By Bruce Christian
Big expansions and product launches characterized the news coming out of the INCOMPAS competitive telecom event in Washington D.C. this week.
FLTG Earns Cisco Cloud & Managed Services Master Certification; Launches White Label Services
Finger Lakes Technologies Group Inc. (FLTG) has earned the distinction of becoming Cisco’s first Cloud and Managed Services Master Partner in New York State. The company is one of only 25 such partners in the nation.
The announcement comes at the same time as FLTG is launching its white label services.
With this certification, FLTG will be the first provider in New York State to sell Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution, which provides flexibility in delivering unified communication, collaboration and compute via the cloud.
“FLTG is extremely proud to be Cisco’s largest Cloud and Managed Services Master Partner in New York State,” said FLTG President and CEO Paul H. Griswold. “This is a tremendous milestone in our 17-year relationship with Cisco, it bolsters our existing certifications to sell all Cisco products, and it is a testament to our long-standing success as a valued Cisco partner.”
FLTG’s HCS Voice FX (Hosted Communication Services Flexible eXperience) combines Cisco’s Hosted Collaboration Solution platform and market-leading applications with FLTG’s leading Internet and cloud solutions.
It provides customers a complete end-to-end solution, so they do not need to look to another company for voice or broadband services.
FLTG’s HCS Voice FX is powered over its Internet network, and the company is the only Cisco Cloud and Managed Services Master Partner with its own voice and broadband Internet network. The HCS FX solution enables a people-focused collaborative experience across multiple devices, so users can connect with employees, partners and customers anywhere, any time and on any device, without deploying and managing hardware and software internally.
Business customers will benefit from promoting intimate customer interaction, increased remote expert touches and transactions to increase revenue, and improved competitive – advantage. With HCS Voice FX from FLTG, which is now available, users can:
- Call or a send a chat to a contact from Cisco Jabber, call from their desk phone, call from their desktop using a softphone with Cisco Jabber, or call from a mobile device.
- Make phone calls, access voicemail and chat with colleagues.
- Access voicemails from any device, anytime and anywhere.
- Chat with others and view status information using Cisco Jabber or the full Unified Communications suite with collaboration features for Windows and Mac.
- View contacts on the softphone and smartphone clients, extending corporate directory, voicemail and calling features for those working outside the office.
HCS FX from FLTG also gives customers the flexibility to scale the solution to their current and future needs, and it eliminates the need for additional equipment, maintenance and support.
FLTG hosts the equipment in a former nuclear bunker at FLTG’s secure data center at FLTG Park in Romulus, N.Y., on the base of the former Seneca Army Depot.
“This certification is a great accomplishment for FLTG, but our partners throughout the country will be the ones reaping the rewards,” said Paul Nikitas, FLTG’s vice president of Sales. “Our business customers will benefit from another state-of-the-art solution from Cisco, which takes the Cisco Call Manager to the cloud.”
With the launch of FLTG’s white label, partners across the country can take advantage of the breadth of products offered by FLTG and brand it with their own company name and logo.
“With our 2,500-mile fiber network, FLTG has become as a trusted partner to many VAR’s and wholesale providers across the country, “said Jessica Nava, FLTG’s director of Carrier and Wholesale Services. “White labeling our products and services provides our partners with another customer solution and gives them a tremendous growth opportunity.”
For more information, go to http://www.fltg.com/
Data Tech Emphasizes Carrier Margin Assurance
Intercarrier margin assurance involves more than carrier access billing systems (CABS) and access cost, and that’s where Data Tech Inc. can help. Generally, each local exchange carrier should have a cost per subscriber, which constantly is being tracked. That per sub cost comprises several “puts and takes” of which access revenue and costs are components, especially for facilities-based LECs.
Still, when assessing profitability on a per subscriber basis, LECs must track numerous key performance indicators and trends within the big data inherent in voice telecom. Sometimes that’s not easy, convenient or even possible, especially if your legacy CABS and Access Cost groups are being repurposed as the incremental value of access declines.
The key is not just having the data on hand – though for some LECs that is an issue – but also having the tools, subject matter expertise and experience to visualize and monetize the many components of network revenue and expense.
As an example, does the circuit and trunk inventory, which you may or may not have in an accessible database, include the carrier, traffic type and direction as key fields?
Does that data source specify if those facilities are least-cost routing (LCR), toll, 911, interconnect or feature group?
If you have that piece squared away, are the data fields normalized to the fields in your call detail records (CDR) so you can see where the traffic is actually going and coming from?
Are the CDRs warehoused or data stored, including those from your switch as well as your third party CABS and vendor CDRs?
How about circuits?
Are your wholesale Ethernet and backhaul circuits inventoried and reconciled to your billing out to your wholesale customer?
Are they normalized and accessible for comparing to your Type-2 facilities that drive your cost basis and can have you upside down rapidly?
Are you paying for stranded facilities?
Do you have enough for overflow?
Are your LCR carriers reducing your rates at the pace of switched access reductions?
Are they carrying the calls they are signing up for, or are they failing them over to your anchor carrier at a premium rate?
It’s easy to see the many moving parts; and each can be a margin killer. What if you could squeeze out even another dime per subscriber in bottom line revenue each month?
Just the thought that either it could happen or the same dime per sub, per month might be slipping away should be keeping the CFO awake at night.
