Wholesale: Products & Services

Archived System CR SCR021015-1 Detail

Status History

Project Meetings

08/19/15 Monthly Systems CMP Meeting Susan Lorence – CenturyLink said that a CMP notice was sent July 16, 2015 to update PCATs and Business Procedures. The CR will remain open until updates are made to the Customer Questionnaire. Customers interested in FTPS in the interim may contact Service Manager.

07/15/15 Monthly Systems CMP Meeting Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said as agreed to previously, CenturyLink will be issuing a Level 1 CMP notice on July 16, 2015 to update PCATs and Business Procedures to add the option of FTPS effective on July 17, 2015. Mark said updates to the Customer Questionnaires are also needed but until those updates have been made in the next 60 days or so, any customers interested in FTPS should contact their Service Manager. Mark asked if there were any questions. There were none.

5/20/2015 Monthly Systems CMP Meeting Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said we relayed in April that the high level LOE is 600-800 hours which is for generic work related to adding FTPS as an option versus the work specific to Verizon. Mark said we will send a CMP notification to update the documentation and said CenturyLink would like to introduce this change as a level 1 Process option. He asked if there were any objections. There were none. Mark said that another topic that was discussed in April was where the additional hours for this CR would come from over the 500 hours of available capacity in Billing. He said there was excess capacity in Repair which had 2500 hours available for 2015. Mark said we plan to use 100-200 hours out of Repair for the remaining hours needed for this CR and that he wanted it captured in the meeting minutes.

Kim Isaacs – Integra said this is a bit unusual to switch annual Release capacity hours between systems when there is excess capacity. Kim said she thought it was important for those on the call to be able to express any concerns with doing this.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said at the end of each year when CenturyLink looks at the upcoming year and how to allocate available hours, the Ordering application historically remains fairly constant but Billing and Repair hours are juggled based on projections. He said for 2015, CenturyLink had added hours to Repair this year and taken some away from Billing. Mark said we will look at it again in 4th quarter of 2015 for 2016.

4/15/2015 Monthly Systems CMP Meeting Mark Coyne – CenturyLink reviewed the Draft CenturyLink response for this CR as included in the package. CenturyLink accepts this CR and will continue to work with Verizon to confirm each company’s work steps for implementation and to finalize detailed requirements to determine an agreed upon implementation date which could vary depending on each file location. Mark provided the high level LOE for this generic work effort as 600-800 hours. Mark said we will take these hours out of the available Billing capacity hours for 2015.

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked how many hours are available in Billing for 2015.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said that the Billing capacity for 2015 was 500 hours. He said we will need to look at reallocating some other hours if necessary or use the Special Change Request Process (SCRP).

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked if the hours were just for the generic requirements.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said yes. Mark said the necessary documentation updates are pending. Mark asked if there were any questions. There were none.

3/18/2015 Monthly Systems CMP Meeting Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said the CenturyLink Draft Response is planned for the April meeting. The High Level LOE breakdown is being determined for what is CMP-specific and what is Customer-specific. The SME team is also investigating potential documentation updates to add the optional method of FTPS. Mark asked if there were any questions. There were none.

2/18/2015 Monthly Systems CMP Meeting Jeff Blewitt – Verizon said that Verizon is no longer utilizing the IBM software product NDM and has been working with existing customers to migrate off NDM and onto a different option.

Kim Isaacs – Integra said based on their relationship with Verizon, she knows they are retiring NDM. Kim asked if Verizon was connected to CenturyLink via NDM Connect.

Jeff Blewitt – Verizon stated CenturyLink and Verizon exchange using NDM today and were converting CenturyLink off of the product.

Kim Isaacs - Integra asked if CenturyLink sends Verizon bill records over NDM.

Jeff Blewitt – Verizon said yes among other things.

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked if it was a two-way connection.

Jeff Blewitt – Verizon confirmed.

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked if Verizon is intending to retire NDM for everyone.

Jeff Blewitt – Verizon stated that it would be for any customer they did business with, not just CenturyLink.

Kim Isaacs – Integra said she was confused by that wording since in this CMP forum, Verizon would be the customer of CenturyLink.

Jeff Blewitt – Verizon stated that he was asked to submit the CR.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink asked Kim if the question was whether CenturyLink was discontinuing NDM for all customers.

