Telecom Business Special Pullout Section by NTCA Meetings

SPECIAL PULLOUT SECTION

C E O L M E T

U SIN ES

National Information Solutions Cooperative’s iVUE Enterprise System for Telcos > National Information Solutions Cooperative > Kevin Anderson > 866-WWW-NISC > Kevin.Anderson @nisc.coop > PO Box 728 3201 Nygren Dr. Mandan, ND 58554-0728

ISC’s iVUE enterprise system is a Java-based, open systems platform with dynamic frameworks that provides a common interface between the Subscriber Information System (SIS), Engineering and Operations (E&O) and Accounting and Business Solutions (ABS) applications. The iVUE enterprise system complements our full range of IT solutions for telcos that also include carrier access billing (CABs) and end-user billing (EUB).

SIS (Subscriber Information System) NISC’s iVUE SIS makes it easy for you to access and view powerful, timely information you can use to effectively sell and provide outstanding customer service to your voice, video, Internet and wireless subscribers. Designed to meet the specific needs of telephone companies like yours, iVUE SIS can help you sell a variety of diversified telecommunication services including landline telephone, VoIP, high-speed and dial-up Internet, special circuits, security systems, wireless/cellular service, video and more. Flexible, affordable and multiplatform compatible, iVUE SIS is designed to work the way you work, and features a single point of data entry, integration among applications and unparalleled ease of use. iVUE SIS is scalable to fit the needs of every telecommunication firm—large or small. You can easily implement the features you need now and add new features as your needs or markets change. The iVUE SIS solution includes Contact Tracking, Cash Register, Billing, Service Orders integrated with the billing system, Work Management integrated with Service Orders and Trouble Management, Subscriber Self-Service (including E-Bill) and much more. iVUE SIS, coupled with EUB, provides a complete billing solution.

E&O (Engineering and Operations) NISC’s iVUE E&O solutions are designed to help today’s telecommunications companies collect, share and transform data into powerful, business-building information. This allows you to allocate resources more efficiently, improve response times, streamline operations, boost customer service and much more. Mapping, Staking, Mobile WorkForce, Scheduler, SwitchTalk, Facilities Management and Trouble Management are powerful engineering applications that allow you to share all your organization’s mission critical data with consistency, speed and simplicity—from the front office through the back office and into the field.

ABS (Accounting and Business Solutions) NISC’s iVUE ABS is designed to help today’s telecommunication enterprises use information to increase business results by improving productivity, reducing costs, streamlining operations and enhancing customer service. For systems that offer diversified services, the iVUE ABS delivers a multibusiness enterprisewide accounting solution. That makes it easy to generate invoices, work orders, purchase orders, track sales and returns, share customer information with the SIS and E&O products, and create custom forms, reports and queries. iVUE puts you in control of all the data you need. NISC’s full suite of graphical accounting and business applications, including General Ledger, Payroll, Accounts Payable, Purchase Orders, Work Order, CPRs, COE CPRs, Fleet Management and Miscellaneous Receivables, offers your telecommunications company flexible software integration tools to manage company assets and control financial resources. For more information about NISC, please visit www.nisc.coop. If you would like to learn more about the iVUE Enterprise System, please contact Kevin Anderson, telecom sales manager, at 1.866.WWW. NISC or at kevin.anderson@nisc.coop.

RURALTELECOM > SPECIAL TELECOM BUSINESS PULLOUT > JULY-AUGUST 2009

Let Us Help Maximize the Power of Your Web Site > Iowa Network Services > Brad Rounds > 800-469-4000 > E-mail: BradR@ netINS.com > 4201 Corporate Dr. West Des Moines, IA 50266

ou know your new business needs a Web site, but you don’t know how to build one yourself. Or your existing Web site no longer meets the needs of your growing company, and you don’t have the time to redesign it. Perhaps your site is outdated and you have no way of updating it. Do these situations sound familiar? If so, INS Web Development is your answer. INS Web Development offers bold, clean and professional Web design and development that uniquely address your specific needs. We focus on creating Web site solutions, not just pages, so the marketing power of your site is maximized. In addition, INS Web Development will make it easy for you to keep your site current by training you to use an online content management system (CMS). A CMS allows anyone that you authorize the ability to make immediate changes to your site from any online connection. Whether you are in your office, at home or on the road, INS Web Development can deliver a bold, professional Web site that empowers you to make changes wherever and whenever you want! Gone are the days with single-user access to updating content. With distributed authorship, there are no limitations on number of authors, managers or site administrators. Imagine empowering nontechnical personnel to create, edit and publish content in a timely manner from a user-friendly interface. With our solution, you are in control! As a site owner, you will be empowered to: > Edit your own Web site through a Web browser. > Add new pages and control your site’s navigation. > Upload images and PDF files to your Web site. > Publish what you need, when needed. While your Web site should provide your readers relevant content and timely, up-to-date information, INS Web Development also can assist your company with search engine rankings and social media tools to help drive traffic to your Web site. Today’s customers are utilizing search-engine sites such as Google, Yahoo and MSN, or social media tools such as Facebook or Twitter to find out more about products and services. If your site is not properly optimized for key search terms or does not have an online presence in social media, you can be missing out on sales and customer opportunities. Look to INS to help you capture these online prospects. To harness the power of the Web and provide consistent value to your internal and external customers, please review our portfolio at www.INSWebDevelopment.com.

