Now that no service provider works alone, a telecom solution company has developed a tool to help ISPs manage partner relationships.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [September 28, 2006]

"I have found no greater satisfaction than achieving success through honest dealing and strict adherence to the view that, for you to gain, those you deal with should gain as well."
—Alan Greenspan

At VON, Colchester, Vt.-based Vertek Corporation announced its latest telecom backend product. Called Managed Business Assurance (MBA), the product is designed to track a telco's relationship with its suppliers and partners.

In a press release, Brad Soutiere, CEO of Vertek, said, "the headlines are filled with announcements of promising new partnerships between service providers and digital content providers offering satellite TV, IPTV, video on demand, gaming, and other broadband services. Unfortunately, partnering companies are too often finding that partnerships sealed in the boardroom can quickly become unraveled in the back office. Vertek's MBA program was designed in conjunction with a leading ILEC to help business partners get a handle on how the relationship is working in real-time so any needed adjustments can be made quickly, before they can have any negative impact on the bottom line."

The billing can be complex even if the relationship seems straightforward. Michael Haggerty, director of financial assurance for Vertek, says that if a telco partners with DirecTV to offer television service, the relationship will generate many billing transactions. A household might have two subscriber IDs on the telco side but only one subscriber ID on the TV side.

"Typically, what we see is contracts that are not well formed, which can lead to large audits."

For example? "The contract could mention a 'subscriber' or 'unit' but not define that. Companies may be tracking subscribers by phone numbers, subscriber IDS—you can have multiple IDs at a single customer."

Vertek's solution
Vertek uses Boston, Mass.-based Lavastorm's BRAIN software as well as a recording interface, all of which Vertek hosts, to collect and present the data.

MBA then presents the data (see mockup screenshot at right) with an eye to particular job functions in the telco, offering separate tabbed views for areas such as accounting (tracking money), IT (tracking service delivery), and product management (tracking churn).

MBA staff keeps in touch with the customer and organizes weekly or monthly calls with the telco and all suppliers to discuss any issues that the software may be seeing.

In one tab ("Value" in the mockup), the software keeps track of the total value over time of process improvements the software has identified. "We project the benefits of using MBA," says Haggerty, "so our customers can see the business case."

Pricing and availability
The MBA product is available now. Pricing depends upon a large variety of factors including the complexity of the relationships being monitored and the frequency of meetings (weekly, monthly, or quarterly).

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