What if a provider could capture, mediate, bill and store your CDRs?
What if in addition to doing that, the same provider could manage all your wholesale circuit contracts and “Move, Add, Change, Disconnect” orders, bill your customers in a mechanized CABS format, reconcile your circuit inventory to billing and cost, manage and audit, all of your access and long distance telco accounts payable as well as warehouse all your data in an accessible way that fulfills reporting, auditing and compliance, like the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act?
What if that same provider could use SS7 and/or SIP data to verify 100 percent recording for voice traffic and identify phantom traffic and fraud?
ULECs, are you reconciling your subscriber in-service unbundled network elements to the ILEC bills every month?
What about switched access, ICA and wholesale long distance rates. Are the data stored and accessible for auditing your switched invoices?
Are you giving away too many long distance minutes in a bundle to your customer? Not enough?
Is all of the above spread around more than half dozen vendors and/or several employees that may or may not be there tomorrow?
How sure are you, CLEC, LEC or ULEC CFO, that you have these baseline margin assurance processes in place?
Data Tech can help put an end to the questions and start getting you answers and replace the problems with solutions. Enjoy consistent, identifiable return of investment from best-of-breed systems managed by experienced subject matter experts and partners who have been in the business for decades.
Contact Jon Jones at Data Tech Inc. and schedule a complete assessment of your company’s margin assurance practices. Call 706-698-3282 or email jjones@cabspros.com to learn more.
Alpheus Expands Fiber Network to Meet Business Demand in Austin, Dallas, Houston
Alpheus Communications announced that its latest fiber network expansion has added 2,400 near-net buildings, reaching an additional 14,000 businesses in Austin, Dallas and Houston.
Buoyed by solid demand for high-performance fiber services, the company’s latest activities mark a major milestone of its fiber build-out investment reaching more than 10,000 near-net buildings and 65,000 businesses in Texas.
“The last couple of quarters were exceptionally strong for Alpheus’ fiber network services, largely due to the growth of Texas businesses and ever increasing demand for network bandwidth to satisfy voice, data, video and cloud solutions,” said Scott Widham, CEO at Alpheus Communications. “Whether we are there to provide connectivity for our carrier customers or to individual businesses, the need is always the same – affordable, high-performance fiber and network services.”
Alpheus’ most recent expansions include new fiber routes near the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, plus growing business, retail, restaurant and multifamily housing areas in the uptown area. Alpheus also expanded fiber connectivity near Dallas’ Love Field airport.
In Houston, expansion focuses on business areas northwest of downtown Houston, east and west of U.S. Highway 290.
In Austin, fiber connectivity expansion serves a high-growth area near Loop 360/Texas Capital Freeway and Bee Caves Road.
“Our ability to reach 10,000-plus buildings with more than 65,000 businesses over fiber is a huge milestone for Alpheus,” Widham added. “But while we continue investing in our networks and our team, we remain ever-focused on our highest priority – making sure that Alpheus customers get the personal care, responsiveness and networking expertise they need to keep their businesses on track.”
Alpheus Communications is a leading provider of Texas metro-regional fiber and networking solutions. With owned facilities in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, the Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio Alpheus is flexible, content-neutral and responsive to customer needs when low-latency and uptime are essential.
As the preferred fiber backbone for metro Texas, Alpheus is in a unique position to support mission-critical information technology functions and cloud computing solutions through its resilient SSAE 16-compliant data center platforms for colocation and disaster recovery.
For more information, visit www.alpheus.net.
eX2 Technology Introduces Triple “A” Professional Services
eX2 Technology LLC (eX2) today announced Triple “A” Professional Services (TAPS), a single-source solution for businesses to assess, audit and review critical infrastructure networks throughout all project phases.
In a market saturated by single-service providers, TAPS is the all-in-one program to address the increasing business demand for a complete network infrastructure audit and assessment solution.
The TAPS program, designed with advanced industry knowledge and expertise, combined with newest technology and service solutions, provides end-to-end network inspection and assessments of existing network assets and network lifecycle planning to maximize the efficiency and revenue potential of the network.
As the regulatory industry rapidly evolves, the need for timely, high-quality audits is critical, requiring the highest levels of quality and insight while providing an educated perspective from within the industry.
TAPS’ auditing services, which involve turnkey infrastructure audits with physical asset inventory, geographic information system (GIS) mapping, and drawing package consolidation present the guidance and expertise needed in an ever-changing regulatory environment.
Additionally, eX2’s resources are able to provide the reassurance necessary in a formal review of existing easements and permits, and expiring or new indefeasible rights of use (IRU) agreements, while also providing the capability to assist with IRU and similar network asset agreements.
“This industry is rapidly evolving, and many customers are unsure of how to plan for the future, audit and assess their critical infrastructure projects,” said Jim Kawamoto, President, eX2. “Our single-source solution combines the industry’s most highly regarded professionals—equipped to manage dynamic projects and give the support needed throughout the program.”
eX2 specializes in financing, designing, installing and maintaining robust broadband networks, critical infrastructure solutions, and intelligent transportation systems for government agencies, consortiums and public/private partnerships. eX2 empowers its customers to achieve their goals through a faster connected world and transforming their digital experiences.
For more information go to www.ex2technology.com or contact Misty Stine at (402) 817-7872.
