NBN Co speeds up service delivery with automated tools
- 29 August, 2012 10:10
- Comments
NBN Co is using management software tools to help speed up the delivery of new high-speed broadband services across Australia. The National Broadband Network wholesaler has deployed IBM Rational software to build the capabilities required to automate the process of activating services for retail service providers.
In March 2011, NBN Co engaged IBM Global Business Services to implement core business and operational support systems with intelligent interfaces that enable retailers to more efficiently order services, report faults or complete service qualification checks.
At IBM Software’s recent Innovate 2012 event, Tony Christensen, head of tools, methods and quality assurance at NBN Co, told CIO that the IBM Rational tools have removed some of the repetitiveness of work done at the NBN Co National Operations and Test Facility in Melbourne.
They enable NBN Co’s developers to manage changes to interfaces, automate the service testing and delivery cycle and accelerate project schedules.
Specifically, they allowed development teams responsible for managing NBN Co’s access seeker portal to build functionality much faster. Retail service providers (the NBN's equivalent of ISPs) use this portal to interconnect with NBN Co’s systems to order broadband services for their customers. Larger service providers use a business-to-business gateway.
“At the moment, activation of some of our [high-speed internet] services is down to five minutes; mid-last year, it was in the order of hundreds of minutes,” said Christensen. He added that the organisation was aiming to complete tens of thousands of service activations per day within a couple of minutes each.
The automation provided by these tools enables development teams to make changes, such as amend the layout of a screen [in the portal], within hours as opposed to several weeks.
“[Previously], if we wanted to rearrange a screen or implement a configuration change, we would have to go through a prolonged change control process,” said Christensen.
NBN Co can also make configuration changes to its physical network inventory every two weeks. The organisation wants to be able to make changes “more frequently than that,” according to Christensen.
He expected the tools to progressively deliver benefits across all of NBN Co’s business units, in the hope that the organisation would hit its service delivery goals ahead of time.
Recommended
Join the CIO Australia group on LinkedIn. The group is open to CIOs, IT Directors, COOs, CTOs and senior IT managers.
- Bookmark this page
- Share this article
- Got more on this story? Email CIO
- Follow CIO on twitter
-
Larry Page wants to see your medical records
-
Dual-Persona Smartphones Not a BYOD Panacea
-
After two-year hiatus, EFF accepts bitcoin donations again
-
CIOs struggle to deliver timely mobile business apps: survey
-
Spiceworks' free management software gets integrated MDM
-
Moving to a Private Cloud? Infrastructure Really Matters!
The Cloud isn’t about locality. It is about quality of service delivery, cost, and whether the services consumed satisfy our objectives. For the enterprise, you need to select the right QoS to mitigate the inherent risks or you face the problem of losing data and the ability to execute operationally. Read on. -
Advanced Malware Exposed
This handbook shines a light on the dark corners of advanced malware, both to educate as well as to spark renewed efforts against these stealthy and persistent threats. By understanding the tools being used by criminals, we can better defend our nations, our critical infrastructures and our citizens. This ebook will provide readers with a new understanding of the rapidly developing cyber threat landscape and practical insights into how they can protect their data and computing infrastructures. Download now. -
Securing the Promise of Virtualisation
For today’s enterprise, this whitepaper identifies three general areas of risk associated with risk; those that are traditionally areas of risk, the hazards that are exclusive to virtualisation and the more recent set of risks that are associated with newly formed hybrid environments. Read more to find out how to keep pace with evolving threats, quicker provisioning and dynamically mobile workloads.
Get exclusive access to Invitation only events CIO, reports & analysis. 
