the case for compaq mediation technology hp

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Executive Summary

2. The Telecom environment is changing.

3. Tomorrow’s Telecom Challenges

4. Mediation Meets Those Challenges

5. How Telecom Companies Will Benefit

Network Management Functions

Marketing Functions

Sales Functions

Customer Services Functions

Financial Management Functions

Legal and Regulatory Functions

6. Compaq – Your Total Solution Provider

Mediation Partners

Storage Area Networks

ZLE

7. Customer Success Stories

Verizon and TU-KA Cellular Tokyo

Intec and ITXC

KPN Mobile

Comptel Benchmarking Study

8. References

Mediation Compaq Telecom

1

MEDIATION – MANY PATHS TO INCREASED REVENUE

Executive Summary

The evolution from 2g to 3G means more data. Carriers will want to save, organize, and use that data for business

advantage, and they can. However, on their way to capitalizing on the 3G opportunity, they will face challenges.

An increase in the volume of data so vast that it threatens to overwhelm them.

Demand for value-added services that virtually require new billing systems.

Portfolios differentiated only by the carrier’s SLAs and QoS standards.

An unquenchable need for speed.

The challenge of integrating data coming in from multiple vendors and platforms bound for

constantly evolving downstream applications.

Compaq’s mediation solutions enable our customers to generate revenues from their networks amounting to tens

of billions of dollars every year, and we help them do it quickly, accurately, reliably, and cost-effectively. Our

business success is based on providing our customers with operational support systems (OSS) that help make

business activities more profitable and more manageable.


2

THE TELECOM ENVIRONMENT IS CHANGING

It is early in the new millennium, but already the telecommunications industry finds itself confronted by a sea

change. Voice and IP data are converging, and with that convergence comes a more complicated and demanding

telecom environment. Until recently that environment was safely 2G, meaning that it focused largely on

transporting voice traffic over existing wired and wireless networks. Back office systems needed only to record

data and bill for voice events. However, 2.5G and 3G are coming and with them the mandate to transport value-

added content over those same networks. Consumers, after all, are going mobile. From CDMA to GPRS systems,

they are already beginning to download all kinds of information onto their mobile appliances – weather and traffic

reports, email, driving directions, and more. From PSTN products via SMS to mobile commerce, IP services are

increasing, and the data is flowing.

Obviously, 3G brings with it a mountain of data. Some reports indicate as much as ten times the amount of data

currently in the system. As a carrier, you will want to save, organize, and ultimately use that data to create

business advantage, and there are many business advantages to be had. The wireless IP billing market alone is

expected to leap from $94.6 million in 2001 to $855.7 million in 2005. However, between where now and then lie

some challenges.

Sidebar: GPRS (General Packet Radio Services) is the enabling technology that bridges between the current GSM–

based (Global System Mobile) mobile networks and the next generation UMTS–based (Universal Mobile

Telecommunications Service) mobile networks. With data transmission rates of 115 kbps, GPRS is optimized for

‘bursty’ datacom services such as mobile Internet access, multimedia, and instant messaging.


3

TOMORROW’S TELECOM CHALLENGES

Dramatic Increase in Data Volume

How will you avoid information overload? Carriers want to make sense out of the information they have – and

soon they will have much more of it. In fact, carriers may have an information overload and maintenance problem.

Increasing use of mobile technology has already increased the volume of CDRs. The launch of new 3G services with

its IP component will multiply the volume of EDRs. And it isn’t just the volume. Data will arrive from more and

varied sources. Ultimately, carriers must decide what gets stored and for how long. After all, they are responsible

for making sure that they can handle their business. Clearly, they will need new, more flexible, ways to capture,

store and transport data.

Usage Based Billing for Value Added Services

How will you use the new data to develop revenue? How will carriers charge for a value-add service? What is it

worth to check on the weather or download a Webpage? These are billable events, but they will be billed very

differently from the standard voice call. Billing for

content requires a transition from flat rate to usage-based billing. In order to make that transition, you must be

able to see individual account records at a higher level of granularity.

Even with flat-rate billing, carriers still need some of the ‘who, what, when, where and why’ information that is in

the transaction record to understand how customers are doing business. To provide true CRM (Customer

Relationship Management), they will need to see into the calling pattern, history and habits. Only then can they

determine service levels, pricing strategies and solutions.

Service Level Agreements/Quality of Service

How will you meet customer’s standards for excellence? Service levels and service at a specified price will be a

major concern of the end-user. If specific service levels are not met, carriers will be forced to issue QoS (Quality of

Service) credits/discounts, based on SLA’s (Service Level Agreements). Resolving the inevitable disputes will require

access to granular detail data, such as that provided by EDRs.


4

The Need for Speed

How fast can you actually use the customer information you have? Data has traditionally been batched and

processed within a 30-day window. For carriers, that delay between a customer phone call and billing for that call

is fertile ground for fraud. However, if a company operates in real time, the fraud window narrows. Further,

customer service agents need immediate access to customer information to solve problems, address complaints as

soon as they happen and make adjustments. And what about cash flow? As we have said, the payment channel

can be 60 days long, resulting in cash flow problems.

Carriers will want to offer their customers the ability to use real-time data with their customers also. Retailers

(especially electronic retailers) need to integrate all customer touch points in real time, including instore, web and

catalog tracking to keep their inventory up-to-date. Carriers also need real-time insight into the operational and

traffic statistics of a customer’s network. By so doing, they can dynamically allocate bandwidth and assign QoS on a

per-application basis

Integration Issues with Legacy Systems

How do you pull al this together for seamless service? The merging of new applications and system elements with

existing network architecture will create integration issues on several fronts.

