Need of Security Management Software For Telecommunication Industry

Few industries have experienced so much change, so rapidly, as telecommunications. Increasing competition, deregulation and industry convergence around the globe have incited an almost Darwinian struggle to stay competitive, let alone profitable. As competition intensifies and the network becomes a commodity, service providers are faced with the need to reduce costs and add value to their services. Today s customer can choose from different carriers and hence customer care and marketing intelligence become strategic functions in retaining and gaining market share. All these changes demand that a carrier s supporting infrastructure be responsive and flexible. In short, a telco s business can no longer revolve around the network; it must revolve around the customer. ENTERPRISE WIDE TELECOM APPLICATION SUIT SECURITY - Secure activity logs: Provide a verifiable trail of user or administrator activities and events generated by network devices. Secure activity logs must contain sufficient information to establish individual accountability, reconstruct past events, detect intrusion attempts, and perform after-the fact analysis of security incidents and long-term trend analysis. Activity log information helps identify the root cause of a security problem and prevent future incidents. For example, activity logs can be used to reconstruct the sequence of events that led up to a problem. - Network operator authentication: Based on strong centralized administration and enforcement of passwords, ensures that only authenticated operators gain access to management systems. Centralized administration of passwords enables enforcement of password strength and removes the need for local storage of passwords on the network elements and EMS (Element Management Systems). Authorization for network operators uses authenticated identity to determine the user s privileges. This helps determine what systems they can access, what functions they can perform and what areas, systems and functions they are NOT permitted to access. - Encryption of network management: Traffic protects the confidentiality and integrity of network management data tariff - especially important with the growing use of in-band network management. Encryption provides a high degree of protection from internal and external threats, with the exception of the small group of insiders that have legitimate access to encryption keys. - Secure remote access for operators: Security must be provided for operators and administrators who manage the network from a remote location over a public network. Providing a secure virtual private network using IPsec is the mandatory solution, as this will provide strong encryption and authentication of all remote operators. - Firewalls and VLANs: Partition the network to segment management devices and traffic from other, less confidential systems such as public Web servers and WLANs. The firewall controls the type of traffic that can transit the boundary between security domains. - Intrusion detection systems: Incorporated into management servers defend against network intrusions by warning administrators of potential security incidents such as a server compromise or DoS attack. - Hardening operating systems: Used for network management, close potential security gaps in general purpose operating systems and embedded real-time operating systems. OS hardening should use the latest procedures and patches from the OS manufacturer. - Anti-virus protection: Involves scanning all in-house and third-party software packages with virus- detection tools before incorporating the software into a product or network. A rigorous established process ensures that network management software is virus free. IMPLEMENTATION Integrated data warehousing - Gather information from any and all internal and external sources - Improve your marketing and sales capabilities - Provide each of your employees with the reporting and analysis capabilities they need - Enhance your decision-making ability Scalability - Deploy in your enterprise - no matter what its size - Grow your solution as you grow your business Open interfaces - Integrate all your old and new solutions to create a single, comprehensive environment - Incorporate the latest technological innovations as they emerge Data Structures - Lean database structures. A lean data structure is important for keeping databases at a manageable size, especially as regards transaction data (such as postings). - Reducing the number of postings. As described above, the number of postings is reduced to a minimum. APPLICATION Customer Service Management - Marketing and Customer analytics - Logistics Management - Lead and Opportunity Management - Order Management, Brokering and Tracking - Complaint Management - Call Center Dealer Management - Dealer Life Cycle Management - Dealer Operations Management - Incentive and Commission Management - Forecasting and Replenishment Network Management - Demand and Supply Management - Investment and Project Management - Inventory and Fixed Asset Management - Mobile Workforce Management Customer Financial Management - Receivables and Collections - Financial Customer Care and Dispute Management - Credit Management - Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment - Convergent Invoicing Business Intelligence - Call Analysis - Network Analysis - Billing Analysis - Revenue Analysis - Fraud Analysis - Service Analysis - Marketing Analysis - Partner Analysis