COVID-19 Pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, which has affected the entire world, including Indonesia, has required all companies to undergo digital transformations and to conduct their daily operations either virtually or remotely, including Telkomtelstra’s Operation Center Division or NAOC (Network Application Operation Center).
According to Wikipedia, a Network Operation Center (NOC) is a network center or network operations conducted in one or two locations over computer, telecommunications, or satellite.
At Telkomtelstra, the NOC is referred to as NAOC (Network Application Operation Center) from which customer service issues are proactively monitored and troubleshot to maintain SLA (Service Level Agreement)and the optimal delivery of services. Telkomtelstra’s NAOC is supported by a “cutting edge” monitoring system and consists of several teams with different levels of expertise. When Telkomtelstra was initially formed, the NAOC division was designed to be able to conduct all of its operations remotely. Telkomtelstra utilizes IPScape’s Cloud Contact Center technology, Microsoft Office 365 (SharePoint, Teams, Planner), Cisco (VPN AnyConnect, Jabber), Service Now (Cloud ticketing) and Solarwinds technology to monitor WAN and LAN networks, security, virtual machines, and other IT hardware.
Proactive Monitoring
The above image outlines a proactive monitoring mechanism implemented by Telkomtelstra’s NAOC in monitoring one of their product managed services, MNS-WAN. CPE (Customer Premises Equipment) managed by Telkomtelstra is monitored using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) or API (Application Programing Interface) protocols. Then, the SNMP or API protocols sends notifications to the NAOC monitoring system, which then generates tickets for the NAOC team to follow up.
Telkomtelstra’s NAOC team investigates the incident through the notification received by the monitoring system and directly clarifying with the customer within a specified timeframe. Clarifications are made over the phone, messenger, and email. When the incident has been clarified and found to be valid, the ticket is automatically assigned to one of NAOC’s engineers to be resolved.
Infinity Portal
Valid incidents that have already been clarified by NAOC automatically appears on the Infinity Portal dashboard, which can be accessed by all Telkomtelstra’s customers. The Infinity Portal is a website portal that is directly integrated with the NAOC monitoring and ticketing systems, which also have a Chat feature that customers use to communicate live with the NAOC team 24/7.
Performance During the Pandemic
Telkomtelstra faces even greater challenges because, as a managed service company, it is required to continue providing the same support as it did before the COVID-19 pandemic. Telkomtelstra itself currently manages hundreds of customers with 24/7 operational support for various needs and services, including networks, security, cloud, and so on.
With the setup designed by Telkomtelstra, the NAOC team can continue operating despite none of the team member is working physically from the office. The transition of working remotely was executed with zero downtime on the monitoring and ticketing systems and zero performance impact on the handling of disruptions. Thanks to its proactive monitoring system and expert support team, Telkomtelstra customers no longer need to worry about the reporting or handling of any issues experienced. To bring extra assurance, Telkomtelstra’s NAOC was built to continue operating even under force majeure conditions.