Analyze Network Trends and Build Reports

Solution promises to let service providers customize their services based on customers' needs, manage service level agreements, and deliver on quality commitments. Also provides dynamic network status reports.

by Wayne Kawamoto [July 25, 2000]

Bridgewater Systems Corporation and DeskTalk Systems recently formed an alliance to create a state-of-the-art service provider management system that packages real-time enforcement, management, and interactive reporting for wholesale, business and consumer Internet services. Available now, this joint solution should allow service providers to tailor their services to the specific needs of their customers, pro-actively manage service level agreements, and deliver on established quality commitments.

According to the companies, the Bridgewater WideSpan system offers centralized port and user session control management with some 37 fields of user-correlated data that extends to DeskTalk's TREND, which dynamically analyzes records for usage tracking, trending, and performance management. Using TREND's interactive Web-based reporting, each ISP should be able to create unique report sets that can help them manage their business. The companies claim that this represents a major improvement over standard offerings from traditional network equipment vendors on the market today

"With the Bridgewater/DeskTalk solution, ISPs outsourcing services to wholesale providers have the tailored visibility and control they need to increase customer satisfaction and retention," said Dave Curley, VP of marketing and business development for Bridgewater Systems. "ISPs also benefit from the proactive trend analysis and capacity planning to optimize resources and accurately plan for future growth."

"The systems collect and correlate valuable, network-wide usage data so that ISPs can bill differently for various service levels — standard, premium, and overflow, for instance," said Steve Mank, VP of marketing and business development for DeskTalk Systems. "This is a critical marketing tool for upselling customers to new services."

Pricing
Pricing for the Bridgewater Systems WideSpan system starts at $150,000. DeskTalk's TREND pricing starts at $30,000 for a 1 GB system.

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