Data records entering tomorrow’s network from many trading partners will arrive in many different

formats. As yet, there is no standard for EDRs. Therefore, the trick is to capture that information from

the network or network element in a format that’s usable.

Advances in Internet technology will create other integration issues as IPv6 (Internet Version 6) is

launched, especially while standards are evolving.

Carriers will need to integrate legacy billing solutions and evolving networks.

What tools and services can carriers use to save them from information overload, provide the level of detail

needed for billing and customer service and provide the needed integration?

MEDIATION MEETS THE CHALLENGE


5

The word ‘mediation’ comes from the Latin and means ‘to be in the middle’, from the Latin word medius.

Mediation systems sit between the network infrastructure and downstream applications. Traditionally, their role

has been to handle one type of data, entering the system from one source and bound for one downstream path to

a billing application. Increasingly, however, they must capture information from several network elements

(switches, the Internet, etc.) and then store, review, sort, abstract and send it on to several downstream

applications. The more reliable this information is, the better carriers can utilize it to boost competitiveness and

revenue assurance.

Carriers need a mechanism by which they can integrate all their interactions with diverse sources seamlessly. The

typical way of meeting this business need is by customer developing a centralized and redundant repository of all

the available resources. However, this is a manual, rigid approach that is both expensive and results in loss of

scalability as the number of services grows over time. A better solution is mediation technology.

Independent mediation has been in use since the early 1980s. But the 3G challenge requires a new generation of

data mediation systems with new capability to meet new challenges. Today’s mediation systems lack the

functionality to handle even today’s modest requirements; they certainly can’t handle tomorrow’s.

Next Generation Mediation is Different

Sidebar: Best in class mediation products will include not only next generation mediation functionality, but also

SAN storage with ZLE technology for speed. [Editors note to printer: insert this sidebar here.]

Carriers need a new generation of mediation systems. Legacy systems and next generation systems differ in three

significant ways:

Current systems are based on frame relay, switched or cable telephone networks. They forward data

from CDRs (call detail records) to, mostly, billing applications. Next generation systems also process

packet-based IP data or EDRs (event data records).

Current mediation systems were designed using a 1-to-1 pipeline configuration. That is, there was

one data source (usually a cable or switch) leading to one back-office application (usually billing). Next

generation systems must collate information from multiple systems (routers, web servers,

authentication servers) and vendors, generate EDRs for every session and export all relevant

information to multiple downstream applications (billing, CRM) for value added services such as CRM,

QoS, SLAs.


6

The new system must also offer real-time processing for value added services such as CRM, billing-on-

demand and fraud protection.


7

The SANs Storage Advantage for Mediation

SANs (Storage Area Networks) are the key to unrestricted data access and thus efficient use of data. Conventional

data storage can scatter business information over several servers or attached external disks. That makes it hard to

access. On the other hand, SANs offer unrestricted data access as they create one data pool and simultaneously

share that data pool across all servers and systems. Add ‘any-to-any’ connectivity between servers and storage,

and companies can now organize and manage data as an independent resource.

SANs are faster and easier to scale than conventional storage, with no downtime. Given the uncertainty of 3G,

carriers will surely need to adjust mediation formats and rules as things evolve. Furthermore, imagine the sudden

popularity of a new service and the influx of new customers. With traditional storage, scaling to handle this happy

event could create a performance bottleneck. A carrier could decide to hold back future new offerings because the

mediation system can’t handle it. That could mean losing competitive advantage. But with a modular design SAN,

part of the initial design choice is the planning for new configurations. So, an increase in business won’t disrupt the

business.

Businesses are always looking to lower costs and achieve better service levels at the same time. In the past, these

two goals often conflicted. However, these advancements in storage technology, along with dramatic declines in

storage pricing now make this a win-win reality.

The value that SANs hold for mediation systems cannot be overstated.

What is a SAN?

Traditional Server Storage Storage Area Network (SAN)

Internal drives or directly attached external disks

to store data

Centralized data pool shared across any

number of servers and systems

Business critical information is often scattered

over a large number of servers

Business critical information stored in one

common pool for easy management and

higher availability

Limits an organization’s flexibility to access their

information

Provides access across entire operation via

‘any-to-any” connectivity between servers and

storage


8

The Zero Latency Enterprise (ZLE) Advantage for Mediation

ZLE provides a real-time architecture for collecting, synchronizing, routing and caching information drawn from a

full range of telecommunications operational systems. Consolidated information is instantly delivered to where it

can do the most good. Consequently, every transaction is instantly visible across the enterprise and can be acted

on immediately. Customer service agents, for example, have a single, unified view of the customer that enables

them to enhance the customer experience with assistance and attractive offers that are highly personalized. As

hyper-competitive markets such as telecommunications increase the speed of business, they need to also

accelerate the internal flow of information. That makes zero latency a business imperative.

By integrating all data and applications throughout the enterprise, the ZLE framework offers several compelling

advantages for telecommunications companies.

Ensures that all applications are using the same current data, leading to improved customer service

Puts data to work instantly in a real-time environment from which valuable business information can

be derived with sub-second latency for rapid response and operational agility.

Enables telcos to move quickly to deploy new high-volume, real-time enabled applications that are

insulated (for scalability and reliability) from existing applications by the central architecture.

What is a zero latency enterprise?

