Telecom Trouble Ticketing System (eventNEXUS)

A trouble ticketing system is a software package that manages and maintains issues. Today a number of vendors offer trouble ticketing systems. However, some companies choose to develop their own, which initially may appear to be the best and most cost effective option. Unfortunately 70% of such systems fail to meet expectations. A common problem is related to lack of integration with systems such as workforce management. In many cases integration is impossible to achieve and results in call center operators manually notifying engineers about issues, which in turn results in increases to a ticket’s lifespan.

An issue tracking system often includes a knowledge base that contains information about affected users, resolutions to common problems, and other information helpful in resolving issues. A trouble ticket is a record within an issue tracking database that contains information about support activities performed by the support staff or third parties on behalf of the end user who reported the problem. Tickets are commonly created by the help desk or call center departments. Typically the ticket will have a unique reference number, also known as a case, issue, or call log number that is used by the support staff to track, add to, or communicate the status of the issue or request.

Significant benefits can be realized if a ticketing system is integrated with the Fault management system. The integration can be unilateral (FaM --> TTS) or bilateral (FaM  TTS). With unilateral integration the FaM sends alarms to the ticketing system for further processing, and with bilateral integration the ticketing system correlates incoming alarms and performs impact analysis. Bilateral integration is not required but is extremely helpful in determining the practical implications of a network fault.

An effective ticket processing system should include the following functionality: open, route, analyze, correlate, track, escalate, refer to dispatch, and close trouble-ticket reports. The most common problems with inadequate implementations of Trouble Ticketing system are:

• Limited information about a ticket’s lifespan
• Discrepancies between the Fault Management and Ticketing Databases
• Delays to customer services caused by inadequate ticket tracking
• Inaccurate ticket correlation

CyberVision`s eventNEXUS is a comprehensive trouble ticketing solution that offers advanced functionality and is tightly integrated with Fault Management, Workforce, and Customer Relationship Management systems. Its proprietary correlation engine establishes relationships between incoming alarms and a Master ticket. Moreover, eventNEXUS can also be integrated with a Network Testing system to further improve the level of alarm correlation, making it easier to locate problems and reduce a ticket’s lifespan. In such a scenario, the Network Testing system receives fault notification from the Ticketing system along with the associated alarms from the Fault Manager and performs a re-test based on its own rules to pinpoint the root cause of the failure (e.g., a router down notification was caused by a port failure).

CyberVision`s eventNEXUS functionality includes:

• Escalation service – manages ticket prioritization based on configurable business logic
• Workflow service – monitors a ticket’s lifespan and workflow
• Business rules – performs configurable ticket correlation and workgroup assignments
• GUI services – user interface and reporting
• Configuration – performs eventNEXUS system administration and configuration
• Notification services – e-mail, SMS, pager, and voice notifications for both internal and external user groups
• Reporting services – reporting service
• Integration services – interface modules for system integration (FaM, WFM, CRM)
• Configuration service – configuration of ticketing system elements

In conclusion, through eventNEXUS, organizations can improve escalation efficiency, improve workflow, and improve the level of Call Center expertise. CyberVision`s eventNEXUS helps to eliminate data loss, improve customer service level, and improve existing alarm collection.