Microsoft Integration

Customer Solution Case Study

Atracom increases quality of service with

MSTS® Resource Management

Review «As the result of MSTS® Resource Management

Country: Ukraine
Field: telecommunications
implementation we’ve got a unified resource data
base. Now we have the ability to get actual
Customer
Atracom Ltd. specializes on constructing,
information about fiber-optic network status in any
exploitation and leasing of fiber-optic region of Ukraine»
communication lines.
Alexander Savchuk, General Director of Atracom Ltd.
Currently there are more then 23 000
kilometers of fiber-optic communication
lines in company assets in all regions of Limited liability company «Atracom» specializes on construting,
Ukraine and several thousands are under
exploitation and leasing of fiber-optic communication lines.
construction.
Company was established in 2002 and today it controls more
Situation
then 23 000 kilometers of fiber-optic communication lines in all
Increasing demand for services of
Atracom created an exigency of highly regions and almost all districts of Ukraine. Among company’s
effective resource management that
clients are the biggest mobile (GSM, CDMA, 3G) and fixed
would decrease operational costs and
improve quality of service. communication operators. Fiber-optic communication network is
valuable asset of the company therefore it is very important to
Solution
MSTS® Resource Management have prompt access to the actual information about it.

Results MSTS® system developed by “Softline” company is a great example of

 A unified information system for
successful collaboration of Ukrainian developer and Microsoft
accounting network resources was
created corporation.
 Process planning and network
development simplification MSTS® helps to resolve most typical for the telecommunication
 Network resources availability was
companies problems.
increased
 Quality of services was increased
MSTS® implementation in Atracom is significant step on the way to
more efficient management of this company.
Situation
Fast development of mobile services and
internet access forced dynamic
construction of fiber-optic communication
networks in Ukraine.
At the beginning of 2007 Atracom had
already built more then 19 thousands
kilometers of fiber links. However, not each
contractor could guarantee high exploration
quality and appropriate service price to
Artracom.
General network controllability was
decreasing and exploration cost –
increasing. Moreover, often there was not
enough information about the network
status and company couldn’t completely
control network service quality and time of
maintenance. In 2007 Atracom
management decided to establish its own
exploitation department. This department
was created in the end of 2007 and from
the beginning of 2008, 100 % of fiber optic
lines the company exploited independently.
Besides of higher control this department
gave a possibility to service lines that
belong to other operators. Along with
establishment of its own exploitation
department the company organized 47
offices in Kiev and regions. Quantity of
autos with laboratories and teacher-guard
functions grew up to 90. Thereby today we
can mark out two main business directions
of Atracom: the first is fiber-optic
communication construction and sales, and
second – technical exploitation and service.
After creation of its own department, the
management assigned the task to increase
network information detailing and
authenticity.
Contractors, which provided network
exploitation services, didn’t provide
complete data about the network lines and
that is why it was necessary to carry out full
inventory of network resources.
Earlier information about the network was
accounted with the help of simple programs
such as Excel. Atracom fiber-optic
documentation paper archive occupied
premises of more then 30 sq m.
Information about all network objects is
changing permanently and its search in
archive always took a lot of time. As the
result it often turned out that a lot of
information in paper archive was out of
date. It was clear, that keeping records in
paper archive always updated is extremely
difficult. Obviously company needed to
implement electronic system of network
accounting and documentation.
There are international standards for
exploitation and documentation of cable
systems which specify how it is to be done.
But there is no standard which will explain
what tool you should use.
It was necessary to find special program
package which would allow company to
reach new quality level of information
management.
Under strong competition Atracom success
will depend on the speed of reaction to the
clients needs.
Therefore company’s management
concluded that there should be an
operational support system (OSS)
implemented.
Solution
Searching for an optimal decision Atracom
management examined the experience of
German, Switzerland and Japan telecom
companies.
The most popular products were
considered. Generally they could be
divided into two parts: the first are software
products that are created individually for a
 customer and the second – package
«MSTS – is a component program products.
product. Atracom development and exploitation
departments had requirements that were
This is the most beyond the scope of package program
important advantage for products.
customers. It allows “We came to a conclusion that company
needs an individual-development decision
implementing only with technical support follow-up, which
those modules, which would allow consideration of probable
improvements or mistakes” – commented
solve exact tasks and Alexander Savchuk, General director of
helps planning terms Atracom.
and implementation Looking for such decision the company
budget that at end turned to one of the most experienced
developers – Softline Ltd.
guarantees good result»
Alexander Kisselevskiy, Vice President and
In Ukraine Softline is well-known as a
Partner of Softline Ltd.
reliable and professional partner at telecom