A zero latency enterprise describes an organization that deploys data throughout the organization almost

immediately after it is created in any area of the enterprise. In a zero latency enterprise environment, formerly

costly and time-consuming manual processes are executed by IT systems in near real-time. Data processing is

transformed from an operational necessity into a strategic asset that yields faster response time, better service,

and greater business intelligence.


9

ZLE is now considered such a strategic imperative that eleven of the world’s largest service providers recently

participated in a study conducted by the Gartner Group. The results? The companies studied said that a real-time

CRM program would significantly improve the customer experience and reduce customer turnover from 5-15%.

For these companies, that improvement alone would yield an increase in profitability of up to 15%. By introducing

a zle-based billing on demand solution, companies believe they can effectively increase revenue by 2-3%/year.

With instant access to credit and account information, they can reduce fraud by more than 50%. By linking

separate systems into a single system, companies can reduce information processing costs by 5% to 35%.

TELECOM COMPANIES WILL BENEFIT

Telecom companies will reap the benefits of mediation solutions across the board as new systems serve all

major organizational functions, both front and back-office. For revenues to rise, billing must be done right. But

IP data will contain more than billing information. Even with flat-rate billing only, carriers still need some of

the who's, what's, when's, where's, and whys information that is in the transaction record to continue to

understand how customers are doing business.

Next Generation mediation systems will need to transform raw data collected from the network layers into a

service-level profile of each end-user in order to determine service levels, pricing strategies and solutions.

Next generation mediation systems also have additional useful functionality for a number of other front and

back-end systems such as OSS.


10

The Gartner Group coined term ‘zle’, meaning ‘zero latency enterprise’‘ or no delay’. Carriers need “no delay” between creating data and being able to use it.

Compaq has adopted ZLE as the brand name for its zero latency products.

For a description of the benefit to be derived from each function, see the sections following. They discuss how

each function will benefit - network management, marketing, sales, customer services, finance, legal and

regulatory.


11

THE NETWORK MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT WILL BENEFIT

A serious beneficiary of real time data, this entire department’s effectiveness and ability to adapt to specific

conditions could evolve from a reactive approach to a proactive approach on faults, service restoration and general

network monitoring. From the network perspective, mediation works from two directions – provisioning

subscribers and activating services for them and then collecting usage information from the network.

Service Assurance/Quality of Service

SLAs are guarantees of service quality and related support. They usually have financial penalty clauses that keep

the carrier focused on delivering the agreed contractual service, within the prescribed time constraints. To comply,

carriers must rely on accurately assessing the impact of network events.

Large-scale failures of networks can have a dramatic effect on certain time-sensitive and telephony-reliant

businesses such as commodity trading or real-time market data companies. Using real-time data correctly ensures

accurate load balancing between the network access points and reduction of inbound/outbound line blocking.

Using historic data, carriers can now pro-actively plan for capacity on certain switches before it becomes an issue

for customers. By determining requirements, carriers can anticipate the effect of large congregations of customers

“blitzing” a mobile network and adjust the network to suit the traffic profiles as they happen.

Picture the following scenario.

A user initiates a video conference call under a QoS agreement. Dissatisfied with a noisy connection, they

terminate the call and contact customer service. In order to address the problem, customer service must be able

to verify the poor connection. Using data supplied

in real-time by the mediation system, the CSR finds the detail she needs to compensate this customer. Meanwhile,

the mediation system continues to reformat the same data for later export to a billing system or trading partner.


12

Planning & Analysis for Network Capacity

The mediation layer resolves technical incompatibility issues and makes it easier for carriers to commercially

launch new services by providing one management interface in a multi-vendor network, instant service

provisioning, and modularity that ensures constant operability, even during upgrades. Mediation centralizes all

network data onto a single platform and makes it available to users and other applications across the entire Carrier

enterprise. The data can be used to identify bottlenecks and over-utilization of the network.

“The winners in the world of mobile-Internet will be those who can manage new networks, not just build them.”

ICD


13

THE MARKETING DEPARTMENT WILL BENEFIT

Reduce Churn

Customer churn is a common, complex and difficult to solve problem. However, marketing departments can use

next generation mediation systems to reduce churn in three important ways:

Provide customer service agents access to network quality information.

Identify behavior that generally leads to defections.

Rapidly identify customers who are about to defect and initiate win-back programs within 48 hours.

Historical data on lost customers often holds the key to predicting churn. It is possible to apply propensity models

that establish patterns and relationships in customer behavior that clearly predict customer churn. For instance,

specific events like changes in call patterns and decreases in volume are often good indicators of potential churn.

Spotting this change in behavior before the customer contracts with another supplier is vital, as it is then possible

to take proactive, preventative action.

Fine Tune Marketing Campaigns In-flight

In-flight campaign tuning means monitoring changes in behavior during a campaign so that you can refine the

marketing campaign while it is still running. The marketer of the near future will monitor campaign response as it

comes into the call center or the Website and refine the messages and target audience as required. The days of


14

To acquire a new customer costs 7-10 times more than retaining an existing one.

Yankee

waiting for several weeks or months for response figures will simply cease to exist. The direct marketer may

perform almost like a Wall Street trader – getting real time data from terminals, applying propensity-modeling

techniques to the data and acting immediately on the output.

Launch and Monitor Products

Continuously reviewing and monitoring product usage and sales performance allows product managers to enhance

or withdraw products at the optimum time and provides the ability to analyze the impact of bundling and pricing

changes.


15

THE SALES DEPARTMENT WILL BENEFIT

Actively implementing the marketing vision, the sales department is often closest to the customer. By capturing

customer information and combining it with real time customer behavior, mediation provides a new level of

business intelligence.

