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By
Tal Eisner
Imagine the following scenario: Your company sells roads; yes, roads for vehicles to drive on. What kind of vehicles? Any kind! From family cars, mini cars, motorcycles, and bicycles to medium size-family cars, couples cars, and youth cars to large cars, MPVs, SUVs, jeeps and four-wheel drives.
And last but not least, extra large cars – trucks, semitrailers, and even larger than that.
Your job in this company? You have to make sure it all runs smoothly and safely on the road, and that all drivers pay the toll on time and no drivers get a free pass. .
Simple, isn’t it? Well, let’s see if this is indeed the case. We said a road, right? How many lanes? That’s not up to you to decide. That’s Marketing’s decision. Their job is to plan the most fashionable and profitable road possible.
But wait. We said your job is to make sure it all runs smoothly, right? What happens then if the road has 12 lanes and traffic lights operate only at certain times of the day? After all, Marketing does not want to ‘inconvenience’ drivers; they want to keep them coming back! And who wants to return to a congested road?
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Most telcos are branched and congested firms, with thousands of employees, numerous departments and countless representatives. |
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Now, let’s look at the same scenario but in the information and telecom highway
Back in the old days, even the most advanced, hi-tech-like edge networks streamed what today seems an insignificant amount of data. The ‘Send’ and ‘End’ buttons were top-notch technology, and so was the result of clicking them. Relatively simplistic days for those in charge of ensuring all went smoothly and that the money reached the pockets of the shareholders at the end of the day.
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Now that we have the design of the road, let’s see who is going to use it. No, hold it again, that’s not up to you either. That’s Sales and Marketing. They want ‘everyone’ on the road, as many drivers as possible, no matter what. But what if some drivers have a bad toll-payment history in other roads across the county? Well marketing does not deal with ‘past’ history! Marketing (so it wants to believe) makes history and ensures the future! (Sigh.)
Gee, this job is beginning to look complicated...
Now, how do you make sure all goes smoothly on your road? CCTV is a must to see everything clearly at all times, right? What about manned toll booths for collecting the money? Can you trust them? How do you know that the money they collect is actually put in the safe at the end of the day? That they don’t ‘forget’ anything in their pocket? Are you beginning to grasp the complexity involved?
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Today, however, network congestions are sometimes very hard to map. The data road becomes an endless lane with a periodic incessant flow of vehicles and drivers. Just like toll-booth managers, CSPs must find efficient ways to ensure that all drivers return home safely, that there are no accidents on the roads, and, perhaps most importantly, that everyone pays the toll. Moreover, most telcos are branched and congested firms, with thousands of employees, numerous departments and countless representatives.
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