Martello and Mitel - Integrating Real Time Monitoring and Assurance into the Overall UC Solution

Martello and Mitel – Integrating Real Time Monitoring and Assurance into the Overall UC Solution

4 Oct 2019

I had the opportunity to sit down with John Proctor, CEO of Martello Technologies, to discuss how Martello has been partnered with Mitel for over a decade to deliver network monitoring and assurance services for Mitel customers and channel partners.

For most of the UC industry, companies like Cisco and Avaya have a “basic” management capability that is delivered with their UC and VoIP products. While these tools may offer a level of insight into the issues that can plague a modern IP-based deployment, companies like IR Prognosis, Nectar, SolarWinds, ToneSoft, Thousand Eyes, and others are providing a deeper set of tools to monitor and assist in problem resolution for the diverse components of a modern VoIP solution as well as the underlying network structure. A challenge for Mitel is that most of the large monitoring and assurance companies support vendor call platforms based on market demand and installed base scale. For most of the independent monitoring and assurance companies, Cisco, Microsoft, and Avaya are generally the supported set as they are perceived to have the largest VoIP volumes. Neither IR nor Nectar advertise support for Mitel. This means they have not invested in integrating their platform to the call logs in the Mitel systems. With these systems monitoring a Mitel VoIP solution, all of the capabilities based on call records are lost with Mitel.

Enter Martello, which, as an Ottawa-based company has had a long-term relationship with Mitel. This relationship led to the development of Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA), a monitoring and assurance solution that is integrated with the Mitel call control and call logs to provide an optimized Mitel solution. This enables the Martello-developed software to both gather data on call activity as well as monitor the network. With Mitel Performance Analytics, customers can proactively monitor for levels of availability and quality, detect any issues before they affect users and have critical insight to resolve issues quickly.

Mitel and Martello have partnered to offer the Martello monitoring and assurance solutions as part of Mitel’s Premium Software Assurance (SWA) subscription, branded as Mitel Performance Analytics. Customers can choose between Standard SWA with 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. support or Premium SWA with 24/7 support as part of the Mitel options. The Mitel Performance Analytics offering is included in the 24/7 comprehensive support package. For Mitel customers buying the 24/7 service package, they automatically get the monitoring tools needed to assure ongoing operations and reliability.

Mitel Performance Analytics (MPA) includes monitoring and troubleshooting tools for both the real-time applications and devices as well as the underlying IP network. This enables the end customer and the partner to have all the necessary tools to maintain a defined level of services in the increasingly complex environment. In fact, Mr. Proctor indicated that a number of Mitel channel partners are taking the position of requiring the purchase of the 24/7 package with Mitel Performance Analytics for their new customers. The logic for a channel is easy; having advanced tools helps assure the roll-out and operations are successful. A successful deployment and avoiding outages are the primary ways to evaluate channel value in UC deployments. The Mitel Performance Analytics service includes functionality for both the partner and the end customer. This is becoming critical as end users are looking for tools that enable them to measure the availability and issues associated with a complex deployment.

The integration of advanced monitoring and assurance tools as part of the VoIP purchase is something that has been missing in the advanced VoIP marketplace. Generally, new VoIP customers decide to “get by” with the basic vendor tools. Often, after an outage or incident that was protracted due to the lack of tools, companies purchase a third-party package. By offering the advanced tools in a general support package, Mitel is making the capability available across their customer base. For Mitel customers that have or are moving to VoIP, considering the 24/7 support is a logical path to enhance availability and quality of the Mitel VoIP deployment.

Finally, as part of the overall support for organizations considering moving to VoIP, Martello is offering a free network evaluation tool that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of an IP infrastructure to support a load of real-time services. Martello calls this tool UCScore, and it is available at https://ucscore.com/.

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