RURALTELECOM > SPECIAL TELECOM BUSINESS PULLOUT > JULY-AUGUST 2009

Redefine the Customer Experience, Reduce Your Costs > Quintrex Data Systems Corp. > Tammy Wilkerson > 319-363-5508 > TWilkerson@ Quintrex.com > 505 33rd Ave. SW Cedar Rapids IA 52404

any companies are challenged by inefficient use of time that could cost them more than a few extra dollars. Ultimately, it could mean missed commitments and unsatisfied customers. An effective work-force management system not only can save your staff time but reduce expenses and more effectively utilize resources on a daily basis. Helping to realize these objectives while maintaining customer satisfaction, the Quintrex Workforce Management Solution provides flexibility that can be customized for any company or budget. With multiple product levels, you have the option to use the system as a stand-alone application or to integrate it with your billing/ OSS vendor. Through the use of intelligent scheduling and route optimization, you can make the most of the resources you have while reducing associated expenses. Specifically, you can create user-defined scheduling rules that tell the system how to arrange appointments, minimize travel and reduce overtime costs. All this can be accomplished while meeting customer commitment dates and times. For each scheduled task, the system reviews skills and skill levels necessary for job completion. After qualified technicians are identified, additional consideration can be given to vacation, sick time, tech location and customer commitment times to quickly determine availability. With an overall increase in customer satisfaction, these simple factors allow more jobs to be completed each day while maintaining timely updates on each task. Knowing the exact location of each job also can be useful in eliminating extra truck rolls. For example, preventative maintenance tasks and locates can be assigned when a technician is near other scheduled tasks. In addition to looking at task locations when compiling the schedule, GPS and GIS integration options further streamline daily activities to provide driving directions on the most optimal route to the next job. Dispatchers and managers also can quickly view the exact location of each technician to make better business decisions “on the fly” when determining available resources. The billing/OSS system integration makes scheduling appointments simple. Without ever looking at a schedule, your customer service representatives easily can identify available time slots for each task associated with a service order or trouble report. Selecting an appointment without direct communication to other departments allows dispatch and engineering personnel to focus additional time on other emergency situations, such as a cable cut requiring immediate attention. The increase in productivity can be seen throughout the entire organization. Quintrex offers additional interfacing capabilities that create a seamless flow of information. The Mobility Interface option utilizes your current mobile devices, including laptops, Windows Mobile PDAs or WAP-enabled wireless phones. Using “store and forward” technology, technicians can enter pertinent information about the order and sync the details back to the system when an Internet connection is available. This option keeps managers and dispatchers aware of each task’s status without the technician calling or physically reporting back to the office. Information updated via the Mobility Interface also can initiate timecard entries for all hours worked by job via the Timecard/Payroll Interface. These entries are connected with work descriptions and general ledger account codes to ensure the proper financial records are updated. The Inventory Interface allows technicians to view serialized items and effectively track nonserialized items used to complete each task. This information allows your staff to ensure all trucks are replaced with the proper equipment. The Quintrex Workforce Management Solution provides its Mobility, Timecard/Payroll & Inventory interfaces as separate options, allowing you to create a customized solution. Its ability to integrate with any billing/OSS system or to be used as a stand-alone application makes this system flexible enough to fit the needs of any company. To request additional information, e-mail quintrex@quintrex.com or visit www.quintrex.com.

RURALTELECOM > SPECIAL TELECOM BUSINESS PULLOUT > JULY-AUGUST 2009

Opportunities Abound: Broadband Stimulus Can Power Advanced Services for Rural Communities > Occam Networks > Rebecca Law > 770-303-0858 > contact@occam networks.com > 6868 Cortona Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93117

he American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) has never been more timely than now, as $7 billion will be allocated to accelerate broadband deployment in unserved, underserved and rural areas. This will provide communities across America with unprecedented access to funds to cover initiatives ranging from digitizing health records to improving broadband coverage. There is no shortage of analysts, equipment suppliers and industry observers offering advice on how the broadband stimulus funds should be spent. While Occam Networks advocates these initiatives for the betterment of U.S. broadband infrastructure, careful examination of the macro telecommunications environment also reveals that the stimulus funds provide a unique opportunity for rural communications providers that should not be overlooked.