Ensure That All Revenue is Counted– never lose an EDR

Revenue assurance in this context means 100% accreditation for every dollar that customers spend. It is essential

that sales directors ensure that all sales are accounted for. Mismanagement of sales-related information is viewed

as a key failing in this role.

Most problems are caused by disparate switching and information platforms, volumes of data, and the inherent

delays caused by poor integration. Different switch platforms create an issue in standardizing data and inevitably

some information is lost in the translation. Integrated mediation solves the disparate platform and volume issues

immediately. It also soles the problem of poor integration by ensuring that the links to downstream applications

are robust and complete.

Cross-sell and Up-sell

Data analysis and profiling allows sales departments to proactively move customers into services that best match

their usage profiles. Image this example: A customer tries repeatedly to call home on a mobile telephone. The

number is busy. Three busy calls to the same number triggers a campaign to sell a ring back service.

What if we could ensure that our existing customers

bought more because usage data was used to trigger

up-sell and cross-sell contacts?


16

?

Reduce Route Defection

Route defection in corporate sales is the loss of a specific calling profile from a regular, established behavioral

pattern. Identifying that a customer is about to defect can be relatively simple, given the right type of data. With a

real time feed of call data, when an unexpected fall in traffic is determined the likelihood of defection is high and

action must be taken to prevent loss of other routes. Mediation systems can detect the telltale sign of service

usage drop before it is too late.

US organizations lose half their customers

every five years and only one in twelve

customers return.

THE CUSTOMER SERVICES DEPARTMENT WILL BENEFIT

The support of existing customers provides extremely useful information that

complements direct sales activities. Understanding the customer’s issues as

well as the customer himself enables agents to counter many complaints on

the spot. What was initially a difficult, defensive dialogue could potentially be

turned into a positive cross-selling/up-selling opportunity, where the customer

believes that they are receiving an enhanced level of service.

3.1

Bill in Real-time or on Demand

This application area is a ‘win-win’ for carrier and customer alike. Both parties are able to bypass the conventional

billing cycle by using real time records online. The carrier gets settlement more promptly, thus aiding cash flow,

and the customer is able to manage the time of the payment to their convenience. For example, the customer may

request that a limit be placed on the level of spend within any given time period. The carrier can measure calls

against this threshold in real-time and alert the customer when they are approaching the threshold.


17

A customer typically interacts with a

company NINE (9) times for every

ONE (1) completed transaction.

Many suppliers of billing systems do not have the ability to link into ALL of the network interfaces in anywhere

near real time. Therefore the statement of account that the customer views is potentially out of date or

incomplete. Mediation systems using rating and zero latency technology have the flexibility and real-time

capability to single source the entire bill-related data. Threshold management is automated. The result is improved

cash flow from the impact of more prompt payments.

Handle Customer Complaints

The ability to provide a real time, single view of the customer is essential to problem solving in the face of

customer complaints. For example, consider a user who has subscribed to a high level of QoS but who cannot

really get a connection at the subscribed QoS. Dissatisfied with the network connection, he calls the CSR. The CSR

looks at the EDR generated for the session and verifies the QoS that the subscriber actually used. If it is inferior, the

subscriber gets a discount.

A large Carrier uses this approach to route specific calls through to the same agent that a customer has spoken to

on previous occasions. This continuity ensures a more effective resolution to any outstanding issues and positions

the Carrier well for future dialogues.


18

FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT WILL BENEFIT

Measure Customer Profitability

Finance is the hub around which all actions revolve. It is becoming clear that not all minutes are of equal value.

Thus, you must understand which minutes contribute to profitability. Even large Carrier’s have limited resources,

and investment opportunities outstrip your ability to deliver them.

Detect Fraud

Fraud is a big problem – about US$10 Billion. The problem is rising at 10% - 15% annually. This equates to large

fixed line carriers losing 3% - 7% of their total revenue to fraud. Cellular carriers often experience 5% - 15% loss.

Now, with a zero-latency solution, you can detect fraud instantly via instant access to credit and account

information. Add to that the ability to set parameters in real time and you may be able to reduce fraud by more

than 50%.

Mediation with ZLE can detect certain types of fraud in real-time e.g. cloning, geography and threshold violations

or call collision/overlap. For example, call collision/overlap (the identification of two simultaneous calls from

different locations) could be handled with an immediate suspension of service or diverting the call to a customer

services center. Geography and threshold violations could also be dealt with more effectively by adding an element

of automation to the process.

Control Financial Exposure

Keeping a tight control on credit limits can be challenging if your finance department does not have direct access

to real time data. Striking a balance between draconian and overly accommodating policies is difficult to achieve.

Mediation provides an ideal real time, analytical environment for Credit and Risk Management. Each customer can

be monitored separately and treated according to specific, pre-agreed metrics.


19

On the surface, pre-paid mobile phones have solved some of these credit issues. The growth of pre-paid telephony

has been phenomenal. The UK alone has in excess of 4 Million prepaying telephony customers who were

previously unable to obtain credit or wanted to control their spending.


20

THE LEGAL AND REGULATORY FUNCTIONS WILL BENEFIT

How much could you gain from getting a product approved and to market one month earlier than expected?

Perhaps millions of dollars over a twelve-month period!

Regulatory and governmental bodies throughout the world are increasingly involved in the shaping and monitoring

of modern Carrier’s. Security agencies are actively seeking assistance with calling patterns relating to crime and

fraud. This often requires real time information from a variety of sources in order to establish specific connections

and potentially related activities.

