The Uplinx Provisioning System is a commissioning system for the support of MACDs within a deployed Cisco Unified Communications. It allows phone administrators to easily add, update or delete all objects required for a telephony user. It supports the following objects: CUCM endusers, device profiles, phones, voicemail (on Cisco Unity Connection and Unity Enterprise) and Cisco Unified Presence. It has been designed to only support end user oriented MACD operations. The configuration of system related objects such as partitions, CSS, route patterns, translations, gateways etc.. are not supported. The Provisioning System is used to remove the need for support staff to log onto production Cisco UC servers, it enforces an organisations standards and policies related to UC information and provides real-time data validation from a single web GUI.

Support "Day 0" configuration operations such as provisioning call routing information or the configuration of a new site to an existing Cisco UC deployment. The Uplinx Provisioning System only supports end user oriented MACD operations and objects to allow it to add, update or delete all objects required for a telephony user across all UC affected UC servers. System objects such as any route plan objects (partitions, CSS, route patterns, translations, gateways) are not supported. The Provisioning System covers 95% of all Cisco UC daily MACD cases. Cisco UC System design and implementation will always require a specialist due to the inherent complexities with setting up this information to suit each organisations unique requirements.

Bulk imports are currently not supported. Cisco's BAT offers an efficient and proven solution for bulk import operations.

The Provisioning System saves costs by its ability to:

• Save your UC experts time.Depending on the complexity to add all required configurations for a new/update/delete user in an enterprise UC deployment,realised time savings of 8 to 20 minutes per MACD can be achieved through the use of the Uplinx Provisioning System. Also, through the use of a single simplified screen, the Provisioning System allows for MACDs to be delegated to lower skilled staff to free your experts from MACD requests.
• Saving by delegating to lower skilled staff.Through the use of a single simplified screen, the Provisioning System allows for MACDs to be delegated to lower skilled staff to free your experts from MACD requests. The Provisioning system allows for business rules to be enforced allowing the Provisioning Screen to only present those fields that require changing. Auto validation ensures that data is validated against the CUCM prior to the provisioning job being actioned.
• Saving in training costs.By no longer requiring support staff to log onto Cisco UC servers, there is no longer any requirement for an organisation to have its support staffed Cisco UC trained.
• Savings in troubleshooting time.Creating all configuration objects (such as CUCM user, phone, device profile, voice mail, rdp) on several Cisco servers has become a complex process which requires a lot of training and understanding of Cisco specific technology. This process is challenging for experts and has become impossible for basic skilled users, especially in large enterprises. The more servers that need to be touched increases the chance of a phone administrator to make a mistake. These types of mistakes are costly as it may require all servers touched during the provisioning job to be revisited. As the Provisioning System is an automated process the communicates with all UC elements directly and in the correct order (with real-time data validation), mistakes are eliminated and even complex actions are performed correctly, first time, every time.
• Saving in training costs.By no longer requiring support staff to log onto Cisco UC servers, there is no longer any requirement for an organisation to have its support staffed Cisco UC trained.
• Savings in standardization of configurations.Economy of scale benefits can only be achieved with a standardized process and standardized setup procedures. The Uplinx Provisioning System ensures that all users and devices are configured to an organisation standard. This is enforced through the core configuration/job templates which are created based on sites. These templates only need to be configured once and are used to enforce standards. This then leads to savings in maintenance, troubleshooting and user support.

The Provisioning System integrates with other systems:

• Email integration: Sends out email notifications to site administrators and end users on the receipt and completion of MACD jobs.
• Intranet based portal which allows endusers to submit MACD requests. This can be integrated into an organisations Intranet. Uplinx provide this code with the Provisioning System.
• Two APIs to submit requests to the Provisioning System (see API section below). This is to integrate enterprise systems such as Enterprise Commissioning Systems, Human Resources Management systems and service desks with theProvisioning System. With this integration, it is possible for an MACD related change in a HR system, to trigger a telephony MACD job in the Provisioning System. As there are a vast array of HR and service Desk applications in the market place, the Provisioning system offers a standard set of APIs which can be interfaced with an Organisations existing systems.

