Step Four
The Deployment
Go back to work. We'll take it from here. Don't worry, you're in excellent hands. We've done this hundreds of times. The only other thing you'll need to do is have your tech handy on the day we turn up your new facilities. You're all set.
Here's where we go to work. We'll see your order through the financial review process, on to order entry, and then through the provisioning and engineering phases of the order process. Once the order has been completed by the chosen IXC (LD carrier - Qwest, MCI, etc.) and sent down to your LEC (Local Exchange Carrier - SBC, Bell South, etc.), we'll await a FOC (Firm Order Commitment) date from them along with the rest of the specific information relating to your new service. This typically takes somewhere in the neighborhood of 17 to 19 days from the date the order was originally placed. As part of the FOC, we'll get a tentative install date, Circuit ID Numbers (both IXC and HiCaP), trunk group IDs, etc. We'll then forward all of the FOC information to you (remember to put it in a "safe" place as you may need to reference it at some point in the future. If you happen to misplace it, don't worry - we keep meticulous records). We'll then call you to make sure you received it. We'll call you again on the install date to make sure your LEC got out there and dropped the circuits as scheduled. The LEC will then test head to head with the IXC, and, when that testing is completed, the IXC will let us know everything is "ready to go". We're on home stretch.
We'll call you to discuss what date and time would be most appropriate for you have your tech work with us to turn up your new circuits and put them in service (commonly referred to as "scheduling a time slot"). We'll coordinate this directly with your tech if you'd like. Typically the carriers need 48 hours advance notice. For example, let's say testing between the LEC and IXC is completed on a Monday. We call you on Tuesday - you might say "Let's set it up for Thursday morning between 8am and 10am." We would then check with the carrier to see if there is a time slot available during those hours and report back to you - we can most often get our client's requested time slots. (We can even arrange for after hours turn ups if necessary - just let us know.) For this example, let's say we get 9am. We'll call you at 8:55am on the day of the turn up and get your tech on the phone. We'll then conference in the tech at the install management group of the chosen carrier, and oversee the entire turn up process from start to finish. Once the circuits are up and idle, test calls will be made (both outbound and inbound where applicable) and once everything is confirmed to be working properly, the circuits will be formally accepted. We're actually known for our ridiculously quick and easy turn ups - because we are as meticulous as we are on "the way in" - making sure all customer configuration information is accurate, then double and triple checking to be sure so everything is done right the first time - we've had some fun experiences during this part of the process. Our record to date is 45 seconds. Honest. We got the tech on the phone, he turned up the circuits, they synched up, and the tech on the customer side had green lights. All in 45 seconds. Done. In fact one of our clients, John G. of TMW in Norcross, GA had this to say in an email shortly after we turned up their new service:
"That was the smoothest cut over I have ever been involved in. The tech I had come in asked me why I even needed him to be there."
We love this stuff. We really do.
Next: The Future Back to The Process
|
|