THE FUTURE AS SEEN THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

VIEW TO A BILL

You're a carrier. You know the accuracy of your invoices. So you know the accuracy of invoices you receive from other carriers. And you know they can't be trusted.

Start-up Vibrant Solutions knows something, too: The only way to sell solutions in this economic climate is to provide cost reduction or revenue generation. And it knows the department running the show right now is finance.

According to Vibrant, 50% to 60% of carrier revenue can be consumed in interconnection costs, and the invoice error rate for those costs averages 8% to 12%.

So the Fairfax, Va.-based Vibrant developed ViewLogic, a business intelligence suite of applications that will help carriers recover some of the estimated $22 billion in annual lost revenue.

“Trying to do this all manually is a big mess,” said Parag Sheth, vice president of marketing for Vibrant. “[So] we take all the complex information and keep it simple and let the system do the work.”

ViewLogic is designed to process that data by the terabyte. The system can handle 25,000 invoices per month and more than 1 million inventory items. And approximately 100 bean counters can access the system simultaneously.
— Tim McElligott
www.informationview.com

GET SMART

Routers on the edge of the network have different functions than those in the core — at least that's the message from Redback Networks, which unveiled its SmartEdge 800 router that includes much-anticipated IP aggregation capabilities.

The SmartEdge 800 platform lets providers offer revenue-generating IP services via line cards, which feature the company's own version of application-specific integrated circuit technology.

And the SmartEdge 800 performs functions such as virtual routing with unprecedented reliability, say Redback officials, which is extremely important in edge routing as opposed to in the core, where packets can be rerouted if failures occur.

Because of the unique criteria for edge routing, most service providers have abandoned the practice of moving older core routers to the edge, so there is a significant market for the SmartEdge 800, according to Erik Keith, broadband infrastructure analyst for Current Analysis.

But Redback will compete against companies like Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks and Siemens-backed Unisphere Networks. And while the SmartEdge 800 arguably may be a better solution, Redback's financial health — the company's stock lost more than 95% of its value in the last year — could prove to be a negative factor for cost-conscious service providers.
— Donny Jackson
www.redback.com

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