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Startec Global Communications provides easy-to-use telephone, Internet, and communications services. Since 1989, Startec has worked with international, long-distance carriers and Internet service providers transacting with the world's emerging economies. Startec offers high levels of satisfaction to its customers by understanding their needs and cultures, providing exceptional value, and delivering reliable communication services.
Scott Ho is the Associate Director of Field Operations at Startec, and Vince Halcomb is the Senior Manager of the NOC.
With their old monitoring system, Halcomb and Ho were facing a tech support nightmare. When you call your monitoring vendor's tech support number, you expect a quick answer, not to be put on hold for 4 or more hours. Yet that is exactly what was happening to Startec. "The technical support was horrible because they were based [overseas] and there was a time difference," said Halcomb.
He added, "When we did get through to them, they would say, "Let us look at it. Go away for a few hours."
When the monitoring system went down, the support needed to bring it back online quickly wasn't available. "We would be without the system for long periods of time," said Halcomb. Multiple 2-day outages occurred in the course of just one month.
These outages created more work for Startec and increased the chance of missing a critical alarm. During these downtimes, Startec was forced to spend valuable staff time checking devices manually. Without system-wide visibility, it was only a matter of time before an easily correctable alarm would go unnoticed, becoming a major incident.
Startec found a superior monitoring solution at DPS Telecom. "We were looking for an alarm management system to take place of the current one, we had had it for six years or so. It just got to the point where it wasn't working that well and the technical support was horrible," said Halcomb.
After examining available options, they ordered a T/Mon NOC to monitor their network.
Startec has chosen to deploy the T/Mon at its New York site. Halcomb and Ho will operate the system remotely via IP Terminal Servers. Knowledge of remote administration and monitoring will be essential, as they will not have the benefit of walking into an adjacent room and checking on the T/Mon unit directly.
Halcomb and Ho felt that the DPS Factory Training class they attended gave them an immediate edge. They were able see what the installation and monitoring procedures would be ahead of time, so they would have time to prepare for the equipment rollout.
Because DPS instructors are involved in product design and tech support, they can offer much more to clients during training than the average corporate trainer. "I've been to other training classes before and the training is not really training at all," Ho said.
"The instructor was not only very knowledgeable but also very hands-on. With other training programs, we have asked questions and the trainer would almost always say 'Let me get back to you on that' when he didn't know the answer. He was so knowledgeable that he immediately knew the answer to our questions."
During training, Halcomb and Ho got an in-depth look at the features of the T/Mon NOC and NetGuardian RTUs. "The training is nice because it gives us a much better feel for the product and allows us to totally understand what is happening as a result of the hands-on training," said Ho.
To receive a price quote or ROI analysis, call 1-800-693-0351.
