Managed VoIP Services with CCI Systems

Antiquated to Updated: Making the Most of Your PBX

Author:  Dale Jarvis, Director Managed VoIP Services

Dale Jarvis

Trying to manage voice services within a hotel, with numerous features, functions, and periodic updates can be a challenge requiring a significant time commitment and on-going training for hotel technical staff. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Utilizing a managed service provider to handle your property’s voice needs leaves you and your staff free to focus on the needs of your guests and the other technical needs a property has. CCI’s Managed VoIP Service can offload the burden of managing a hotel’s voice solution from your IT team. Our ability to control the project from the initial planning stages, through the deployment, with on-going support via our 24/7 NOC/Call Center, has brought relief to many hotels and property owners. No more concerns about potential (or imminent) failure of outdated proprietary PBX equipment or the escalating costs of hard to find replacement parts; our solution takes advantage of readily available industry standard components.

To bring this all to life, let’s discuss a recent incident where a Colorado hotel contacted us with an urgent request for a hosted VoIP solution. During the holiday season, the property had experienced an unexpected failure of their dated PBX, leaving the entire property and its guests without voice services. Another vendor was able to implement a temporary solution, which brought limited dial tone to 40 staff members but left 30 other staff and all guest rooms without a dial tone. The limited dial tone availability impacted hotel operations, and the liability of not having 911 service from guest rooms was extremely concerning. Previously, CCI performed a similar installation in the Southwest region of the United States, so we were top of mind when this particular failure occurred. Swiftly a plan was devised, equipment was shipped, and the CCI installation team was headed to Colorado to install a new PBX as part of the hosted voice solution developed. While onsite, over 600 old guest room and back of house phones were replaced and tested and the PMS integration and training of hotel staff was completed. In under 20 days, CCI was able to take a hotel crippled by dated hardware and completely update, train, and manage the new hosted VoIP solution implemented, allowing the property to focus their efforts on driving business.

Today, we’re engaged with this same hotel planning to consolidate PBX operations between them and a neighboring property to handle call routing and staffing efficiencies between both hotels. As a result, resource sharing is expected to reduce operational costs for both properties.

To learn more about CCI’s Managed VoIP services, or to hear more about what other hoteliers are doing within the industry, join the CCI team at the Hilton 2018 Technology Leadership Forum in Houston, TX January 23-25, 2018. During the breakout session on Wednesday afternoon, CCI Director of Managed VoIP Services, Dale Jarvis, will be leading a discussion regarding the significance of a managed voice solution and why it’s significant to ownership. Stop by and visit us in booth # 303 or contact us directly at info@ccisystems.com.   

Bringing Intelligence to the Cable Plant

Written by: Todd Gingrass, Director of Cable and Media Solutions 

As cable operators, for years we have tried to be proactive about plant maintenance to keep services working at optimal levels and our subscribers happy. However, over the years our perception of proactive plant maintenance has mutated. A decade ago, performing 100% plant sweep and leakage detection was the go-to method for preventing outages and impairments. While that thought process was not incorrect, we all know the reality of it. Not enough time, people and resources. Staying on top of the day-to-day problems had been enough to keep us reactive in our maintenance process, making a full proactive sweep a pipe dream.

We know that a marginally well maintained plant will typically only have issues in about 50% of the actual sweep coverage. What if we could get that 50% of time back?  How would that change the bottom line as an operator? 


Getting out from behind

So how do we break that cycle of always being behind? It is easy to say we are too busy to get out and be proactive, but the reality is much more difficult. 

• What if we could be proactive and not have to physically “get out there”? 
• What if we could harness available data from the plant and mix that with decades of good old cable know-how to identify portions of the plant that need the most help? 
• What if that could help me prioritize my day so when time is spent, it produces the most valuable results?

The answer, it’s all possible today!

Cable modems have been able to tell us a lot about plant performance for quite some time. As an industry, we have been slow to realize and take advantage of these technological advancements. While it is by no means “simple” to make all of this work, it is worth it on the backside.  

The new generation of modern intelligence

During the later stages of DOCSIS 3, modems on the market were able to capture the entire forward bandwidth—not just the original “sliding window” of 40 or 80 MHz, but the entire spectrum from around 50 MHz to 1 GHz. If this “capture” sounds familiar, it should. It’s basically a visualization of the frequency response of the forward bandwidth, otherwise known as… you guessed it, a basic sweep response.

