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Global
News
September
15, 2003
Merging network operations centers
Eric
Klein & Monica Zlotogorski
UNITED
STATES -- In recent years, reducing operating expenses
has been a thought that is in the forefront of every
executive's mind. There are several ways of accomplishing
this goal. Some of those include consolidating operations
between locations, relocating part or all of an operation
to a lower cost area, and re-organising one operation
into two separate locations. Whether the change is part
of a downsizing, consolidation, acquisition, or a decision
to separate back-office technology from the main corporate
location, it has many complexities that need attention.
When long-term savings are weighed against the one-time
cost of the change, one or more of these changes make
sense, for each company.
A
change in location of a division is something that most
managers have little or no direct experience in planning
and implementing. That is because this type of change
usually occurs once in the lifetime of an organisation.
Any department or division that moves will have to face
several obstacles, but data processing (DP) departments
have several unique problems only they must face. For
example, thousands of integrators help a company meet
its power requirements, run the correct cables, etc.
When
telecom providers are involved, the complexities increase
with the consolidation of network operations centers
(NOCs). Not only do they have similar concerns as those
of normal enterprises, but also have full networks with
paying customers, who expect perfect service, regardless
of what happens in the back-office. For telecom provider,
it is the DP departments (enterprise - internal LAN,
etc.) and those supporting customers (the computers
behind the operations, customer care, and billing systems.).
Mergers
and consolidations force the need to fuse management,
and monitor local and regional networks into one national
NOC. Habitually, local and regional NOCs lack sufficient
mechanisms to provide information needed at a central
network control level, or the local network monitoring
systems are not well-matched with the network management
system used by the national NOC. As the novel IT and
operations departments fight to combine systems and
processes previously running over dissimilar environments,
the new organisation experiences important outages during
the initial phases of a merger or consolidation. The
challenge is to match these systems and processes at
a global scale. In other words, increase network management
command and consistency by combining previously segmented
data and events over new integrated network management
systems. The key issue is to establish the consolidation
game plan. There are no standard recipes in a NOC consolidation
process. Each project has its own unique challenges.
When
Cellcom implemented its new GSM service, it realised
that the existing network management center (NMC) staff
was not close to the Engineering Technology Group and
senior management. However, it decided to move NMC's
staff of to a new facility closer to the rest of Engineering.
It re-organised the team from units related to NMS areas
to areas based on technology domains.
According
to Uzi Meshulam, director, network control, Cellcom,
the most difficult things that needed handling were
logistics, food, salary, transportation issues, etc.
He explained that there was also a need to make sure
that the each of the employees had transportation to
and from work, that food was available for them even
when the cafeteria was closed, and that the changes
in salary did not become a hardship to the employees.
Already having clients at the headquarters, via its
backbone network, made technical aspects of the move
easier for Cellcom. Thus, all it had to do was purchase
new computers for each one of the workstations, and
connect the LAN to the servers at the old NMC. Uzi explained:
"Since it was moving people, and not hardware,
it was necessary to make sure that the SDH and routers
were strong enough to help people work properly. Since
it was a new segment of a LAN, it was easy to transfer
services."
For
carriers not lucky enough to have clients configured
at remote locations, Uzi recommends using the test system
or a new system if the test system is not large enough.
This way, the operation can run in parallel, at the
old and new sites, while the new systems are being tested.
In order to do this, a tight co-ordination with hardware
and software vendors is essential. He recommends that
the transfer should take place on a Saturday night,
because, if anything fails, the organisation has another
weekend day to resolve it. Also, make sure to transfer
the old site's main telephone lines to the new site
so there is no loss of service.
Looking
at the various initial costs and long-term savings associated
with this process can be complex. This complexity makes
a management consultant useful. They can also help look
at the justification and help determine when the payback
for the cost of the change will be. In addition, management
needs to work with the vendors to reduce the strain
of the change. In case of an upgrade to a new hardware,
try arranging it with an overlap period. The same is
true for licenses related to the software. See if it
is possible to work with the vendors to allow overlap
licenses during the transition. This can allow the systems
to run in parallel to make sure that the new system
is operational before the hot cut.
Properly
managing the change increases productivity and potential
for a payback. On the other hand, poorly handled changes
can halt the operations. This will adversely affect
customer service, and can cost customers or non-compliance
penalties.
(The
authors Eric Klein and Monica Zlotogorski are next-gen
solutions manager and market development manager, TTI
Telecom, respectively.)
Contact:
TTI Telecom
Tel: +1-201-400-5732
monica@tti-telecom.com
www.tti-telecom.com
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