O2 Czech Republic Telecommunications O2 Czech Republic Turns to Cisco Services to Stay Ahead of Market Changes Telecommunications provider rolls out new broadband and mobile services successfully, maintaining leadership in competitive environment Keeping ahead of changing on top of it,” explains Tomáš Vančura, O2 Czech Republic customer demands network infrastructure manager at O2 Size: 4,100 Employees Czech Republic. “However, the changes The largest integrated telecommunications introduced performance and management Industry: Telecommunications operator in its country, O2 Czech Republic issues.” Location: Czech Republic offers a rich variety of fixed and mobile voice, data, and Internet services. The O2 mobile voice network was Operating more than six million lines, it is facing changes as well, driven by its one of the Czech Republic’s top providers overwhelming success with consumers. of fully converged services. Like most The provider had recently rolled out new telecommunications providers, O2 is LTE services to all its mobile users, which Solutions constantly enhancing and expanding its spurred a dramatic growth in demand. network, adding new services to keep • Cisco Technical Services up with rising customer expectations “Our customers use these services for Advantage and a fast-moving market. When O2 everything from social networking to video • Cisco Network Optimization introduces a new service, it is essential streaming,” says Vančura. “We expect Service that users continue to see very high rapid growth in bandwidth demand over • Cisco Focused Technical Support availability and top-notch performance. the next year.” Even a brief interruption in service could send customers shopping for better As part of the new LTE initiative, O2 alternatives. updated its mobile infrastructure with new equipment and introduced virtualization As O2 launched a new service offering and network automation initiatives to make for its wholesale customers, the provider its processes even more agile. To support For More Information knew that, given its stellar reputation, these new business models, the provider For additional information related to it couldn’t afford the risk of frequent needed much more than just technical Cisco Services, please visit: outages and disruptions. support services. It needed a high-value service that was aligned to its specific cisco.com/go/services “We were running an IP Multiprotocol business needs and laser-focused on Label Switching (MPLS) network and delivering real business outcomes. deployed wholesale broadband services O2 Czech Republic Telecommunications With Technical Services Customized services power high-touch operations manager (HTOM) Advantage, O2 Czech efficiency and continuity communicates with the appropriate Cisco Republic: O2 Czech Republic had employed support organizations to coordinate Cisco solutions and services across resources and manage escalations if its infrastructure for several years, so needed. extending its Cisco Services coverage “We especially appreciated the highly was a natural choice. experienced onsite support,” says “We’ve had a long history working Vančura. “These contacts provided successfully with Cisco Services offerings, service that was professional and met our including Focused Technical Support high level of expectations from a leading (FTS) and Cisco Network Optimization company like Cisco.” Improved network stability Services (NOS),” says Vančura. “Based O2 also relies on TS Advantage on this experience, we knew that Cisco for problem resolution and root would bring great added value to our cause analysis. This diagnostic and network and our core business through troubleshooting support helps reduce the both proactive and reactive support.” burden on the provider’s in-house IT staff. To be sure that its network would “All our hardware and software issues continue to deliver the consistently were fixed within the expected time, and high performance that O2’s customers in every case, Cisco provided us with a had come to expect, O2 chose Cisco clear explanation about why an incident Minimized network downtime Technical Services (TS) Advantage. TS happened and its root cause,” says Advantage is a personalized, high-value, Vančura. network-level service that provides a team for 24-hour technical support for To help its staff improve its own severe incidents and a single point of knowledge and skills, O2 took full contact for accountability. Much more advantage of the knowledge management than a “just fix it” support offering, Cisco component within TS Advantage, which TS Advantage helps O2 keep its business combines on-demand training and processes running nonstop, easily add interactive hands-on labs with resources new technologies, and keep costs in line. from Cisco’s performance support library. KPI goals are 99.999 percent (five nines) availability for voice services This customized service offer helped Navigating change with best O2 optimize the management of its practices network for maximum efficiency and keep O2 Czech Republic also looked to Cisco business disruption to a minimum. If a Services for guidance at a more strategic network issue arises, Cisco offers incident level. The company had split into two management capabilities to help the separate organizations in 2015, which put provider solve network problems faster. A KPI goals are 99.995 percent (five Products and Services nines) for retail broadband services • Cisco Technical Service Advantage • Cisco Focused Technical Support • Cisco Network Optimization Service • • O2 Czech Republic Telecommunications tremendous pressure on its operations and within budget. For any issue or and management teams. As part of the TS problem that we encountered, Cisco was Advantage engagement, Cisco agreed to able to provide a solution fast.” develop an operational assessment survey for O2 to spot any potential operational Even more importantly, Cisco Services has gaps that could degrade the quality of enabled O2 to achieve the dependable service or disrupt the network. network uptime it needs to meet its primary business objectives and maintain Cisco incorporated Information its leadership role in the industry. Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) v3 best practices as part of the assessment “Our long-term KPI goals are 99.999 and inspected primary areas at O2, percent (five nines) availability for voice “The stability of the network including supplier liaison; service levels; services and 99.995 percent for retail has improved, while access management; organizational broadband services,” Vančura adds. capabilities; incident, problem, and event “The Cisco TS Advantage service the downtime caused was instrumental in helping us hit our by software failures, management processes; change and asset management; continual service objectives.” misconfiguration, or not improvement; and service operations With Cisco TS Advantage, O2 not only following best practices management. Using information from enjoys improved network performance in was minimized. Cisco survey participants at O2 Czech the short term, but also gains the insight Republic, Cisco identified 10 areas delivered on time and it needs to maintain smooth operations in where operations could be improved within budget.” the future. and made specific recommendations for Tomáš Vančura improvement, which are currently being “Using the asset management component Network Infrastructure Manager, implemented. of TS Advantage helped us to better O2 Czech Republic define our installed base and define the Making sure of the stability and scope of support that we require more performance to compete precisely,” says Vančura. The changes at O2 Czech Republic have opened the door to new revenue O2 Czech Republic has used Cisco opportunities, but they’ve also created Services for years and will continue to new challenges for its IT staff. However, look to Cisco for guidance and support as with customized support provided by it continues to evolve its dominant position Cisco TS Advantage, O2 has successfully in the market. upgraded its service offerings without “We would definitely like to continue with missing a step. our TS Advantage Service, including a “The stability of the network has been local engineer on site,” says Vančura. improved, while the downtime caused by “Cisco Services have brought us software failures, misconfiguration, or not incredible value for the last eight years, following best practices was minimized,” and we are looking forward to continuing says Vančura. “Cisco delivered on time this service excellence in the future.” © 2018 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. 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