 

With the new DOCSIS 3.1 standard out and vendors now going through certification, this and many other maintenance tools have been built into both CMTS and cable modems. Imagine being able to see the sweep response of your entire plant from a computer without ever leaving the office. Add on top of that, the fact that before we would typically sweep amp to amp, but now we are basically sweeping modem to modem. You can now see down to the tap where an impairment might present itself.

Actionable intelligence  

The prior example is only one of the potential tools that is or soon will be available to us as operators. Now imagine automating those steps so that information can be acted upon immediately, rather than having to spend hours analyzing and prioritize large amounts of data. We could really start to affect the days of our plant staff, allowing them to increase their productivity and get back to being preventative. This modification of how we view and handle plant maintenance will have a great impact on our real goals: 

As an operator, CCI understands how hard it is to stay ahead and offer the great services that we promise our subscribers. That’s why we have taken our 60+ years of industry experience and changed the game by building these types of tools. We use them ourselves and have seen first-hand how taking a truly proactive approach positively impacts our business.  

If you’re interested in discussing Managed Services for your network, reach out to CCI or follow us on social media.

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An Action Packed Year Planned for NCTC WEC 2016

CCI is gearing up to head to sunny Phoenix for the annual NCTC Winter Education Conference (WEC), where over 850+ NCTC members gather for the yearly educational event and vendor showcase. 

This year, CCI is excited! Probably the most excited we've been in a long time and there's a good reason for it. We've got something new to introduce to cable operators; something "state-of-the-art" or "revolutionary" as our engineers are calling it. CCI's Managed Services solutions consist of four components aimed at creating extensive value and cost savings for service providers. The component we're most excited about is CCI's cloud based network monitoring software.

Our cloud based monitoring software has two features we are sure you'll be interested in hearing about, but first, ask yourself these questions:

•  Are you tired of being behind on plant maintenance? 
•  Are you tired of not getting the network support you need? 
• Are you tired of not having monitoring tools that give you actionable info?

If you are feeling any of these pains, keep reading. Heck - stop reading and call us, immediately! We need to talk. We can help.

The first feature, the "Outage Detection" tool, is capable of detecting an outage as it's happening. Big deal, you may say. Correct! It is a big deal. This tool will not only alert you of an outage as it's happening, but it will also pinpoint the location of the outage, saving you time troubleshooting and money by not having to roll excess trucks. Think of how relieved your customers will be to know you are already aware of the issue in their community and you've got technicians onsite looking into the problem. Churn rates will decrease and your outages will be resolved quicker.

The next piece of the super-amazing, ground-breaking, earth-shattering (by now you should be convinced this is a big deal) announcement is that not only can the hosted software detect an outage, it can also alert you BEFORE an outage. The "Plant Impairment" tool is able to identify and correlate modem problems within specific service areas before they result in an outage, and ultimately, a sizable headache for yourself.

The picture below shows snapshots of one of our customer's cable plant. CCI was able to alert them of possible issues within a service area. They then sent their tech to troubleshoot the location that was experiencing signal issues and corrected the problem before the customers were affected by a lapse in service - customer service nightmare averted! 

The third and final piece to this already amazing announcement is that you can try our hosted network monitoring software FREE for 60 days! Stop by and visit Todd and Zach at booth #605 to view a live demo and discuss your free trial. The demo will be fired up and ready to show you all the amazing features. We'll gladly show you what it's capable of and awe you with the flashy screen shots and mobile tech view, but most importantly we'll be able to show you how it will save you money and increase your subscriber satisfaction rates.

As an added bonus, CCI will also have Director of Technical Operations, Chad Kay, on-hand to discuss your TFS and outside plant needs, including:

• FCC Proofs
• Fiber Splicing
• Sweep & Certification 

 Stop by and discuss you plant needs or upgrade thoughts with Chad. 

By now you should be jumping out of your seat searching for our phone number. You want to talk to us, you need to talk to us! Don't fret. We'll be available during the show and anytime before or after to discuss your network needs. Stop by our booth #605 or contact us to discuss your free trial.

CCI is the only partner who can consult, design, build, manage and support your entire RF, IP, Wi-Fi and optical networks. We can help you determine what to do, how to do it and have the expertise to get you there. 

For more information visit our website www.ccisystems.com  or follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

How to Build a Strong Service Provider Business

Author: Matt Reath, CTO

 
In my first article to this series: How to Build a Strong Service Provider Business, the challenges facing service providers (SP) today were explored along with the building blocks (figure 1) that can help address those challenges. This follow-up article will delve into the Service Offerings building block with five steps that will help drive your SP business. 

