Even more automated eBonding eases order flow across carriers

While order management specialist Synchronoss may be best known for its AT&T iPhone activation and other device management deals, it also does big business providing the receipt gateways that replace legacy systems and synchronize information for many smaller CLECs acquiring assets and leasing circuits from larger service providers.

Those CLECs are looking for solutions that can help them wring the cost out of service provisioning while preserving the quality of experience for customers, who of course want a seamless transition from one carrier to the next during M&A or interconnect and leasing activities.

eBonding is emerging as a means for ensuring cost control and cost management in these carrier-to-carrier interactions, particularly in turning up services or accomplishing repairs on leased circuits.

“As [service providers] try to balance a need for shorter, more cost-efficient implementation times for new services with the need to preserve the quality of the customer experience, eBonding is becoming of paramount importance as they piece together specialized capabilities in either order management or workflow,” says Mark Mendes, executive vice president of InterconnectNow, a solution that has been expanded to improve access service request (ASR), local service request (LSR) and e-trouble management capabilities and streamline send and receive e-bonding capabilities.

Because most suppliers provide point solutions that specialize in either order management or workflow, Synchronoss felt it was time to create a holistic solution that brought together ebonding, workflow and order management. By converging its InterconnectNow (ebonding), ConvergenceNow (workflow) and ConvergenceNow Plus+ (order management) platforms, Synchronoss believes service providers will more efficiently and cost effectively manage the entire life cycle of a circuit order—from the time the end customer asks for a service to the back-office steps necessary to turn up the service and maintain it through repairs and ultimate decommissioning of the circuit down the road.

“To make this as streamlined as possible, we have further automated our order receive capabilities by adhering to ATIS’ OBF standards around ASR, LSR and trouble management,” said Mendes, who noted the Synchronoss rules engine is driven by standardized rules sets for trouble administration, which improves the communications necessary to send orders back and forth between carriers.

“By incorporating industry trading rules for local services and for access service ordering, it helps improve the provisioning of local services riding over those pipes that exist among carriers and between carriers and high-bandwidth users,” said Mendes. “We improved our business rules components as we strive to achieve higher level of testless automation. We want our systems to make the logical choices formerly left to people. As we refine those rules across electronic gateways, carriers can accomplish more sophisticated and automated send and receive transmissions.”

To further streamline carrier-to-carrier communications, Synchronoss has also more tightly integrated with Granite and other telco inventory systems. “In many cases, carriers have to lease circuits and interconnect with other carriers through third parties, yet they want to keep that leased circuit in their inventory as though it were their own, so this integration will help them know circuit locations, as well as the identities of the customers whose services ride over those circuits,” explained Mendes.

The solution will also boast enhanced Web-based rules management and publishing capabilities to further push self-care among carriers and among carriers and end customers. “CSPs want to displace the need for a CSR; they want to do the legwork through an easy-to-use interface that allows interactions without a lot of added cost,” said Mendes.

Synchronoss will be demonstrating the InterconnectNow platform at next week’s Billing & OSS World conference.