Some good news after hours:
OSI Secures Contract with Qwest for Fault and Traffic Management of Its Switched Network
Will Result in Superior Service to Customers
FOLSOM, Calif., April 21, /PRNewswire/ -- Objective Systems Integrators (Nasdaq: OSII - news), a leading provider of operations support systems (OSS) and network and service management solutions, today announced that Qwest Communications International (Nasdaq: QWST - news) will deploy OSI's NetExpert(R) framework for fault and traffic management of Qwest's multivendor switched network. This management system is part of a plan that should result in a distinct competitive advantage for Qwest this year. Providing superior service to customers is key in Qwest's competitive stance.
''Mean time to service restoration is an industry-standard metric for effective fault management,'' said Brij Khandelwal, chief information officer for Qwest. ''We intend to use NetExpert to help us deliver the lowest mean time to service restoration figures in the industry, resulting in superior service reliability to our customers.''
Qwest selected NetExpert, in part, because it provides broad network management functionality, including integrated fault, configuration, accounting, and performance management. According to Khandelwal, ''the use of a single product platform to address a wide range of network management challenges will be instrumental in Qwest's long-term strategy to provide the most reliable broadband capabilities in the world. We are implementing the technologies necessary to ensure the best products and services across the most advanced all-digital network in the world.''
Dick Vento, OSI's co-CEO said, ''We're pleased that Qwest has selected OSI to fill this strategic role in its expansion efforts. By the second quarter of 1999, Qwest's domestic fiber network is expected to serve over 125 cities and cover 16,285 miles. The NetExpert family of products can facilitate the growth of Qwest's networks and contribute to a higher level of network performance and service to customers.''
Vento added, ''NetExpert's inherent flexibility can also be used to ease the integration of multiple network management systems into a single operations support system, reducing operational costs. This is an extremely valuable asset for communications service providers who acquire, or merge with, other providers.''
NetExpert will manage Qwest's heterogeneous, multivendor network composed of a range of switches, signal transfer points (STPs), and service control points (SCPs). Khandelwal stated, ''We chose NetExpert because it can help us to fulfill the exploding demands for our services, provides us with the breadth of capabilities we need now and may need in the future, and is well-established as a superior assurance management product.'' |
