Service providers that use Cisco BroadWorks or ClearSpan are all too aware of how time-consuming and complicated setting up services for customers can be. Building new users, devices, and features in the portal requires manually configuring each component individually – so activating services often takes several days or weeks after you've made a sale.
Alpaca's bulk provisioning feature makes it easy to set up multiple users, devices, phone numbers, and other BroadWorks configurations in one batch. Everything can be defined in a spreadsheet, pre-validated to eliminate errors, and activated all at once, resulting in huge time savings and minimizing the potential for human error that often comes with repetitive manual processes.
Read on to learn why bulk provisioning is an essential tool for accelerating deployment in BroadWorks.
Challenges of Manual Provisioning in BroadWorks
Manually provisioning in BroadWorks is incredibly tedious and prone to error. Some manual provisioning challenges you're likely familiar with include:
- Building users requires high skill and expertise. Without enough properly trained staff, the process is too slow and inefficient.
- Reusing settings from customer to customer is challenging and often results in too many inconsistencies.
- Recreating lab and test environments every year is time-consuming, so you end up building a new environment from scratch instead.
- Knowing if a new deployment will work before building it is nearly impossible.
- Staying compliant requires tracking unused numbers in a spreadsheet. If you have multiple clusters to track, you may pay for numbers you can't use.
What Are the Benefits of Bulk Provisioning?
Alpaca's bulk provisioning feature offers BroadWorks users a radically shortened time to deployment. Rather than spending up to six hours or more manually configuring accounts, you can activate services in only 30 minutes.
Bulk provisioning makes this possible by verifying spreadsheets upfront to ensure new setups will work reliably and avoid issues like over-provisioning. It also enables you to reuse existing spreadsheets for more consistency, leading to higher-quality service, easier troubleshooting, and reduced training requirements.
Alpaca can also activate complex features like call centers, hunt groups, and enterprise trunking through a simple spreadsheet, eliminating the need to click through multiple pages of BroadWorks to get all the details. Devices are seamlessly assigned using barcode scans, with shared spreadsheet access between provisioning and inventory teams.
The bulk provisioning plugin architecture also makes integrating Alpaca with other systems easy, including third-party platforms that activate customer premise equipment or manage POTS devices. And since Alpaca can communicate with all BroadWorks clusters, no matter the version, it can integrate with your existing single sign-on solutions for improved security.
Unlock the Power of Tomorrow With Alpaca's Bulk Provisioning
With Alpaca's bulk provisioning feature, you can unlock the power of tomorrow by turning up new services in 30 minutes or less. No longer will your customers have to wait days or weeks after ordering new services – Alpaca makes it possible to activate services quicker so you can solve customer problems immediately and generate revenue fast.
Ready to experience a radically shortened time to deployment in BroadWorks? Book a consult with ECG today.