Telecommunication Dynamics Access line counts have been eroding steadily in the United States for the last eight years. Rural broadband lags urban broadband by 15% (as of October 2007). Service provider competition—and therefore service provider choice—typically is greater in urban cities than in rural cities. Overall, traditional voice service revenues are eroding while broadband and mobile data revenues are increasing. Suffice it to say that today’s wireline telecommunications provider faces challenges independent of the current economic conditions. For years the traditional phone company has watched voice service revenues decline while watching new service requirements continue to grow.

The Hidden Opportunity A number of studies have shown the gap between urban and rural broadband. While the number of rural households with high-speed connections is significantly smaller than urban households, the reliance on broadband in rural communities is disproportionately higher. Commodities farmers or telecommuting employees in rural communities without broadband are at a disadvantage. And unlike urban consumers, finding Wi-Fi hotspots or mobile broadband may not be an option. Rural service providers have the opportunity to use broadband stimulus funds not only to provide coverage to unserved or underserved communities, but also to leverage those dollars to begin a new way of thinking about their role in the telecommunications landscape. In fact, there is an opportunity to redefine themselves as “broadband communications providers” as opposed to simply “telecommunications providers.” The allocated ARRA broadband funds are intended to stimulate sustainable job growth while contributing toward the improved health of local, state and national economies. The proposed objective of these funds is to subsidize specific projects for the short term. But is this growth sustainable? How will the short-term benefits offset the longer term uncertainty? If recipients of ARRA funds leverage this opportunity to begin the transition to becoming broadband communications providers, their role in rural communities will change drastically. They can enable the digitization of the medical industry, facilitate green initiatives around the country by enabling broader availability of telecommuting, initiate the betterment of the nation’s public education system through distance learning and enhance entrepreneurship in nontraditional geographic settings. The possibilities are countless. Communications providers hold the key to starting a cycle of growth and improvement to transform the economy.

Moving Forward Communications providers that apply for and are awarded grants, loans or loan guarantees allocated under ARRA have various options for how to leverage these funds. However, expanding broadband coverage and increasing broadband speeds can help redefine the landscape of rural communications, and may also uncover new revenue generating opportunities such as video on demand or business Ethernet. The broadband stimulus, if applied to extend rural service providers’ broadband portfolio, has the potential to positively shift telecommunications as we know it today. RURALTELECOM > SPECIAL TELECOM BUSINESS PULLOUT > JULY-AUGUST 2009

Will the Telco as We Know It Today Be Able To Compete in the Future? > Innovative Systems > Scott Meyer > 605-990-7202 > scottm@ innovsys.com > 1000 Innovative Dr. Mitchell SD 57301

t a recent Innovative Systems user meeting, CEO Roger Musick made this statement: “If landline service providers are going to survive, we [service providers] need to sell solutions that make the landline relevant to subscribers.” For example, when working with a customer, instead of showing a list of services and prices, we should attempt to understand their usage habits and offer solutions. If you would offer a small business package that included a landline phone with Single Number Service, Voice Mail with E-mail and Caller ID, the subscriber’s landline and wireless phones could ring simultaneously, allowing them to answer no matter where they are. If they are not available, calls could go to voice mail, which they could also retrieve through e-mail. Your customer would have a complete solution for their need to be mobile, and not merely subscribed to a feature. Today, with more competition, it could be said that an old billing system is a bottleneck. Innovative Systems is helping ease that issue with eLation. You have more flexibility in terms of bundling services, pricing considerations, automated provisioning, marketing indicators, reporting and more. Since 1998, Innovative Systems has been in business to make the business of telecommunications less complicated. We have expanded our products and services from the original Application Peripheral to the APMAX, eLation and IPTV Middleware. We offer services without the complications of working with multiple vendors and multiple pieces of equipment.

A APMAX

With over 200 systems sold nationwide, APMAX is the industry’s first redundant carrier-grade solution providing enhanced telephony services as well as IPTV middleware on a single hardware platform. APMAX offers exponential scalability over its highly successful predecessor the Application Peripheral (AP), with 800-plus systems in the field.

eLation eLation is a fully integrated OSS/BSS solution including billing, financials and automated staking and mapping with over 80 systems in service. eLation provides telecommunications companies an intuitive system with many user-friendly features.

IPTV Middleware Imagine end-to-end middleware integration all the way to the set-top box and remote control—fully supported by one company.

Ask Our Customers “We are very pleased with how simple the rollout of the IPTV middleware to our customers has been. We enjoy working with Innovative Systems and would recommend them to anyone considering middleware.” Randy Olson, Assistant GM, Venture Communications “I consider Innovative Systems to be more of partner for us rather than a vendor.” Bill Eckles, CEO, BEVCOMM “As far as the conversion process, the IS support team came out and skillfully handled the conversion and our staff training. We came away with a good working knowledge of the eLation billing system.” Mark Klinkhammer, CFO, Garden Valley Telephone Co.

RURALTELECOM > SPECIAL TELECOM BUSINESS PULLOUT > JULY-AUGUST 2009