ACE*COMM's Customer and Partner
Newsletter
Vol.1, No.2 February 2002
ACE*COMM Opens Service Center in Beijing
ACE*COMM recently opened a new service center in Beijing,
China, to serve our growing customer base in that region.
Winstech Holdings Ltd. has been contracted to run the
new service center at 19 Jian Hua Nan Road, Chaoyang District,
Beijing. Staff are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a
week, to provide local service, maintenance, installation,
technical sales, training and consulting support.
China represents a growing market for ACE*COMM, and this
is the right time to expand our local presence and local
support capabilities," said George T. Jimenez, Chairman
and CEO of ACE*COMM. "This facility represents our
continuing commitment to meeting the needs of customers
and partners in this most dynamic and strategically important
telecom marketplace for our Company."
Our customers and partners in China are very happy with
the new facility. "We are pleased that ACE*COMM is
expanding its local presence in the Chinese market,"
said Simon Meng, President of China Weal Business Machinery
Co., Ltd., a key ACE*COMM partner in the region. "This
will have a very positive impact on our collaborative efforts
to deliver state-of-the-art solutions and productivity-enhancing
technology to customers like Beijing Telecom and other service
providers in the region."
ACE*COMM will host a "Mediation Road Show" and
official opening event in Beijing on March 8th at the Shangri-La
Hotel. The event will focus on mediation solutions and their benefits to the
Chinese telecommunications marketplace.
IPDR Compliance for N*USAGE and N*VISION
 ACE*COMM
is a charter member of IPDR.org, a collaborative effort
composed of service providers, equipment vendors, system
integrators, and billing and mediation vendors. The primary
goal of the IPDR.org is to define an open, extensible,
flexible record format that encapsulates the essential
parameters for any IP transaction. Through regular participation
in the IPDR Interoperability Pavilions, ACE*COMM has demonstrated
the ability to produce and consume IPDRs for streaming
media and Voice over IP (VoIP) services.
Recently, ACE*COMM's IPDR capabilities were validated when
we received compliance status for version 2.5 of the VoIP
and Streaming Media IPDR service specification documents.
"IPDR Compliant" identifies companies and products
that have demonstrated the ability to exchange IP usage
records which conform to the IPDR.org Network Data Management
– Usage (NDM-U) specification. Only companies who successfully
pass IPDR compliance testing may use the registered "IPDR
Compliant" logo on their products and in their advertising.
IPDR.org will be testing a number of companies and products
for version 3.0 of the NDM-U specification at the end of
May, 2002, at ACE*COMM headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Our N*VISION, N*USAGE, and NetPlus products are among those
undergoing testing. We're confident that we'll pass the
test and will be among the first to receive NDM-U v3.0 compliance!
NetPlus Usability Improvements Make It Better Than Ever
 ACE*COMM
has followed up the release of NetPlus 5.0 with two post-release
usability enhancements. Improved access controls to security
and auditing capability are available now, and a NetPlus
relational diagram and data dictionary are almost complete.
NetPlus Security and Auditing Capabilities
The NetPlus security capabilities are quite advanced, allowing
for access control at the module, form, and even the field
level. With the most recent version of the system, the access
control functions have been simplified, making it easier
for network administrators to change individual and group
access to vital corporate data. The changes also support
more secure network encryption of all data flowing across
the network. Encryption is increasing in importance as enterprises
continue to undergo rapid structural and personnel changes.
The NetPlus auditing capabilities have also been enhanced.
The system has always tracked individual access and activities
for later reference, and now it has the added capability
of tracking the actual transactions and the associated changes
that were made. When changes such as work orders, trouble
tickets, inventory detail, or service and equipment billing
data are made, the actual changes are stored within the
database and can be accessed by authorized administrators
via the available reporting and tracking tools. This feature
can be used without any impact on performance and is available
to all NetPlus 5.0 users.
NetPlus Relational Diagram and Data Dictionary
NetPlus maintains all network usage data, work orders,
trouble ticket, inventory, cabling, directory, security,
and other telemanagement information within a complex Oracle
database structure consisting of over 200 data entities.
Understanding and effectively communicating the relationships
between these entities can be extremely challenging.
The good news is that ACE*COMM is developing an entity
relationship diagram and is updating the data dictionary
with more intuitive, user friendly names. In so doing, the
NetPlus database structure will be made visible to all users
and the system and its reporting capabilities have greatly
improved usability. The entity relationship diagram and
the updated data dictionary are expected to be available
for next quarter, and will be distributed to NetPlus users
at that time.
Partner Spotlight: ACE*COMM Develops
Mediation for Marconi
 In
keeping with their strategy of "partnering with the
best in class," Marconi turned to ACE*COMM to develop
ServiceOn Accountant™, their proven and powerful
usage-based carrier-class billing mediation solution.
