Introduction
Spark New Zealand is the country’s largest digital services company and its biggest internet provider, serving nearly 700,000 broadband customers and holding close to half of the total New Zealand broadband market. Spark’s mission is to use technology to be useful to customers and enrich the lives of New Zealanders. That mission depends on reliable device telemetry monitoring, strong customer service, and a smooth operation across a large and growing subscriber base.
Background
Spark managed over half a million residential gateways across various technologies, operating on two separate device management platforms. Neither platform communicated with the other, and both were limited in terms of proactive monitoring and troubleshooting capabilities. Without real-time telemetry data from subscriber devices, the team had limited visibility into system performance and no way to identify issues before they affected the user experience. With the average New Zealander using three or more connected devices daily, and those numbers expected to rise, Spark needed a device management approach that could keep pace with growing demand.
Challenge
The disconnected platforms created a “swivel-chair” experience for Spark’s support teams. CSRs had to toggle between systems to get a picture of what was happening with a subscriber’s devices, and the team relied on customer-reported issues rather than proactively identifying and resolving problems. Without centralized data collection across their device infrastructure, response times suffered and customer satisfaction dropped.
Spark identified two business-level objectives for addressing the problem:
- Complete the entire project in weeks, not months
- Execute the conversion with no disruption of services to subscribers
They needed a software platform that could consolidate device management into a single telemetry system, improve functionality, integrate with existing back-end systems, and scale to support current and future customers.
Solution
Spark deployed ETI’s ACS (Auto Configuration Server) solution to consolidate and replace both of their prior TR-069 device management platforms. The ETI ACS tool integrated with Spark’s existing back-office systems, giving the customer service team the ability to quickly diagnose and resolve common issues subscribers encounter with their residential gateways from a single interface. Real-time device telemetry replaced the old model of waiting for subscribers to report problems, allowing the team to monitor device health and application performance proactively.
“We needed a flexible but powerful platform that was feature-rich and could scale quickly and securely,” said Graham Fish, Delivery IT Integrator at Spark New Zealand at the time. “With a short timeframe and a tight budget, we had high expectations to meet. ETI Software’s expertise was matched by their responsiveness to our needs. We were thrilled with ETI’s delivery of a great solution.”
ETI’s Auckland-based partner, Connectplay, provided local onsite technical expertise throughout the deployment and continues to deliver ongoing technical support for Spark and ETI’s Asia Pacific customer base.
Beyond the initial deployment, ETI’s pre-integrated module library gave Spark a path to launch new technologies going forward. “The ETI software series includes an array of pre-integrated modules that will make rolling out new services much simpler for Spark in the future,” said Fish. “The ETI one-to-many application will reduce the time and the cost of implementation for new platforms that will be key to our success as an organization.”
Results
By consolidating two disconnected device management platforms into ETI’s ACS solution, Spark achieved:
- A single, unified telemetry system replacing two siloed platforms
- Real-time device monitoring and proactive troubleshooting, reducing reliance on customer-reported issues
- Faster response times and improved user experience for broadband subscribers
- Integration with existing back-end infrastructure, eliminating the swivel-chair experience for CSRs
- A deployment completed on a tight timeline with no disruption of services to subscribers
- Reduced operating costs through improved efficiency and fewer manual troubleshooting steps
- A scalable foundation for launching new technologies and services going forward
“With the ETI ACS solution in place, Spark’s customer service team can quickly diagnose and solve many common issues subscribers encounter with their residential gateways,” said Greg Aston, Product Director at ETI. “It raises the level of customer satisfaction and lowers the cost of operation; a true win-win scenario.”
