IBM introduces new quality assurance software for IP-based services

February 11, 2008 – IBM has announced the introduction of new software designed to help communications service providers improve the quality of their IP-based services, such as IPTV, VoIP and IP-VPN.

The IBM Tevoli Netcool Service Quality Manager is based on technology from Vallent Corporation, acquired by IBM last year, and provides real-time status views, automatic alarms and notifications, historical reports on how key parameters have varied over reporting periods, and service level conformance reports.

“Communications service providers need to launch new services quickly with the confidence that they are ready for the mass market,” said Kieran Moynihan, Vice President and CTO of Telecoms, Tivoli Software, IBM.  “Statistics show that a poor first experience with a new service means the subscriber won’t use it again – and may shy away from other offerings.  With these offerings, providers can manage the quality of their most popular services and get new offerings to market more quickly and with confidence in the quality.”

IBM reports that in a recent survey of more than 250 global telecoms executives, 89% indicated that service quality is emerging as an important differentiator, yet nearly half said their organisations had no end-to-end service assurance capability.