airewire.com

Being a service provider means being in business using technology to manufacture your product. Here are the key areas of focus:

1. Building a system that is correctly implemented to deliver your service plans to an appropriate number of customers.

This begins with deciding what you want to sell and creating a realistic presentation of the service's deployment. Wireless, for example, may not deliver the entire offered data rate at all locations because of signal strength issues. Make sure you inform your customers that there will be some areas of your coverage where this will be the case. Demographics are also important. Make sure you have enough capacity in the system to deliver promised services as it grows. You don't need to build it all at once. But, make sure you have a plan to build capacity, as you need it. Once you have the service products selected, and you know how many customers you think are out there for each, picking an appropriate infrastructure is the next step. There are many factors involved. The key is selecting a manageable technology that meets your requirements. The front-end capital cost is not as important as the long-term cost of ownership. Be sure to measure how you will run the system as well as what it will cost you to build it.

2. Letting customers know you have a product for them to buy.

I have seen many great systems die because no one knew it was there. There should be a focused campaign to build a brand around the system. Pull and push marketing techniques can be used. If the service provider is a government that is operating other services, leverage the customer lists and routine mailings to make the jurisdiction's constituents aware of the service's features and benefits. Get the economic development group for the area involved as well. Make sure you spend the time to develop a good website. There are many systems out there that will allow you to have your service plan descriptions on the Internet and allow folks to sign up online.

3. Promptly installing, activating, billing for and servicing the accounts once they are sold.

There are very cost-effective systems available that will allow you to quickly sign-up customers, process routing billing (and exceptions), and monitor service and control access to your network. If you are considering putting more than one hundred customers on your system, you should consider an Operational and Billing Support System (OBSS). These systems also help with scheduling installers and communicating with your customers. They also make keeping records for and cooperating with regulatory agencies easy. ISP's are required by law to work with the law enforcement community and file reports with the FCC. Keeping the information you need to do this manually is tedious and will likely not get done properly without the use of an OBSS. The OBSS also interfaces with the network to make sure your customers get the service they are entitled to and only if they have paid their bill. It's hard to keep the service up if you can collect your money

4. Keeping your infrastructure running by operating and maintaining the system with a focus on service reliability and cost control.

There are several key factors in keeping your service up. Try to create redundancy where possible. Redundant routers, Internet connections, radios and other key system elements, take over for broken equipment and give you the time to react without degrading your customers’ experience. Also, make sure your equipment can be monitored and controlled remotely. Install remote power control on cabinets so that you can reboot equipment without making the drive to the site. Use systems that have SNMP or other monitoring capabilities so that you can look at status, traffic, errors and other key information that will help you understand what is happening in your network. Make the investment in software or a service to monitor information about your network's health before your customers let you know something is happening.