Software automates technical service for network devices.
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Press Release Summary:
NextNine Support(TM) v2-PLUS aids in building/deploying technical support services that proactively avert downtime at customers' sites. It streamlines existing support offerings, cutting mean time to repair. Additional capabilities include ability to automate upgrades and systems repairs and provide alerts and reports at end-customer site. Deployment capabilities assist support reps to verify new service routines and reduce time to install software.
Original Press Release:
NextNine Ships Version 2-PLUS of NextNine Support Software that Automates Technical Service for Network Devices
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 25, 2003--
Transforms the Technical Support Process by Enabling Premium Services & Greater Efficiency; New Version 2-PLUS Expands Proactive Capabilities and Enables Rapid Service Deployment
NextNine, Inc., an innovative provider of service software for network devices in wireless, wireline and IP networks, announced it has shipped NextNine Support(TM) Version 2-PLUS, a major upgrade to its flagship software platform. NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS helps vendor service organizations build and deploy premium technical support services that proactively avert downtime at their customers sites and add new revenue streams. It also streamlines existing support offerings, cutting mean time to repair (MTTR) and increasing support team efficiency. NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS includes new features that enable more powerful proactive and preventive capabilities, faster roll-out of new services, and increased scalability. NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS is available now and sold directly by NextNine.
Network operations teams at enterprises and service providers are facing tremendous pressure to cut costs while maintaining availability and performance of their mission critical systems. The systems they manage have become complex and interdependent, and existing network management tools do little to proactively avoid problems. This presents an opportunity for device and systems vendors, as they possess a body of knowledge that if properly leveraged could address this problem. Most vendors are ill-equipped to pursue this opportunity, as their support functions remain largely reactive and burdened by manual processes and inefficiencies.
A Smarter Way to Support Devices
NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS dramatically simplifies the time-consuming activities of a support representative in a technical assistance center working to support remotely installed devices. The product enables service reps to configure a wide variety of service routines that run remotely at the end-customer's location, saving time in problem detection and repair. Service routines include configuration and inventory analysis, software version management, known problem scans, best practices analysis, preventive maintenance, and compatibility checks. NextNine client software securely downloads these routines at the end-customer sites, runs routines locally, and automatically and securely sends information back to the vendor support rep.
With NextNine Support, vendors transform the technical service organization from a cost-center into a strategic revenue source. End-customers avoid critical problems, experience lower MTTR -- often cut in half -- and eliminate the onerous task of gathering incident data and phoning or emailing it back to the support team. Vendor support teams get reduced call volumes, enormous efficiency gains in obtaining and analyzing data, and have far better visibility into problems.
Saving Time, Costs Already at Major Firms
NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS users have already realized early returns, including hard-dollar savings and additional revenues. One NextNine customer, a leading supplier of enhanced telecom service systems, rolled out a proactive support service to its global customer base of wireless carriers. Its new service avoided three major outages at a single customer over the course of six weeks time. In one instance, NextNine Support identified a database that was soon to exceed capacity and fail; in another, the software identified changes to network settings made by a third-party vendor that caused an increase in network collisions. By swiftly and proactively identifying not only performance issues but their root cause, the NextNine Support user avoided several hours of downtime that would have cost its carrier customer tens of thousands of dollars.
Another NextNine Support customer, a leading provider of IP applications and traffic switching solutions, created a premium fee-based service that assists its customers in achieving the highest levels of availability and performance by automating preventive maintenance, best practices compliance, known problem detection, and software currency assessment. The service's one-step escalation capability uses NextNine software to collect and process relevant data in advance and then alert end-customers and designated support reps to potential issues in order to avert problems. When a problem does occur, support reps can immediately begin isolating and resolving the problem, without waiting for a customer to call into the support group or asking a customer to take the time to collect data.
An Untapped Revenue Opportunity
"Vendor support organizations have a tremendous opportunity to convert their customer's need for highest availability into premium services with new revenue streams," said Tom Corn, vice president of marketing and business development at NextNine. "NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS is helping achieve this goal today by fundamentally changing the service process at major system suppliers. Our software's power in proactive problem avoidance and streamlined problem resolution are helping firms roll out entirely new service offerings that are cutting costs and generating new service revenue. The results we deliver are immediate, and break-even times are often less than six months."
What's New in Version 2-PLUS:
NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS includes a robust set of new features targeted at increasing its proactive capabilities, the speed with which new services can be deployed, and its scalability.
The additional features include
o New proactive capabilities including the ability to automate upgrades and systems repairs, and provide more comprehensive alerts and reports at the end-customer site. These new capabilities enable services that not only alert end-customers of potential problems, but help resolve them.
o Rapid deployment capabilities including new features that assist support reps to verify new service routines and reduce the time to install software at end-customer sites.
o Expanded scalability enabling service organizations to handle larger installed bases - including more customer sites, and larger customer sites. New visualization features also allow the service team to view the impact of problems at multiple levels, including at the system, site, customer, regional or installed-base level.
Availability and Pricing
Sold directly by NextNine, NextNine Support Version 2-PLUS is available now and is priced based on network configuration. For more information on NextNine Support, please contact NextNine Sales at (617) 547-2560.
About NextNine, Inc.
NextNine, Inc. develops solutions that enable the world's leading network equipment vendors and managed service providers to create the next generation of advanced technical support services. NextNine Support is the industry's first advanced services platform for network and complex IT devices deployed in IP, wireless, and wireline networks. It enables service delivery organizations to roll out new advanced services, increase performance and value of existing services, reduce MTTR, and reduce both setup and operating costs of services. Founded in 1998 and privately held, NextNine is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and maintains a development center in Tel Aviv, Israel. The company is backed by industry-leading venture capital firms including Redwood Venture Partners, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter Private Equity, Yozma Venture Capital Group and Ofer Technologies Group. For more information, visit www.nextnine.com.
NextNine is a trademark of NextNine, Ltd. All other products or services named are the property of their respective owners. Information is subject to change without notice.
Contacts
NextNine, Inc.
Tom Corn, 617/547-2560
tcorn@nextnine.com
or
MKM Corporate Communications
Mary Kae Marinac, 978/685-3136
mkmarinac@attbi.com
