In April 2010, North-West Telecom put into industrial operation in St. Petersburg a communications network operational support system (CNOSS) to automate the main business processes and make uniform the operation of the Company’s key units throughout the North-West Federal District.

The CNOSS is one of the most important modules of the Operational Support Systems (OSS), an Inventory* system that helps keep records of a wide range of resources and services for access networks, transportation networks as well as data transmission networks. The CNOSS’ main feature is the possibility to obtain promptly exact information on the network resources, their configuration settings, technical condition, actual and proposed communications services. The CNOSS was developed on the platform of SIEMENS’ IRONMAN system. At North-West Telecom, the CNOSS was adjusted to specific needs of the Russian communications operator and meets the requirements of the industry recommendations, GOST, OST and is fully maintained by the Russian staff. LLC STEP LOGIC and OJSC North-West Telecom performed large-scale works to collect, analyze, systematize and transfer network elements data to the CNOSS. The development and implementation of the project took more than 4 years with a total of 312.7 million rubles invested in the system software. Other expenses for launching and duplicating the system at NWT’s regional branches vary depending on the implementation principles (in particular, depending on whether a contractor is engaged to convert data from paper into the electronic form or these works are performed by own forces), complexity of the structure and capacity of the network.

The CNOSS enables to deal with the following tasks:

- reduce time for the formation and provision of services;

- remove paperwork (over 2,700,000 line technical records have already been converted from paper into the electronic form );

- uniform the business processes of communications network control at NWT’s regional branches;

- reduce operating expenses through operational automation;

- reduce time for service and processing of the subscriber’s details when providing communications services (where the CNOSS is used the time required for processing a subscriber’s connection application is 15 minutes, while with traditional paper technologies it takes up to 7 days);

- form a unified electronic database of line technical records;

- improve the reliability of records;

- ensure that the use of network resources is monitored centrally.

The CNOSS makes it possible to minimize expenses on the commissioning of new equipment through a more efficient use of available resources , reduce the costs of network operation, upgrade, scheduled and restorative repairs, improve the service quality and reduce the churn, decrease the time-to-market for new services.

On April 15, 2010, during a press tour for journalists from the leading media of St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region North-West Telecom showed the main elements of the communications network the records of which are kept in the CNOSS (wells, ductwork, cabinets) as well as the software itself in operation.

An excursion was followed by the CNOSS presentation and a press conference with the participation of representatives from OJSC Svyazinvest, OJSC North-West Telecom, LLC STEP LOGIC and LLC Siemens.

Opening the event, Vladimir Akulich, CEO, OJSC North-West Telecom, pointed out that "together with our partners, LLC Siemens and LLC STEP LOGIC, we have been developing this serious project for more than 4 years from practically a "zero level". The resultant product is currently unique both in Russia and in the world. The CNOSS enables to keep electronic records of all communications facilities, described previously in paper documents and individual programs, operate the database in the online mode and update it almost instantly. One of the most important applications for the CNOSS is the prompt checking for the possibility to provide a service, which means shorter lead times for services to our customers. The CNOSS automates and uniforms the main business processes, thus further improving the Company’s overall performance”.

Yu.A. Kantarovsky, President, LLC STEP LOGIC, said: “We are proud of our participation in such a large-scale project which is strategically important to the whole of our industry. The CNOSS product is really unique and it not only enables to improve significantly the network control, but also brings the operator’s performance to a qualitatively new level. Only a really strong team of professionals could achieve such a result and I want to thank our colleagues from OJSC Svyazinvest, OJSC North-West Telecom and LLC Siemens for the successful cooperation”.

Marko Burkhardt, Vice-President, LLC Siemens, emphasized: “We are satisfied with the results of our joint project with OJSC North-West Telecom and LLC STEP LOGIC. The largest fixed communications operator in North-West Russia has now a cutting-edge operational support system for communications networks. Furthermore, the joint Russian software developed in the course of the project is a highly efficient and unique tool for communications network control on the telecom market”.

During these events, the media representatives received full information on the operation of the CNOSS, a unique Russian software owned exclusively by OJSC North-West Telecom, LLC Siemens and LLC STEP LOGIC, at North-West Telecom. The CNOSS allows to automate the main business processes of an interregional communications operator, receive promptly the updated information on the condition of the communications network and improve the quality of customer services.

---------------------------------------

* OSS ( Operational Support Systems) are operational control systems designed to improve the telecommunications business performance by automating the business processes relating to logistics, network control, customer service and support and are an important link between the operators’ networks and their customers.

Inventory is the core part of the OSS, the storage center for all process information on the network and services, used, as the rule, as the backbone platform for other OSS components.