The extranet cockpit: for smooth data trafficAdrian Schmid, Product Manager Business Networks, Swisscom Corporate Business

Imagine you’re travelling in your car on the motorway from Berne to Zurich. Unfortunately, you have no rev counter or mileage indicator and no navigation system to point you in the right direction. You’ll no doubt find the way to Zurich without any instruments. But there’s no one to warn you about traffic jams on route, and you never know what speed you’re travelling at.


A journey in the fog?
When travelling on roads, nobody drives using intuition alone, without cockpit instruments of any kind. Yet with data services, there are often no management tools to shed light on what’s going on. This is not the case with Swisscom networking products such as Ethernet Service or LAN Interconnect. Customers not only receive a highly reliable service, they also get instant proof of this.

What do navigators need?
Simply log into the Extranet Corporate Business and you’ll be taken directly to your personal navigation desk. Here you can see all the eServices that you are authorised to use. The Traffic Reporting tool lists all your company’s sites. You select the required site and create the preferred reports. You can save the reports directly or print them out. You can also save settings as templates, which allows you to generate the same report at the click of the mouse during the next check.
 
Full transparency
Depending on requirements, you can create reports on traffic load for individual sites (switches, router) or the overall load of the network. Trend analyses are also possible, i.e. extrapolated traffic development (network load). In addition, you have access to information such as discards or latency of data packages and error reports. Just like with your car, there is a user manual available at all times, which describes each individual function.

A firm grip on the steering wheel
Thanks to Traffic Reporting, you always know what’s happening with your network. You can find information quickly, determine the cause of errors, and demonstrate within your company that you are a competent service provider. You monitor all sites proactively and determine whether the fault lies with the provider or your company’s own infrastructure. Reports on network load provide convincing arguments e.g. for persuading your boss to apply for more bandwidth, thereby increasing user efficiency. Only the cockpit gives you full transparency and therefore allows you to work with providers and internal customers confidently.

The eServices for networking products offer numerous practical functions:
• SLA Reporting: report on adherence to the guaranteed networks
• Trouble Ticket Web Access: open tickets, check current status, view archive
• Traffic Reporting: site analysis (e.g. load and bandwidth requirement)
• Minor changes: make changes to network, (e.g. short-term bandwidth adjustments)
• Technical documents: download documents for the services as PDF files

Have you tested the possibilities of the extranet yet? Or have you been using eServices for a while now? Join the discussion – our network expert Adrian Schmid will be happy to answer your questions.