Security

Government agencies and police forces are becoming increasingly demanding of the larger Carrier’s, regularly

requesting live information on specific activities. Armed with this real time information, the agencies and security

forces are able to provide a speedy reaction to events as and when they actually happen rather than the following

day or week when it may simply be too late. Does your Carrier have the right technology to allow this type of

analysis and alarm capability without interrupting day to day operations?


21

One large Carrier has such an infrastructure in place and recently used it to crack a drug ring by working closely with the local police force over a period of three

months. The level of work involved was minimal. The extra requests for information were simply scheduled and automated accordingly.

The drug ring in question generated approximately $50 million dollars per year in illegal revenue.

This was terminated in one early morning swoop on several households. Mediation provided the bulk of the required information and intelligence.

Regulatory Reporting

Organizations like the FCC also require fast responses to specific queries. Industry regulators can be very taxing on

a large Carrier when considering the potential market impact of new tariffs/services and the potential impact.

The ability to proactively drive the regulatory authorities ensures that the control of certain situations is in the

hands of the Carrier and not the Carrier’s competition or the regulator. It puts the pressure back on the

competition and drains their resources. How much overhead can be placed on the competition by ensuring that

they are constantly reacting to price changes rather than generating their own ideas?


22

THE COMPAQ HISTORY WITH TELECOM

The prime movers in the wireless market are carriers. These companies are building the vast public networks that

will serve us for years into the future. Increasingly, however, carriers are turning to computer companies to help

build these new networks. Why? Because computer companies have the necessary digital technology which is

standards-based and therefore flexible, high performing and low cost.

It sometimes surprises people to learn that Compaq is not just a PC company. For 25 years it has provided the core

technology that drives many of the major wireless services in the world.

Over the years, our customers have included:

AT&T

Verizon

Sprint

British Telecom

France Telecom

Deutsche Telecom

China Unicom

To those customers, we have provided:

Roaming technology for wireless services to 70 million mobile customers

Fraud management solutions that protect 90 million users

Network management solutions for more than 120 phone companies around the world.

The solutions that power almost all the 800 numbers in the United States.

Today, Compaq Telecom has much to offer the carrier with mediation needs:

Over 100 mediation customers worldwide.

An application portfolio including such leaders as Comptel, Intec and Verizon UMS.

A diverse operating systems portfolio including NSK, Tru64, Linux, and Windows NT

A turnkey solution including implementation, consulting, support and training

Systems pre-configured to the customers specifications


23

COMPAQ – YOUR TOTAL SOLUTION PROVIDER

Solution Part #1 - Compaq’s Partners

Our portfolio partners provide mediation solutions operating on Compaq AlphaServers, NonStop Himalaya and

Proliant servers. These fine companies have the distinction of being Platinum Partners based on the strategic

importance of their relationship with Compaq.

Comptel (HEX:CTL1V). is the global market leader in mediation solutions. Through their local offices and the

extensive partner network they have established a truly global presence serving over 200 customers in 56

countries worldwide, including Omnipoint/Vodaphone of Italy with 15 million subscribers. Headquartered in

Helsinki, Finland, Comptel is listed on the Helsinki Exchange.

Running on Compaq’s Tru64 operating system and the AlphaServer platform, Comptel’s Mediation Device

Solutions (MDS) is a leading solution in the field of independent mediation devices. Utilizing an Oracle database

structure, this solution is comprised of both billing and mediation functionality and service activation features in

great demand among fixed and mobile network operators. For more information, visit www.comptel.com.

Intec Telecom Systems (LSE:ITL) provides fundamental revenue assurance technologies such as Inter-mediatE

convergent mediation and InterconnecT inter-carrier billing, to the telecommunications industry. Clients include

the world's biggest carriers, such France Telecom, and Verizon (for whom they handle 600 million CDRs/day). Their

global reach serves 200 customers in over 30 countries. INTEC is a FTSE 250 company. For more information, visit

www.intec-telecom-systems.com .

Intec’s Inter-mediatE modular solution is a high-volume, convergent solution that collects, processes and

distributes data from circuit- and packet-based networks. it utilizes a proprietary database structure reporting

through oracle and supports English, Spanish and French languages. Installed at over 85 customer sites across 5


24

http://www.intec-telecom-systems.com/

continents, customers include large carriers processing over 7,850 million records/day down to start-ups

processing only 10,000 records/day. Packaged with the Compaq AlphaServer and Tru64 operating system, it

accepts any record format from any network element and interfaces with any billing solution. For more

information on the Compaq AlphaServer, visit our online showroom at http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/


25

http://www.compaq.com/alphaserver/

Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) is the largest provider of wireline and wireless communications in the United

States, with 132.1 million access line equivalents and 29.4 million wireless customers. A Fortune 10 company with

more than $67 billion in annual revenues and 240,000 employees, Verizon's global reach covers more than 40

countries incuding Japan where they process over 300 million CDRs/day for KDDI-Japan.

The Usage Management System (UMS) from Verizon Data Services is a high-volume, high-velocity system that

automates data collection from the most sophisticated networks. At the heart of UMS are three robust modules: a

flexible mediation system, a user-friendly, rules-based development tool, and a complete pre-billing solution. The

UMS operates on Compaq’s Himalaya NonStop platform and integrates with any billing solution. For more

information on the Nonstop Himalaya Servers visit our online showroom at http://www.compaq.com/showroom.

For more information on Verizon, visit them at www.verizon.com.

