TeleSphere Software
Maximizing Special Circuit Profitability

Headquartered in Missoula, MT, TeleSphere Software is a provider of nationwide telecommunications billing software, professional services and SaaS, offering carrier access billing services (CABS), billing mediation, wholesale billing and circuit management solutions to the ILEC, CLEC, tandem, and cable telephony communities.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Blackfoot Telecommunications Group, TeleSphere Software has recently launched Advantage Circuit Management (ACM), an Operations Support System (OSS) platform, specially designed for the management of Access Service Requests (ASRs), circuit and facility design, inventory management and workflow optimization. ACM ensures the realization of special circuit revenue, enhances customer service, improves SLA performance and eliminates ongoing expenses when a circuit is not in use, all via a SaaS platform and a user-friendly GUI.

“Many of our rural ILEC and CLEC customers employ common special circuit management processes that entail the use of spreadsheets or other in-house solutions,” comments Todd Twete, Vice President of Sales, TeleSphere Software, “though such practices have proven to be manually intensive, inefficient and problematic. These challenges are heightened due to the ever increasing demand for bandwidth and the influx of special circuit ASRs,” he adds.

The “Dashboard” functionality within ACM has enterprise wide applications as this tool allows operations, accounting and sales personnel to view workflow statuses, servicelevel agreements, customer contracts, images and other documentation thereby enhancing customer satisfaction and retention.

To build a circuit or a facility, an ACM user leverages the “Circuit Wizard”. This four step process entails noting A and Z locations, circuit IDs, type of circuit, customer and lessor (if applicable) information. The third step in this process centers on the creation of the Design Layout Record (DLR), including specifying facility and port information and inserting any applicable comments. Once complete, the DLR can be printed and/or viewed graphically.

Common special circuit management processes entail the use of spreadsheets or other in-house solutions though such practices have proven to be manually intensive, inefficient and problematic

The rack, shelf and equipment inventory management tools enhance network asset visibility and minimize notorious and costly “truck rolls”. These tools empower the user to create and reuse various rack, shelf and equipment types including configurations. These features were designed with the understanding that network operators typically deploy the same type of inventory and configurations repeatedly thus are intended to reduce repeated data entry.

ACM additionally offers service providers the ability to track special circuit inventories, presents costing information, notates which customer is using a circuit, and details about that customer’s SLA (if applicable).

Highlighting the uniqueness of the ACM platform, Twete says, “The use of the ACM platform is often initiated with the receipt of an ASR from a neighboring carrier or business partner. Within our platform this event kicks off a whole series of workflow tasks that are transferred from one department (or user) to the next with associated timelines and deadlines.”

Twete envisions providing an onsite network inventory audit and adds that the company will be expanding its efforts on the professional services front in the coming months. For example, TeleSphere Software plans to deliver ACM platform integration with customers’ accounting, network management, and outside plant management platforms.