Figure 1. Building Blocks of a Strong Service Provider

1. Know Your Subscribers
 
Understanding the exact mix of residential, SMB, education, and commercial subscribers along with the general mix and demographic of your service areas is important. You may have a large demographic of millennials or technology early adopters that may drive your decision on what offerings to explore.

As shown below, this diagram from Crossing the Chasm (Moore, 1991), shows the gap between Early Adopters and the Early Majority. It is essential to understand where your subscribers fall in this model.  If you are launching something new or experimental you will want to first market to your Innovators and Early Adopters, who will provide feedback for any needed modifications. Next, look at the Early Majority who will want to see success stories and solid use-case examples prior to signing up.

Figure 2. Technology Adopters by Geoffrey Moore

 2. Know Yourself

Ask questions of yourself such as:

• What talent do you have in-house?
• Can you attract local technical talent where you are located? 
• What is your general culture?
  

Is the vision of where you want to evolve your business in alignment with the available talent and resources you have? If the answer is no, you want to explore partnerships with technology consultants, value-added resellers, and vendors. Being open to having remote talent on the payroll and building a culture of collaboration can attract talent that may otherwise be unavailable—while simultaneously reducing operating expenses. Outside of field technicians, most talent can reside elsewhere, using tools like Cisco WebEx and Telepresence to build a strong, talented, workforce.

Is the business culture in alignment with that of innovative thinking, marketing, and sales? It is important that you are able to quickly identify and bring to market service offerings while being agile enough to pivot to a different direction if something is not working as planned.  

3. Be Creative

Develop a set of valuable services that map to your subscribers' challenges and are realistic in light of your own talent and culture. Create revenue models and expected take rates for each service. Focus on value propositions and benefit equations to feed into the next step.
It is essential that you understand your subscribers challenges and business models in order to create the appropriate value propositions and benefit equations. It's here that you can mathematically illustrate that it is a no-brainer for subscribers to go with your service.

4. Market and Sell 

True marketing and having a small sales team is new a new concept for some providers—and not so new for others. In either case, it is imperative that this changing landscape is addressed and investment is made.
The older, traditional sales model of cold calls, doing a demo, and qualifying leads is giving way to a new style of collaboration, education, and true engagement with the subscriber (figure 3).  Subscribers want to feel that you understand their business and are a partner that can help solve problems and grow their business. 

Figure 3. Old vs. New Sales Model

 By taking the models and material created in step 3, marketing can create relevant campaigns and pushes that feed the sales funnel and create demand for these new relevant services that truly overcome their challenges.

5. Execute Efficiently

Lastly, you must execute according to plan and ensure the customer experience is positive. Make use of partnerships with consultants and develop in-house staff and talent to execute and deliver the service. It is imperative that the customer experience while using your service is impeccable.

The use of automation technology and deep network monitoring can enable a subscriber to sign-up for new services through portals and utilize a health dashboard that shows compliance to SLAs and delivers information that reflects the service's true value to the business. 

Conclusion 

Use these five steps as a starting point for building a service offerings strategy that helps your business stay competitive in the constantly evolving service provider industry. By slowly shifting the industry culture from just providing voice, video, and data to managed service providers with true engagement with subscribers, a new source of high-margin revenue can be found.
My next series of articles will take a deep dive into building network automation skill-sets, delivering potential services, and examples of real world service offerings that are driving additional revenue for providers today.

Click here to contact us for more information on building a profitable business. 

Managed Service Operations Expands at CCI Systems

John Steele, NOC Manager

IRON MOUNTAIN, Mich., August 1, 2015- CCI recently announced the addition of John Steele to the team to lead the Managed and Hosted Services Tier 2-3 and Network Operation Center (NOC) teams.

As NOC Manager, Steele is responsible for operating and managing the implementation of CCI’s Managed Services NOC operations

“With John’s experience, we are looking to drive our Network Operations Center into the next phases of development by offering better defined systematic problem resolution to a variety of service provider networks,” said Director of Managed Services, Brian “Sparky” Farwell.

Steele’s past history and 25 years of experience in the Information Systems / Technology and wireless industries will prove to be beneficial to CCI customers. He is a technology leader known for requisite strategic vision to achieve business goals.

Steele notes that he plans to “utilize strengths to innovate and develop to meet “the standard that others are measured”.

Prior to CCI Systems has held positions of Director of Engineering and Network Operations, Network Operations Manager for Element Mobile, Alamosa PCS, Sprint and Einstein Wireless, Technical Support Engineer for US Cellular, and IT Project Manager for Ericsson and Madison College.

Steele holds a Bachelors of Science degree in Business / Information Systems and currently resides in Appleton, WI.