BroadJump Inc. will take the next leap in its broadband activation and service-management product by unveiling a new version of its ControlWorks software that can take a customer from sign-up to service delivery.
And it has found its first service-provider customer: United Kingdom MSO NTL Inc. will use the all-in-one software package to manage broadband customers who sign up for multitier data, voice and video offerings.
The new ControlWorks Activation Edition gathers BroadJump software products — including its Virtual Truck Qualifier, Virtual Truck Installer and CorrectConnect activation software — into one integrated package, with work-flow elements to coordinate the processing of service transactions for new and existing customers.
That includes the coordination of qualification, activation, migration to and from other services, installation, multiple ISP choice, home-networking installation, and self-activation and autoprovisioning tasks.
"It's not just a repackaging effort," BroadJump CEO Kip McClanahan said. "It winds up bringing into the market for the first time a set of use cases — home networking is a good example — that haven't existed before. Here is a brand-new solution that is more rich in terms of its functionality."
COORDINATION
Much of the new software update is aimed at providing uniform coordination within increasingly complex broadband networks. It can, for example, make service changes more quickly and account for regional network differences, McClanahan said.
NTL deployed BroadJump activation software in February, and since then it has added 150,000 data customers within three tiers of service. Managing tiered data service and multiple ISPs is a big reason NTL bit on the upgrade, according to MSO director of Internet services Bill Goodland.
The new software should be online sometime in the fourth quarter.
As the European ISP market consolidates — and NTL potentially stands to take subscribers from departing companies — the Activation Edition software's ability to migrate customers may serve the MSO well in the near future, Goodland noted.
"Having a capability to support customers through the process of general industry convergence seems to me to be a valuable capability to have," Goodland said. "It's much more about an expectation that customers will start choosing to switch between different ISPs, different providers, between DSL and cable potentially."
McClanahan said he also expects BroadJump's existing customers — which include the top six U.S. cable operators and Baby Bells BellSouth Corp. and SBC Communications Inc. — to likely opt for the new edition.