When it comes to usage-based billing, implementation
of services across network equipment is invaluable to
the service provider. ServiceOn Accountant™ meets
this key customer need by delivering the required information
from the network to the billing system. Intelligent alignment
of OSS solutions with Marconi switch software guarantees
consistent and accurate data upload. This unique aspect
of ServiceOn Accountant™ removes the risk of lost
billing revenues.
ServiceOn Accountant™ has all the qualities
that people expect from a mediation system including:
- Generation of very granular call detail enabling the
Service Provider to bill each customer on a "per-call"
basis, unlocking newrevenue streams.
- Support of standardized formats, which enables the application
to feed into the Service Providers chosen billing system,
leading to cost-effective integration
- Support for the rapid introduction of new services by
obtaining call detail records upon service launch, enabling
the billing system to deliver enhanced customer service
e.g. through detailed itemized bills, pay-as-you-go billing
model etc. delivering incremental revenue gains through
differentiated billing offerings.
To learn more
about the Marconi OSS billing mediation solution.
ACE*COMM Hosts Interactive "Webinar"
On Thursday, January 31, ACE*COMM hosted a free Web seminar
("webinar") on the topic "Mediation--The
Service Provider’s Solution to Shrinking Profits."
ACE*COMM’s Senior VP and Chief Marketing Officer, Martin
Demers, and Director of Product Management & Architecture,
Jonjie Sena, presented the multimedia Web-based seminar on
how communications service providers can slash operational
costs and boost revenues by implementing an effective mediation
solution.
"Mediation – The Service Provider's Solution to Shrinking Profits" explored critical issues for communications service providers. Topics included the evolution of mediation in the industry, and how service providers can use mediation to reduce revenue leakage, provide a comprehensive audit trail, organize network data for accurate OSS processing, introduce new services without disrupting normal operation, facilitate churn analysis, validate interconnect bills and invoices, and gain vendor independence. They also discussed the different types of mediation vendors and how to pick the right one for your needs.
Martin and Jonjie explained how every service provider's mediation needs are unique – that there are no "cookie-cutter" solutions – and why they need to be fully informed to make the right choice when choosing a mediation vendor.
The presentation has been archived and is available for viewing. You can watch and listen to it here.
Note that you are given the choice of listening via streaming
audio or through a telephone link.
The webinar (and the concept) was so successful that ACE*COMM
plans to hold more in the coming months. Watch for more
targeted topics and very finely focussed presentations.
ACE*COMM Industry Newswatch
Today's focus: Vendor ties fees to ROI
 Mike
Jude on Network/Systems Management
Network World Fusion – February 11, 2002
"Many companies are analyzing the return on investment
they get from management software. But one vendor is taking
the concept a step further – using such analysis
to determine how much you should pay for its software...
Read how ACE*COMM is putting its value proposition, and
ROI analysis, where
its mouth is...
Review of Mediation Products
 Wireless
Review Magazine – January 1, 2002
"Mediation is no longer just a billing feed. It provides
sustenance for the measurement of network performance
and the gathering of business intelligence. It helps blow
the whistle on fraud and warms the engines of activation.
Mediation has become a multipurpose process in a multitechnology
world. However, if it can't help carriers find new ways
to squeeze money out of their networks, the rest is just
a bell that will never ring or a whistle that never blows."
See
how ACE*COMM compares…
VoIP: The Burden of Excess Data
 Billing
World and OSS Today – January 2002
"...The onset of SIP-based calls does raise billing
concerns." Martin Demers, senior vice president and
CMO at ACE*COMM, describes SIP as a "mini version
of SS7 that goes beyond SS7 to create the connection of
two endpoints." These calls use URLs rather than
phone numbers to locate a recipient. "SIP is built
to find any user and locate them wherever they move,"
Demers explains... "SIP-based traffic generates 20
times more records that circuit-based calls, and not all
events are meaningful," says ACE*COMM’s Demers.
"The records must be consolidated to represent what
has taken place. For example, there is no clear indication
of when the conversation starts, or the 'answer time'
in a conventional environment. The mediation system must
collect each record, aggregate them and compare them with
information from other sources.
Full Story…
New Era for Wireless Billing Means Big Business for Vendors
and Suppliers, IDC Says
 IDG.com
– December 2001
The wireless IP billing market is poised for exponential
growth starting in 2002. Despite the slowdown in network
infrastructure spending and the decreased confidence surrounding
the events of September 11th, this market is still growing
strong. The worldwide packet-based wireless billing market
is expected to catapult from $94.6 million in 2001 to
$855.7 million in 2005.
Full Story…
Partner Update
 San
Diego, CA- February 5, 2002- ACE*COMM and COMGATES, an
innovative developer of networking technologies that enable
the convergence of voice and data communications, have
teamed to deliver complete voice and data solutions for
customers with convergent/IP networks. Combining the COMGATES
Softswitch architecture with ACE*COMM's Convergent Mediation™
solution provides the ability to generate billing information
from the transactions that COMGATES' softswitch technology
processes.
Press Release...
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