North American Network Operators Group

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Operations notification manager software

  • From: Pete Kruckenberg
  • Date: Mon Sep 22 00:09:13 2003

My apologies in advance for asking a rather "low-brow"  
question.

What software is available/recommended for NOC contact
management?

I assume that big networks use CRM type stuff (probably
heavily customized), integrated into the OSS and other
operational systems.

What about for the rest of the world? Is there any decent
(free, proprietary, or home-grown) software that can do 
contact management justice (either as a complete package or
integration of multiple packages), supporting features like:

- contact information refresh (regularly verify contact 
information via electronic or triggered human interaction, 
dealing with failed notification attempts)?
- complex notification (ie per-event customized notification
by affected device/region/service, notification to 
customer-selected method based on type and urgency of 
notice)
- customer-friendly subscription management (including 
multiple notification methods) and notification 
archiving
- notification SLA's (ie re-sending multiple timed notices 
when required, tracking notifications for auditing, etc)
- efficiently managing multiple conduits for notification
(email, alpha pager, text-to-voice/scripted call center, RSS
feed, Web archives/posting)
- enforcing consistency in notifications (ie form-/ 
rule-based notification creation and validation, 
notification review/authorization prior to distribution)
- handling feedback from notifications (handling customer 
responses, tracking viewing and/or reading of notifications, 
measuring effectiveness of notifications)
- other important features?

I know that some of these features are built into products
like HPOV. Do they fill the needs of large network
operators? What software do you use to manage customer
notifications?

Thanks.
Pete.