PDF of this tutorialCompetition is driving service providers to minimize costs of network operations. At the same time, the complexity of new services is increasing almost exponentially. Service providers must therefore do more with less. One of the most significant sacrifices is the number of fully trained technicians available to do the work. This is further complicated by the following factors:
- There are an increasing variety of NEs from different vendors.
- The NEs are evolving rapidly.
- There is a general shortage of trained telecommunications technicians.
- Labor costs must be kept low while, at the same time, providing high-quality innovative services.
- Service providers know that they must send the super techs to hands-on NE vendor training.
- There are many less intense support activities that, nonetheless, require a large number of people to have knowledge of the NEs and the EMSs. Therefore, service providers have a more intuitive system management process without a high training overhead.
Meeting these challenges requires the use of operations tools with the maximum efficiency and flexibility with respect to accomplishing tasks. Therefore, the EMS should have the following characteristics.
- ease of use—typically requires the use of an intuitive, task-oriented GUI to allow operations functions to be performed in the shortest possible time
- context-sensitive help—enables technicians to perform tasks that they do only infrequently or for which, in many cases, they have never been trained at all
- unified desktop—enables a user working at the NML, SML or BML to open a window directly to any EMS desired and—from the EMS—to open a craft-user interface directly into any NE that an EMS manages
- low-cost operations platform—aims at minimizing the total cost to own and operate the computing platform on which the EMS runs; computing platforms such as Windows NT™ conform to telecom platform robustness, scalability, and performance requirements
- remote access—allows the operations staff to access management information and control from any location; this facilitates the utilization of a distributed work force that can respond rapidly to failure notifications. In today's Internet world, this means that thin client workstations operate over the Internet and service-provider Intranets.
Figures 3 through 9 provide examples of the reduced skill and training requirements, the improved accuracy, the time saving, and the cost savings that good human-interface design provides. Figure 10 shows further skill and training requirement reduction through the use of aids such as context-sensitive help that lead technicians step-by-step through otherwise complex tasks.
Figure 10. Task Wizards Lead the Technician through Complex or Infrequently Performed Tasks
The EMS database contains a wealth of information that can improve service, save time, and save money. Most EMSs provide a library of standard reports and usually provide report-generator software and the ability to export data to other application tools that specialize in analysis and reporting (Figure 11).
Figure 11. An EMS–Provided Report Example