Compaq Mediation Business Advantages

Feature Benefit

Fault Tolerance Permanent availability of business critical

information

Common mediation across switching

platform

Lower overall cost and single version of the

truth

Handles convergent networks – wireline,

wireless, and ATM

Lower overall cost and single pint of

reference

No pre-set billing cycles Cash flow, margins and customer service can

be improved

Real-time output Customer and network intelligence is

available for those that need it, when they


26

http://www.verizon.com/

http://www.compaq.com/showroom

need it.

Mixed workload Lower overall cost of

implementation/ongoing management and

better overall performance.

True scalability Protects initial investment and levels out

capital expenditure spikes.

Solution Part #2 - Compaq SAN Storage

Compaq San storage has been hailed repeatedly as the industry leader in SAN storage solutions. Our special

advantages include:

Unlimited capacity and scalable performance through modular RAID Storage units.

Supports up to 100 km in a single long distance segment for a fibre-channel SAN

Support for Internet Protocol (IP) by seamlessly integrating IP connectivity with SAN fiber channel.

Do-it-yourself configuration tools and templates that save setup costs and time.

Downtime-free expansion allowing businesses to add servers or reconfigure applications without

interrupting normal daily operations.

Compaq Enterprise Storage is the number one global storage solutions supplier. According to studies published in

August 2001 by Gartner Dataquest and IDC, customers continue to turn to Compaq in large numbers for the value


27

and reliability of their enterprise storage products. Compaq is one of only two storage vendors in the Leadership

Quadrant of Gartner's highly regarded ''SAN Integrator Magic Quadrant'' analysis.


28

Source: The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted June 2001 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission. Gartner’s permission to print its Magic Quadrant should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is Gartner’s opinion and is an analytical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It measures vendors against Gartner-defined criteria for a marketplace. The positioning of vendors within a Magic Quadrant is based on the complex interplay of many factors. Well- informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than a Magic Quadrant. Gartner Research is intended to be one of many information sources and the reader should not rely solely on the Magic Quadrant for decision-making. Gartner expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied of fitness of this research for a particular purpose

"With its new StorageWorks ”Enterprise” products, Compaq remains the leader in the modular system storage market, and is the largest storage vendor and the largest SAN vendor based on capacity shipments".

Gartner, Jan 2002

In the above diagram of a SAN Configuration, the data stored on the Compaq StorageWorks RAID arrays can be

presented to multiple servers and heterogeneous platforms. As more servers and switches are added to a SAN

fabric, the resulting configuration, known as a topology, can be optimized for a large variety of needs. This support

may include future migration, data locality, accessibility, disaster tolerance, performance workloads, geographic

layout and scalability.

Compaq’s leadership in SANs is demonstrated in many ways. With Compaq, new technology serves as a business

solution, and not just a technical advance. For example, Compaq’s storage arrays use a cutting edge modular

design that allows for rapid expansion with NO downtime. Even during periods of exceptional growth, normal

business functions are never compromised.

For more information on Compaq Telecom storage products and services, visit our website at

http://www.compaq.com/services/storage/st_raid.html.

For more information on the implementation of storage solutions, see us at this address:

http://www.compaq.com/services/storage/st_implementation.html


29

“For us, the improvements in moving to the Compaq StorageWorks SAN were so obvious that we never looked back; we never gave it a second thought. It was evident from the beginning that we had made the right choice.”

Chip Register, senior vice president and CIO,Resource Bancshares Mortgage Group, Inc.

http://www.compaq.com/services/storage/st_implementation.html

http://www.compaq.com/services/storage/st_raid.html


30

Solution Part #3 - Compaq Zero Latency Enterprise (ZLE) Technology

Compaq’s ZLE is an integrated solution combining a zero latency engine – encompassing all of Compaq’s core

server platforms – with the software components needed to provide instant access to a single, integrated

operational data store.

Compaq ZLE technology removes all the barriers to rapid deployment of your business-critical information. Among

the obstacles are ‘application islands’ – applications that are poorly integrated into the enterprise or sometimes

not integrated at all. These can include packaged, custom or legacy applications or a combination. Because they

often require costly and time-consuming manual processes before they can interface with the rest of the

organization, they are left isolated, creating bottlenecks that compromise response time and the value of the data.

After all, data that you can’t reach when you need it isn’t worth much.

Compaq’s ZLE technology removes that barrier by combining ODS (operational data store) with world-class EAI

software to create an engine (the Compaq Interaction Manager) that both pushes and pulls data from a central

database to create a unique framework for application integration, e-commerce and CRM.

Compaq’s ZLE solutions for telecommunications are field proven to work in the most demanding business

environments. Compaq teamed with major telecommunications companies to create a realistic scenario so large

that it would tax any other system beyond its capacity. But the Compaq solution was able to add 1.2 billion CDRs to

a NonStop Himalaya server database every day – and keep them online for 90 days! The scale is unprecedented.

The engine itself integrates all of Compaq’s core server platforms, including a 128-processor NonStop Himalaya

server, Tru64Unix GS140 AlphaServers, and Windows NT-based ProLiant 7000 OLAP servers, and a cluster of

ProLiant 1850 data mining servers.

This scenario demonstrates the Compaq advantage:

Unlimited scalability to handle absolutely any size workload.

The NonStop SQL software is the only dtabase that can support concurrent transaction processing

and data mining.

ZLE solutions are individually engineered using a life-cycle methodology.

ZLE solutions are built to operate in an open-standards environment, allowing carriers to deploy them

on a mix of systems


31

“The zero latency product offers a flexible and cost effective solution for pulling queries from various data sources

with minimal investments to reconfigure the environment.”

