Broadband Service Provider Solutions
Compuware Vantage Service Check is an integrated suite of tools that helps broadband service providers (BSPs) deliver top-notch Quality of Experience (QoE) to their subscribers with in-depth broadband service monitoring and performance analysis. The solution is deployed with a non-intrusive system of network-based appliances that is capable of supporting millions of broadband subscribers without the need to install a single application on subscriber PCs. Using one source of subscriber information and common QoE performance measurements, Vantage Service Check provides unique capabilities specifically designed to enable each BSP organization with:
- a proactive approach to delivering better broadband service customer care
- the ability to manage network performance from the broadband subscriber’s perspective
- the ability to monitor and understand individual broadband subscriber needs for effective marketing intelligence.
Proactively improve broadband service customer care
BSPs have the tremendous challenge of providing flawless service to their subscribers in a very competitive market. It is not uncommon for BSP customer care agents to receive 40,000 service calls per day, costing them hundreds of thousands of hours per year.
Vantage Service Check’s automated monitoring helps reduce the number of expensive service support calls, which can flood the customer support center by providing customer care agents with instant evidence of broadband subscriber QoE. It identifies:
- what broadband service problems the subscriber experienced in the 48 hours leading to the problem report
- where the problems are
- what is working properly
This deep insight enables agents to rapidly move on to fault fixing, which significantly reduces problem analysis and testing time. Agents are presented with powerful "at-a-glance" views of problem root-cause analysis, which allows them to:
- rely less on the subscriber to describe the problem in detail
- be warned of related issues and normal conditions
- begin problem fixing immediately to restore normal service
- spend less time on each reported problem
- resolve the root causes and reduce repeat problems
- improve overall QoE for the customer.
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Vantage Service Check functionality |
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Simplify broadband service troubleshooting with in-depth performance analysis
For each subscriber, Vantage Service Check chronologically displays all normal and problematic conditions in the time period in which they occurred. This includes:
- physical connection status
- subscriber Radius authentication traffic responses and errors
- DNS traffic, responses and errors
- presence of infections (worms and spyware) on a subscriber desktop
- desktop operating systems, presence of router, firewall and browser types
- presence of multiple PCs connected to the service
- browsing experience reports of normal, slow conditions and connectivity issues
- e-mail traffic and performance
- Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) call performance quality on a per-call basis
- overall subscriber traffic activity and impact on the QoE
- performance of the network segment on which the individual subscriber service resides.
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Manage network performance from the subscriber’s perspective
Managing broadband networks to ensure that subscribers receive highest QoE is becoming increasingly more difficult. Most network monitoring tools currently used by BSPs monitor core network performance and lack the in-depth visibility that shows how network performance is impacting individual subscribers.
Vantage Service Check provides complete performance monitoring of broadband networks that includes network devices and subscriber QoE. The main functions include:
- Real-time monitoring—monitors the physical network devices and individual subscribers’ QoE. All performance data is correlated and reported using Fault Domain Isolation logic, which reports on the cross-impacts of network events on the individual subscribers.
- Real-time events—alerts on the performance deviations of the monitored network and subscriber experience
- Fault Domain Isolation—correlates the performance deviations and reports root causes of network problems. Helps network support staff focus on the problem and not the symptom.
- Historical performance -- a rolling 10-day report of network performance and recurring network problems.
- Capacity planning—reports on broadband network capacity usage, which is based on actual subscriber traffic.
- Worm Detection—provides the ability to define worm signatures, as well as monitor and identify infected subscribers.
- VoIP Performance—monitors, analyzes and reports on the performance of VoIP service that is delivered on the broadband network
- Radius Performance—provides the ability to monitor and report performance of Radius servers from the subscriber’s perspective.
With Vantage Service Check, network support staff has immediate access to the performance status of the broadband network, allowing them to focus their efforts on network problems that adversely impact subscribers. Vantage Service Check also provides the network support organization the ability to set uniform performance thresholds which instantly apply to the network as well as the individual subscriber performance. This eliminates the silo performance measurement paradigm that typically exists between network and customer care functions.
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Points of Presence (POP) |
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Compare performance of your VoIP services
Vantage Service Check monitors VoIP performance for all of your subscribers and identifies individual providers, service performance and usage. Having this visibility allows you to see whether subscribers are using your VoIP services or those of your competition. In addition, you can see how your VoIP QoE compares to your competitors.
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VoIP Performance Monitoring |
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Understand your broadband service customers and how competition influences them
Creating and monitoring marketing initiatives on IP-based services is extremely difficult, if not impossible, without clear visibility into subscriber activity on the broadband connection. Marketing organizations often rely on public research information or internal support groups to generate information that helps them understand their subscriber’s needs. Information created by these sources tends to be generic and the demographics lack the true indication of what the subscriber’s needs are.
The Vantage Service Check broadband Subscriber Intelligence module provides a rich data mining interface that allows marketing organizations to monitor and understand their own individual subscribers’ needs. The main features of Subscriber Intelligence include:
- Subscriber data—derived by monitoring actual subscriber activity on the broadband connection and not an extrapolation of general market trends
- Competitive analysis—provides information on what competitive services are used by your customers (e.g. portals, VoIP services and providers, web sites, e-mail services, etc.)
- Heavy users—monitor your heavy users and discover their interests for the opportunity to up-sell additional services
- Low users—monitor your low users and their behavior to build loyalty to reduce churn
- Data mining interface—allows the creation of custom reports that can be saved for continued use, as well as monitoring of specific information
- Rich metrics—provides the ability to combine a myriad of metrics that can meet almost any aspect of marketing needs.
Vantage Service Check Subscriber Intelligence takes the guesswork out of the marketing effort. Monitoring your own subscribers allows your marketing organization to get direct information on what your subscribers like and don’t like, as well as identifying changes in behavior. This powerful intelligence allows marketing to target specific subscribers and groups of subscribers with marketing initiatives and accurately monitor their progress. This intelligence also allows marketing to monitor how its own services (e.g. e-mails, portal, web sites, etc.) compare with competitive providers.
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