market, able to offer individual decisions to
solve special customer tasks.
«At first technical project was developed” –
explained Alexander Savchuk. On the
stage of technical project development
strategic mistakes are often made,
therefore it is very important to describe
clearly, what should be took into
consideration, how information should be
presented, what is the detailed elaboration,
which maps are needed and how they
should look. When the technical project
was completed the budget and terms of the
project were stated».
Softline team suggested as an effective
decision for Atracom its new solution -
MSTS (Modern Software Telecom Suite).
MSTS – is a set of OSS/BSS solutions and
is developed according to the
recommendations of the biggest
international consortium of telecom
operators, hardware producers and
software developers - TeleManagement
Forum.
Responsiveness to the TeleManagement
Forum standards is guarantees low cost of
solution adaptation and integration with
external systems for service-provider.
Decision integrity provided by Microsoft
platform: .NET Framework 3.x, ASP.NET,
Microsoft Enterprise Library v.3.0.
MSTS components are designed by
Microsoft and Softline experts and include:
SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008,
BizTalk, and Visual Studio 2008.
Implementation started at the beginning of
2008 with MSTS Resource Management
module.
When technical project was finished and
the solution was deployed the complex
inventory of network resources started.
In this process took part specialists from 9
Atracom offices from different regions of
Ukraine.
MSTS Resource Management decides
several tasks:
 cabling inventory
o accounting of linear-cable
infrastructure of transport and
local communication networks
o Geoinformation system usage for
displaying cable lines on the
geographical maps
 Physical and logical resources
inventarization
o Customizable repository of
physical communication network
resources without limitations by
type, producer and technology
o Extensible repository of logical
communication network
resources
o Network topology accounting
o Support of different transmission
system technologies
 Resources organization
o Service process automation of
organization, configuration and
activation of network resources
o Planning and monitoring of work
status
 Network emergency accounting
o Emergency registration and
monitoring
 Network layer linking
o Downloading network
configuration data
o Monitoring of network
configuration changes
«MSTS – is a component product. This is
the most important advantage for
customers. It allows implementing only
those modules, which solve exact tasks
and helps planning terms and
implementation budget that at end
guarantees good result» – says Alexander
Kisselevskiy, Vice President and Partner of
Softline Ltd.
The solution could be comparatively easy
build into client’s existing infrastructure and
integrates with solutions of other producers
with the help of standard interfaces.
Moreover, MSTS guarantees access for
external users.
«In short time our clients will have the
ability to get information about their
networks on-line», - added Alexander
Savchuk. It will allow for example mobile
operators to plan their work more effective.
There was no such service in Ukraine
before. I am sure, that our clients will
appreciate it».
Results
Due to implementation of MSTS® Resource
Management in Atracom a unified
information system was created. It helps to
solve the following tasks:
 Keeping actual fiber-optic map
System displays on the map of
Ukraine all fiber-optic line that
belong to the company;
 Process planning and network
development simplification
Detailed fiber-optic network
resources accounting allows to
display all networks elements, their
technical specifications and
geographical location;
 Decreasing the average time of
emergency recovery and therefore
increasing of network readiness. It
happened due to appearance of
possibility to display updated history
of events, which can influence to
the state of resources (emergency,
repair, replacement etc.), it allows
making the right plan of repair or
preventive works;
 Increase in network reliability
Increasing resources control
allowed defining and managing
network reliability «bottle-necks»;
 Improved quality of customer service.
System allows external authorized
users to access fiber-optic network
map.
MSTS® Resource Management – is a
useful tool for efficiency resources
management analysis. System gives the
ability of efficiency resources management
analysis by different rates and allows
comparing results with average rates for
this branch.
«As the result of MSTS® Resource
Management implementation we’ve got a
unified resource data base. Now we have
the ability to get actual information about
fiber-optic network status in any region of
Ukraine and faster analyze our main work
rates – summed up Alexander Savchuk.
Moreover we’ve got improved control on
these rates. This is our main
achievement».
Additional information
Information about other used projects based
on Microsoft Corporation technology is
available at:
www.microsoft.com/ukraine/casestudies (in
Ukrainian), or
www.microsoft.com/rus/business/
casestudies (in Russian), or
www.microsoft.com/resources/casestudies
(in English).
For additional information about Microsoft
products and services in Ukraine contact
informational center by phone
+38 (044) 230 51 01 or email
ukraine@microsoft.com.
Internet address of Microsoft Corporation:
www.microsoft.com (in English),
www.microsoft.ua
(in Ukrainian).

Additional information about Softline

services is available by phone +38 (044) 451
92 25 or on the web site:
www.softline.kiev.ua

Additional information about «Atracom» is

available by phone +38 (044) 594 68 64 or on
the web site: www.atracom.com.ua

Software and services

 Products
− Microsoft Visual Studio 2008
− Microsoft BizTalk Server 2006
− SQL Server 2008
− Windows Server 2008 Enterprise
 Technologies
− 64 Bit Processing
− Active Server Pages