The following two Web services on the Uplinx Provisioning System allow for easy integration into other applications:

• Commissioning Engine (CE) SOAP API: Submit and process commissioning requests by the Uplinx Commissioning Engine
• New requests SOAP API: Push information and requests to the submit screen and start the workflow

The Web services on the Provisioning System support XML SOAP over HTTP and can be accessed over the network via any standard programming language which supports Web Services clients. All popular programming languages and platforms support Web service clients such as Java, .NET, PHP.

Uplinx Software offers integration services to work in cooperation with the application owners within an organisation of the system they want to directly interface to the Provisioning System via its published APIs. If there are no experts within an organisation with the necessary application knowlege and programming skill for the system in question, we would be happy to engage the necessary experts to provide a full turn-key solution.

Microsoft Active Directory is used to source data for commissioning requests to the Provisioning System to help in populating provisioning field information. This therefore allows for the re-use of data and ensures contact information for a user matches that then provisioned in the Cisco UC servers.

The change tracker can be optionally enabled per site to track changes within Active Directory. Changes found to AD users, such as added/updated or deleted AD users can start the workflow in the provisioning. It sends out a list of changes found which allow a telephony administrator to login into the PS and act on this changes. After login, the changes are displayed at the bottom of the screen and can be easily pushed into the screen to create/update/delete telephony objects.

No, all operations require a phone administrators intervention. Only a trained phone administrator (even if a service desk operator) understands the telephony requirements of a new phone user and will implicitly apply a telephony class to a user based on pre-defined rules. An example of why human intervention is required is where varying models of IP handsets may be required for different users.

Auto provisioning means that objects are automatically configured on the telephony system without human interaction. For example, if a new user is entered into a HR system, a CUCM end user and associated Device Profile for Extension Mobility is created.

We do not think that auto provisioning fits into any enterprise due to the disparate and complex nature of todays business processes and systems. It would require to merge current business processes into one. For example, if we were to offer integration into a HR system to support auto commissioning, the HR system would be required to cater for decision elements such as telphony classes (is the user a standard user, call center user, assistant or manager?). The person entering the HR record would need to make the decision on behalf of a telephony administrator. So the logic within our Provisioning System would need to be pushed up into the HR system.

Although technically possible, it is not realistic for most companies due to business processes and system complexities and generally leads to bespoke, purpose built systems which are costly to run and support. The Uplinx provisioning system is an "off the shelf" solution which can be configured through it's job templates to cater for the majority of organisations telephony support requirements.

No. Self service is implemented via the CUCM enduser page and allows for self service activities such as PIN resets, short dial and personal address book management. More complex operations require the attention of a telephony administrator to ensure the correct information is included in a provisioning activity. The Provisioning System however comes with a Web Portal which allows end users to submit requests to a site telephony administrator for action. The telephony administrator can quickly process the request by leveraging the submitted information and email out a notification of the completed request.

Yes. Administrative scopes are available so that site administrators can be created for specific sites, even if it is on the same Callmanager or Unity system. This model therefore supports telephony administrators who can only access all required telephony objects for the site he/she is responsible for. To achieve this, the Provisioning System supports an "administrative scope" which comprises filters which enforce access for specific telephony administrators to specific fields in the provisioning system associated with a site (For example, a device pool and extension range for a site). Any field which is available in the Uplinx Provisioning System can be used with regular expressions and SQL filters to define an administrative scope. Administrative scopes are then assigned to telephony administrators.

We only issue trials to customers for use in their own dedicated Proof Of Concept (POC) environment. We require an NDA to be signed and a test plan outlining the requirements and criteria that need to be met for an organisation to move forward with purchasing the system.

We offer a remote customer lab which allows you to login and experience for yourself how easy and quick it is to use the Uplinx Provisioning System. This lab is regularly updated with the latest releases of our software applications so the latest features can be tested. Please contact us to discuss to organise access to our remote lab or to acquire trial software.

The Provision System supports numerous reports including the number of MACDs provisioned for a complete environment, region, site, or individual phone administrator. Our outsourcing partners use the Provisioning systems reporting engine to feed into their billing systems.

Certainly, please contact us with details about your requirements and telephony setup.

The Provisioning system is licenced based on the number of clusters and phones it is required to support. The first years maintenance is included in the buy price. Maintenance is then charged on an annual basis on the anniversary of the purchase of the initial licences.

8x5xNBD software support is provided for the provisioning system software.

No, all versions are included in the annual software maintenance which must be ongoing to receive updates.