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Customer Testimony |
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| Customer Testimony |
ICS Telecom, A Strategic Choice for the Leading African Operator
Telkom is a satisfied user of ICS Telecom. The choice of this telecommunications network planning software by the main operator in South Africa was dictated by the richness of the product and the service quality of ATDI.
Telkom is the only fixed-line operator in South Africa. During the past years the Company has transformed itself into a streamlined, refocused and efficient organisation, and has expanded into the realm of total communications solutions (the full spectrum of digital communications including voice, data, video, internet and e-commerce) alongside wireless telephony.
From 1997 to March 2001, the Company invested R34 billion ($3.3 billion) primarily in network modernisation and expansion. Telkom has already begun evolving to a next generation network which involves the movement to a scalable Internet-protocol-based network with the capacity to deliver intelligent, value-added products and services. Packet Mode Architecture, which has the ability to carry all types of traffic and offer quality of service on par with traditional voice, has been introduced.
With its 50% holding in Vodacom, South Africa’s largest mobile provider, the Group is continuing its expansion into Africa with investments in Tanzania, Lesotho and the DRC.
Five years ago, Telkom acquired the ATDI telecommunication network planning and frequency spectrum management software, ICS Telecom. This was in order to plan the implementation of DECT (Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications) telephone networks.
Highly satisfied with the product, Telkom now uses ICS Telecom in numerous other projects involving the creation of new networks. According to Leonard Shaw, responsible for the acquisition, implementation and support of planning tools within Telkom’s Integrated Network Planning department, ICS Telecom was chosen from among the software programs on the market according to a number of criteria judged to be decisive, particularly: its compatibility with ICS Map Server, which is capable of creating digital terrain models from printed geographical maps and digitised cartographical databases; its ODBC connectivity, which allows it to be connected to the various databases of the operator; and its graphic interfaces, including a three-dimensional viewing system. And Leonard Shaw adds: «Over the past few years, it has been necessary to adapt and improve the planning tools to meet the needs of a rapidly-changing Telecom environment. I have thus had the opportunity to offer suggestions for improvements to the software which have been taken into account by ATDI. ICS Telecom now incorporates numerous new functions which easily resolve the new problems encountered in our field».
Functions appreciated by users
Telkom has thus been able to make profitable use of two new functions: the «multi-dongle» licence and, more recently, dynamically personalised menus. «Multi-dongle» mode enables ICS Telecom licences to be used from any site of the Telkom organisation, via LAN or WAN type communication networks. This possibility allows more users to access the software while at the same time carrying out precise monitoring and recording of the activity of each licence. Meanwhile, the new ICS Telecom function enabling the user to choose the menus he wishes to display according to his precise activity has proved to be very useful when different teams work on the same project. «In addition, this function is particularly useful for training operations,» continues Leonard Shaw «because it makes it possible to advance step by step and progressively activate the necessary menus as the trainee’s learning progresses».
«We are particularly satisfied with the qualities of the ICS Telecom software, ICS Telecom, but also, and this is very important, with the level of service and the quality of the technical support provided to us by the ATDI engineers» concludes Leonard Shaw..