Evelyn Follit, senior vice president and CIO, Tandy Corporation/Radio Shack

For more information on our ZLE solution, see us at this address on the Internet:

http://telecom.compaq.com/solutions.

Solution Part #4 - Compaq Award-winning Integration Services

Today, carriers need a total solution provider who can deliver both services and products integrated with all

applications and platforms. In the past, the carrier knew that they would have to integrate the solution into their

own network system themselves. Today competition in the telecom sector is so fierce that they must concentrate

on retaining current customers and searching for new ones. Thus, they need a turnkey solution.

To meet specific requirements, carriers may choose from a range of services including:

Data Integration

Data Mining

User Access Integration

Enterprise Application Integration

Hardware and Software Integration

Performance Assurance for your entire solution

Ongoing Project Management

Disaster Tolerance planning

Security Management.

For a ZLE solution, Compaq Global Services can help you reduce risk, time, and costs by employing our expertise

and the rigorous methodologies of our ZLE Implementation service:


32

http://telecom.compaq.com/solutions

Plan Design Implement Manage Support

Figure # : The life cycle of Compaq Global Services for ZLE spans planning, design, implementation, management

and support.

Compaq Global Services continues to be recognized for excellence by customers, partners, industry organizations,

and publications worldwide. Our awards and honors reflect our dedication, technical expertise, professionalism,

and commitment to customer satisfaction. For more information, see us at

http://www.compaq.com/services/awards/index.html.


33

Business Exploration

Architecture Scan

Architecture BlueprintProof of ConceptPilot

ImplementationDeploymentPerformanceAssurance

IntegratedIT OperationsManagement

BusinessCriticalSupport

IT and businessstrategic

alignmentProvenarchitecture

Rapid,low-risk

implementation

Stableoperation

24 x 7availabilityBusiness

goals and direction

Strategic consulting and BPR with

http://www.compaq.com/services/awards/index.html

CUSTOMER SUCCESS STORIES

Compaq Telecom products have served thousands of carrier customers worldwide. Here

are just a few of their stories.

TU-KA Cellular Tokyo/Verizon Rise to the Challenge

Verizon customer TU-KA Cellular Tokyo offers service to Japan’s Pacific Belt Zone. They have watched their

customer base skyrocket to 1,150 million customers, necessitating an infrastructure that would support the

increased call volumes and record call histories, tally charges and adjust rate plans. The existing system processed

both rating and billing operations on a single mainframe system that hampered TU-KA’s attempt to get competitive

rates plans into the market swiftly and flexibly. They needed a system with the ability to process massive amounts

of accurate tasks online at almost real time.

After a detailed search of foreign and domestic computer companies, TU-KA Cellular Tokyo elected to support their

new rating system – TUBASA – with UMS software from Verizon operating on the Compaq NonStop Himalaya

platform. This solution has greatly increased the efficiency of the billing operations by offloading mediation and

rating from the mainframe billing system. The CDR is now sent from the switch system directly to UMS mediation

which checks enormous volumes of data in order to calculate each customer’s charge based on day of the week,

time of day, customer rates plan and other variables. While the new capability is great, the best news is that the

mediation system sends the information onto the mainframe billing system within 30 minutes of receipt of the call

data.

For more information on TU-KA, see their website at http://www.kddi.com/english.


34

http://www.kddi.com/english

ITXC/INTEC Blaze New Trails over the Internet

In just four years of operation, ITXC has become the largest US-based dedicated wholesale carrier of international

phone calls. The company ranks among the top 20 carriers of any kind in the world based on minutes of

international calling. Approximately two out of every 100 international calls worldwide are carried by ITXC on

behalf of the retail carriers whose customers make these calls.

Proprietary ITXC technology has made it possible to build a carrier-grade call completion network, ITXC.net, with

849 points of presence in 406 cities in 146 countries.

For a company to become the largest US-based dedicated wholesaler of international phone calls in just four years,

it has to be ready to pounce on opportunities. In March of 1998 ITXC set out to build a carrier-grade call-

completion network using the Internet as a backbone and bypass the traditional route of leasing or buying

networks in worldwide markets, paying large monthly fees, and taking months to set up its operations. But the

company realized that, in order to ensure the highest levels of service, it needed a way to gather and leverage as

much real-time network data as possible for a variety of downstream systems.


35

“We were a start-up business not so long ago and the way you get ahead is by jumping on opportunities. And the Intec and Compaq platform has allowed us to do that. We owe a lot of that to the power of mediation.”

Lee Cascio, vice president of development, network engineering and development, ITXC

ITXC started developing its own mediation solution using a Microsoft SQL Server, however

the realization quickly hit home that a fledgling technology would require regular patches, fixes, and updates.

couldn’t afford to wait, and decided to evaluate existing mediation solutions. Intec’s Inter-mediatE solution

featured multiple approaches to every potential problem, instilling a comfort factor that the system would be able

to handle any situation ITXC might throw at it.

Today, running on Compaq’s AlphaServer™ ES40 platform, Inter-mediatE, Intec’s module-based, convergent

collection and mediation platform, gathers raw network usage data and transforms it into rich, billable business

information in formats that can be distributed to ITXC’s operational and business consuming applications.

“They’re looking at reports, statistics, alarms—everything is hot off the press,” related Lee Cascio, vice president of

development, network engineering and development at ITXC. “The information is 15 minutes old at the most when

they receive it on their screens, and it’s all flowing out of the mediation system. They get more than call detail

records (CDRs)—they also get SNMP (simple network management protocol) data, and log files.”

