Page 13 - Telecom Reseller July-August 2017

July/August 2017
T Telecom Reseller 13
captured at a component level, inventory usability is diminished.
To illustrate the point, consider a standard business line. ere are dozens of features and con guration options available for business lines. e line could be con gured with at, measured or metered rate service. PICs, calling features, and hunting are also relevant. If the invoice developed inventory does not capture these details at a line item level, then the usability of the inventory
may be limited for lifecycle activities such as service moves, contract negotiations and service engineering.
Relying only on invoice data to develop a lifecycle management inventory is awed. When validating inventory for completeness and accuracy, analysis of all con guration details and attributes for all services and assets is required. is approach takes more e ort, but it also improves visibility into the environment to support the full lifecycle of telecom management activities. n
vice president and general manager of Westcon- Comstor’s UCC Practice. “Grandstream’s complete SIP endpoints portfolio bolsters our traditional service provider business, as well as new relationships with emerging Internet telephony service providers.”
e Westcon-Comstor UCC Solutions Practice helps solution providers and vendors grow their business with vendor-authorized training programs, business-extending lifecycle and professional services, and future-forward enablement tools. Westcon-Comstor maintains a strong portfolio of technology-leading and emerging vendors, providing the programs and incentives that partners need to connect, create and evolve.
“Westcon-Comstor has a well-established global reach, deep market expertise and tremendous relationships with service providers around the world,” said David Li, CEO of Grandstream. “Most importantly, they o er robust value-added services to ensure customers get the most from their purchase. We are excited to embark on a long and successful partnership with Westcon-Comstor, one that will mutually bene t customers of both companies.”
More at www.grandstream.com and https://www.westconcomstor.com/global/en/ technologies/ucc.html. n
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Does Your TEM Inventory Support Service and Asset Lifecycle Management?
COLWELL
by Timothy C. Colwell, SVP Ef ciency First® Adoption – AOTMP (www.aotmp.com)
elecom expense management (TEM) vendors have long touted service visibility as a major bene t delivered by their
systems. Over the past decade, TEM vendors have expanded functionality to include telecom assets in inventory as well. It makes sense to assume that a TEM inventory contains everything an enterprise would need to manage the lifecycle of each telecom service and asset in the environment, but the reality of that assumption may not be true.
e genesis of a TEM system inventory is billing. Invoice charge details are assimilated
into an inventory of services and assets, validated against contracts and service guides, reconciled against real estate location addresses and employee identi ers, and con rmed against MACD orders. While this method of inventory build can yield an accurate billing and charge inventory, the devil is literally in the details when considering its value as a lifecycle management resource. If invoice details used to develop the inventory are missing or not
Ask the Telecom Pro - August 2017
Q: What is an SLO?
A: SLO is an acronym for service level objective. It is similar to a service level agreement (SLA), but contains no performance guarantees or remedies should the performance objective not be met. SLOs are useful in a vendor-customer relationship when the vendor desires to illustrate a performance target related to the solution or scope of work delivered, but the performance target is not contractually tied to a performance guarantee.
Q: Does a telecom carrier’s uptime SLA cover the network service from end-to-end?
A: It depends. In cases where the vendor has end-to-end control over the physical plant and systems delivering the service, they may o er a total service uptime guarantee.
It is important to review all details and exclusions for SLAs, though,
as vendors will typically not extend uptime performance measures to network components, such as last mile connectivity, that are outside of their direct control.
Westcon-Comstor Expands UCC Solutions Practice with Addition of Grandstream Networks ...continued from page 9
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