Fixed Wireless Business

ISPCON: Manage Your Network

I asked Rick Harnish to present at ISPCON because his OSS is the best I've seen.

by Alex Goldman ISP-Planet Managing Editor [November 26, 2008]

This article will provide a brief overview of a piece of software that has grown as its ISP grew to become a management system that enforces business policies and tracks every aspect of the business. It's the sort of thing that every ISP should have, but few do. A screen shot would be worth a thousand words, but this article will provide a sample of the features that make this system so impressive.

Harnish is now General Manager for the midwest region for Great American Broadband, a company that recently acquired two WISPs and their impressive builders. Harnish was one, and Matt Larsen was the other.

Harnish said that in order to create a piece of software that tracks your business, you need to have standardized procedures in place, and in order to have that, you need to document your business. You need to document your business processes—and you need to document every piece of equipment on the network.

The software is a SQL database with a web-based front end.

The software, he said, tracks device ID, passwords, model number, port designation, and more. It can generate a logical map of the network, "so we can hire a new engineer and they can make sense of the network."

More recently, Harnish's team added site logs and photos. He did so because of one or two times when a tower climber did not have the right equipment and had to do a climb twice. With a photo of the AP on the tower, the climber knows exactly what cable and tools he'll need. Harnish recommended that every tower have extra PoE ports so that a climber can plug in new equipment without taking down existing customers.

Early on, the network used backup power units that have only one hour of life, but Harnish has started using more expensive backup power units that not only have a longer life but also report in when the power goes down at the site.

Harnish uses a network management dashboard that allows him to see the network status at a glance and drill down if he has questions. "If an AP is maxing out, we'll dig deeper and find the problem. Bandwidth usage is a problem at times, but we have an AUP."

The dashboard currently provides text information, but he aims to upgrade to a graphical dashboard soon.

The business processes
But it's not all about equipment. The software as a CRM system and a billing system too. Harnish said his group is outgrowing their existing billing system (Intuit Quickbooks) and is moving to Freeside and will integrate that with the home grown CRM system.

There is a detailed support queue, knowledge base, and calendar. Every trouble ticket is tracked. Every install or support appointment is in the calendar. No tech is ever double-booked.

Even though the system is good and is home grown, Harnish said that outsourcing is a "necessary evil." Anticipate the need for outsourcing in the future by building your system so that you can export the data in it if you every decide to outsource all or part of it.

"Outsourcing is essential to our future, but we also don't want to lose the local feel to our service," Harnish said.

For example, the company uses Authorize.net for automatic billing and payment. The company also uses an outsourced help desk provider because, "you need to keep the customer satisfied while you sleep. You cannot tell the customer to wait until morning for an answer."

If you have not documented your procedures and processes, Harnish warned, you will have a poor outsourcing experience. You need to tell your outsourcing partner exactly how you do things, in great detail.

Standardizing and growing
As the company and the network grow, Harnish is attempting to standardize components while also recognizing special cases such as the need for an exceptionally large backhaul in some locations. "We buy in quantity to save money," he said.

He's working on a modular control box, "so tower climbers spend minimal time up there in 20 degree temperatures with 30 mile an hour winds."

He's discouraging paper invoices by charging $2.50 per month to customers who use them instead of automatic billing to a credit card. Most, he said, now choose the automatic billing option. Depending on when the customer was installed, the company will bill on the 7th, 14th, 21st, or 28th of each month.

One brilliant innovation is the RMA tracking system. Equipment manufacturers, you have been placed on notice! Harnish tracks every unit by serial number and MAC address and makes sure that equipment is actually repaired. He says that some manufacturers will send back equipment without saying what was done to repair it. ISP-Planet will now be asking manufacturers about the RMA process for articles in our Wireless Equipment Manufacturers Directory.

Harnish did not build this system overnight. The first line of code, he guesses, was written in 2002-2003, and the software is now about 150,00 lines long.

—End