Firm finds more mineable data in Class 4/5 switches

Consulting and software development firm, Telecom Analysis Software, has landed a contract with Midwest competitive carrier LDMI to monitor and record events, usage, and circuit inventory data on all its switching systems using TAS’ Communications Analysis and Statistical History (CASH) service.

CASH is a suite of software-based products and services that provide network management and forensic capabilities and the ability to extract raw call-processing data (root-data) from operating switches and their associated networks, which in turn provides a permanent verifiable record of all switch events.

The software operates at the operational maintenance layer, one below the call detail or AMA records, and reports on elements of the switch rather than the calls themselves. It collects data metrics such as the number of seizures in a particular trunk group, average hold times, percent of call completions or how many calls were abandoned as well as on the number or retries, or instances of dial tone being unavailable.

CASH creates technical and non-technical reports such as those requested by C-level executives for their morning reports.

"We report all the pieces of a call that the call record is defined from," said Philip Balevre, managing director of Telecom Analysis Software.

Developed over years of providing consulting services and analysis to service providers, which TAS has turned into software tools, the CASH solution is meant to extend the useful life of existing switches. It also guards against fraud and revenue leakage and provides a Revenue Assurance Technology Platform.

"The TDM world is not dead," Balevre said "There are a lot of switches out there we can extend the life of by giving them some intelligence and having the ability to retrieve raw data."

The software pulls raw, or root-data, from Class 4 and Class 5 switches that can be used to ensure the performance and return on investment of network hardware. TAS claims to be the first company to address this requirement at the peg-count level, which provides a more detailed, accurate assessment than relying on call records.

With the first deployment of its tools-turned-software solution, which it resurrected and updated from a previous solution built in 1987, TAS is planning an aggressive rollout to all tiers of operators beginning early next year.

LDMI is using CASH to establish a Sarbanes-Oxley compliant audit trail of all LDMI switch records by presenting a true view of switch and network activity. LDMI also is using the software to optimize its switching. The service provider was able to realize enough savings through identifying network inefficiencies in the first week of deployment to pay for the solution.

"With Sarbanes-Oxley impacting this industry and with all the paranoia over the last few years, I think this is a godsend. The information is pure and no one can argue whether or not it is real," Balevre said.

LDMI Telecommunications is an integrated communications provider serving business and residential customers in the Great Lakes region. Founded in 1992, the company today serves more than 80,000 customers in Michigan and Ohio.

TAS began as a financial and advisory service company in the mid 1980s. CASH was built on the company’s AutoTools software, which it developed to analyze switch performance.