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GREAT
Connections
Winter 2016
3
W
e know communications services are mission critical
to your business. After all, if your Internet stops
working, your employees stop working. That’s why
Great Plains Communications maintains a Network Operations
Center (NOC) to monitor the performance and availability of
our networks and systems.
Monitoring and Dispatch 24x7x365
Wyatt Leehy, NOC Manager, explains, “The Great Plains Com-
munications NOC is an operations center in every sense. We
have a team of Technicians collocated in a single, large room.
Mounted to one wall are eight large monitors that display real-
time information concerning the performance and availability of
our networks and systems. Everything from the temperature in
a central office to the status of our most critical network connec-
tions are monitored 24x7x365.”
Who works at the NOC? Leehy answers, “We currently have
three Technicians during normal business hours, each with
rotating responsibilities for different aspects of the Great Plains
Communications network. These responsibilities include
network surveillance and dispatch, overflow/escalation and
special projects (primarily for improving and expanding the
NOC’s processes and procedures). After normal business hours,
we outsource network surveillance and dispatch to a third party
who has authority to dispatch and escalate network disruptions
as needed.”
As a business customer of Great Plains Communications, the
NOC gives you an immediate single point of contact concerning
the performance and availability of your service. You can also
feel confident knowing we are committed to delivering reliable
performance.
Mike Huggenberger, Senior Director of Technology and Network
Services, adds, “We take this function very seriously. Inside the
NOC, we utilize various tools and processes to ‘watch’ our net-
work for anomalies—which could be an increasing temperature
in a central office, abnormal bandwidth utilization on a critical
network connection or a major network outage. We also work
with our Engineering teams to develop and report on service
level agreement metrics to ensure our services exceed customer
expectations.”
A First for Great Plains Communications
In July 2015, Great Plains Communications became the first Tier
III Service Provider in the nation to achieve ISO9001:2008 and
TL9000-VR5.5/5.0 certifications under product category 7.3.2 for
its NOC. While these letters and numbers may not mean much to
you, the hard work they represent will benefit your business.
The TL9000 Quality Management System (QMS) is designed
specifically for the communications industry. The purpose is to
define the distinctive QMS requirements for design, develop-
ment, production, delivery and service. In addition, the system
identifies measurements to assist in evaluating the effectiveness
of quality implementation and improvement programs.
“Achieving these certifications is an important milestone for
Great Plains Communications. It demonstrates to our customers
and stakeholders that we are committed to delivering quality
service and continuous improvement,” says Huggenberger.
It’s “Communications Central”
for the receipt and dissemination
of network status information
What Happens
in the
Network
Operations
Center?