Using the Internet allows the Company to have a unique cost structure, no net debt and extremely fast speed to

market in any new location. The Intec and Compaq solution has enabled ITXC to do just that. For more information

on ITXC, see their website at http://www.itxc.com.


36

http://www.itxc.com/

KPN Mobile/Comptel Stay Abreast of Billing Needs

It’s no secret that telecommunications systems are evolving rapidly today. But some billing systems still haven’t

gotten the word. KPN Mobile, a Netherlands-based provider of wireless services in Europe, had a provider, a billing

system that couldn’t quickly manage new equipment releases in the core network. The company decided to define

a standard interface to send a stream of data between the systems, but soon discovered this was more time-

consuming than anticipated.

In the meantime, KPN wanted to introduce a new wireless service and found that delivering CDRs in uniform

format for billing was in the critical path—hardly an optimal situation.

Adding new functionalities to its network meant that KPN’s CDR formats were changing. A flexible mediation

solution would ensure a uniform billing environment and promote revenue assurance. So, with flexibility and the

capability to manage system changes quickly as its key criteria, KPN approached Comptel Corporation about

developing a mediation platform that could help reduce time to market for services and beef up its bottom line.

“We were extending our core network, making configuration changes and simultaneously collecting

information from our MSCs (mobile switching centers)

and network events. In order to be flexible enough to grow, we had

to introduce mediation.”

Peter de Fuijk, Manager, operations/ development for value-added services

The resulting solution collects and correlates information from the company’s 26 networked MSCs, its service

management system center (SMSC), applications like voice mail, and various value-added systems, and sends it all

downstream to a retail and wholesale billing system used for third-party customers and KPN’s roaming subscribers.


37

Based on a Compaq AlphaServer™ six-node cluster, the system delivers the performance and availability needed

to manage an average of 25 million CDRs per day with zero revenue leakage while maintaining 600 GB of data.

With an excellent support contract from Compaq Service that covers maintenance, release management, and

minor changes and adaptations to the system, KPN is confident its mediation system has the company flowing in

the right direction. For more information on KPN, see their website at http://www.kpn.com.


38

http://www.kpn.com/

Compaq/Comptel Benchmark World-Class Performance

Compaq and Comptel are long standing partners with over 40 joint customers worldwide. The combination of

Comptel applications with Compaq innovative products, services and enabling technology has resulted in

integrated solutions delivered globally. in a benchmarking event Comptel’s MDS/AMD product, together with

Compaq’s AlphaServer platform produced outstanding test results that approach performance figures previously

seen only with high-end super computers and proprietary architectures. This record-breaking performance

demonstrates that the Comptel /Compaq solution offers both excellent maximum capacity and the scalability to

maintain performance when the numbers of ER’s and subscribers increase.

Characterization tests conducted at the Compaq Computer European Technology Centre in Sophia Antipolis,

France yielded exceptional results. The objective of the testing was to measure the compatibility and performance

of the MDS/AMD application under both ideal and customer-case conditions. MDS/AMD performed mediation

tasks including conversions, analysis and delivery of event records produced by ATM and GPRS networks.

The tests yielded just the result that both companies were looking for - outstanding MDS/AMD performance,

scalability and stability. The powerful Comptel/Compaq combination processed over 100,000 ERs per hour or over

8.6 billion ERs/day. This result proves that MDS/AMD can increase in scale from smaller environments to

accommodate the performance requirements of even the largest operators.

In addition, the tests, conducted on both the Compaq ES45 and Compaq GS320 AlphaServers prove Comptel’s

mediation solutions can grow in a cost-effective way. The ES45 is a high performing option that renders good value

for the money, while the GS320 offers maximum performance. For more information on Comptel, see the website

at http://www.comptel.com.


39

“The scalability of the Compaq platform enabled us to prove that we are ready for the mobile Internet challenge. This benchmark is an example of the close global co-operation between Compaq and Comptel and enables a smooth and consistent technology migration path with best-of-breed solutions for operators.” worldwide.”

http://www.comptel.com/

Jari Annala, Executive Vice President, Comptel.


40

SUMMARY


41

Resources and Quotation Sources

1. “8 Lessons from the Telecom Mess / Bye-Bye Best Effort” Business Week, August 13, 2001

2. “BSS Mediation Market Report”, Marcus Evans, August 2001

3. “IP Mediation: System Selection and Functionality Requirements”, Billing World, October, 2001

4. “Mediation Device Requirements for GPRS” PriceWaterhouseCoopers, August 2001

5. “Multi-Service Mediation White Paper”, The Gartner Group, September 4, 2001

6. “OSS Integration: Stepping Stone to Flow-Through Provisioning” Billing World, August 2001

7. “Terra Incognita” Cap Gemini Ernst & Young's Telecom Media Networks (TMN) Practice, August 2001

8. “The Future of Wireless – Delivering Next generation Services”, Ovum May, 2001.

9. “The Mediated IP Data Battle Strategy: Divide and Conquer, or Partition and Store?” Billing World, July 2001

10. “The Role of Mediation in Billing and Customer Care: Have We Found the Critical Piece of the Convergence

Puzzle?” The Yankee Group, September 12, 2001

11. “You are ---and so are lots of other people.” Sharon Cleary, The Wall Street Journal, June 25, 2001.

12. The Future of Wireless – Delivering Next Generation Services”, Ovum May, 2001


42

the case for compaq mediation technology hp

Documents