managers can run in parallel and be deployed in stages as required. This typically takes 3-4 months depending on the types of systems.
- The pay back time is between 9 - 12 months and we can prove it!

Customer Driven

The company philosophy is to work closely with customers and partners to achieve the best possible results. The development and efficiency of Aktavara software has been driven by diverse customer needs that have been consolidated and optimised into a single versatile and robust product.

We have a dedicated team of experts who can assist with the design, planning and rollout of a vastly improved network operation with a focus on the customer. Aktavara offers pro-active, pragmatic advice and consultation throughout the implementation cycle. This philosophy carries through into customer support.

Aktavara's software is used by telecommunications carriers and network operators in Europe, the Americas and Asia-Pacific. We are an innovative company focused on delivering software that solves modern business problems.

Aktavara products for network planning, provisioning and dynamic inventory management. Unique features include:

• Telecom Operators staff can add new equipment profiles on their own or further enhance the network model in the system by configuration changes. No programming is needed.
• The network model is fully configurable for any network technologies; mobile, fixed and IP.
• User-friendly, intuitive Windows graphical interface.
• All data is stored in one open Oracle database.
• Powerful tools for import of existing network and customer data, so that the new system will be functional in the operator's environment in a very short time. These tools are also used for auto-discovery and network reconciliation and can be managed and configured by the Operators staff.
• API for integration with other key Business Support and Operating Support Systems (e.g.: financial systems, CRM, performance management, trouble ticketing, network surveillance etc).

One of the unique advantages of Aktavara's software is the full integration of broad functionality into one complete product suite.