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked if this CR was submitted to allow other customers the ability to utilize any new transmission option that will be made available by CenturyLink. She said she did not think NDM was the only option.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink stated that was the reason. Mark added that a Clarification call was held on February 16, 2015. The meeting minutes are pending.

Later in the call, Kim Isaacs – Integra said the current CenturyLink bill file options are NDM, FTP and Web. She said the CenturyLink available hours for 2015 in the billing area are not great. She asked what the LOE for the CR will be.

Mark Coyne - CenturyLink stated the CR is being evaluated and the LOE is not available.

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked if it would be provided in March.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink said that he would check with the SME team.

Susan Lorence – CenturyLink stated that the plan is to implement FTPS as an alternative transmission option. IT is investigating the work effort. There are documentation updates required which are under investigation and hopefully we would have that by March. Susan said some of the CenturyLink work is customer specific so it would be out of a different bucket of hours.

Kim Isaacs – Integra asked if CenturyLink would break out what portion of the LOE would come from CMP.

Susan Lorence – CenturyLink agreed.

Mark Coyne – CenturyLink added the CMP hours are for those parts that are common.

2/16/2015 Clarification Call Attendees: Jeff Blewitt – Verizon Laurie Roberson – Integra Pam Zeigler – CenturyLink Mark Mueller – CenturyLink Dave Waldron – CenturyLink John Hansen – CenturyLink Susan Lorence – CenturyLink

Susan Lorence – CenturyLink relayed the purpose of a clarification call. She said she understood that Verizon had been discussing this change with some of the CenturyLink IT personnel and that when it was determined that the requested change impacted wholesale CLEC files, the CR was requested from Verizon to inform other wholesale customers of this potential new transmission option. Susan thanked Verizon for issuing the CR.

Jeff Blewitt – Verizon then reviewed the change. He said that Verizon was going to cease from using the software product NDM Connect Direct or Connect Enterprise. Jeff said he had been working with CenturyLink to determine what new transmission option would replace NDM. It has been determined to be FTPS Direct to Mainframe. Jeff said he will be working with Dave Waldron – CenturyLink to establish FTPS and perform testing. Once the testing is complete, they would begin moving files to the new option.

Susan Lorence – CenturyLink said the CR requested a February 2015 date. She said Verizon may be proceeding to move to FTPS for some files but for those impacted by CMP, the next step would be to present the CR in the monthly meeting on Wednesday, February 18. Susan asked if the CenturyLink SME team had any questions. There were none.

Susan Lorence – CenturyLink said again she appreciated Verizon following the Change Management Process. Once the CR was formally presented, the CenturyLink Wholesale IT team would then evaluate the CR and assess the impacts. CenturyLink would then issue a CMP response that would include a timeline for implementation.

The Clarification call ended at 11:40 AM Mountain Time.

CenturyLink Response

Jeff Blewitt, Verizon

This letter is in response to Verizon Change Request SCR021015-1, entitled “VZ NDM Retirement – implement replacement options”.

CR Description: Implement FTPS Direct to Mainframe with CenturyLink. The CR impacts multiple Centurylink files exchanged with Verizon.

History: The CR was received on February 10, 2015. A Clarification call was held on February 16, 2015 with Verizon, Integra and CenturyLink representatives present. During the Clarification call, Verizon indicated they had been working with interfacing companies to relay they are going to cease from using the software product NDM Connect Direct or Connect Enterprise. Verizon relayed they were investigating a new transmission option to replace NDM and were proposing FTPS Direct to Mainframe. Verizon originally requested the implementation date for this Change Request (CR) to be in February 2015.

The CR was presented in the February 18, 2015 monthly CMP meeting.

CenturyLink Response: The CenturyLink SME team has reviewed the requirements associated with this CR and CenturyLink is accepting this Change Request. Because this is the first request for FTPS implementation in the production environment and impacts a very large number of interface files, this CR has required significant investigation across multiple CenturyLink work groups. The analysis has been completed and the technical, operational, infrastructure, and application requirements have been determined at a high level. CenturyLink has been working with Verizon to confirm connectivity for FTPS to understand and confirm work steps for implementation. This will also allow CenturyLink to finalize detailed requirements. Verizon will continue to identify detailed requirements and associated work effort on their side and will continue to work with CenturyLink to determine an agreed upon implementation date. That date could vary depending on each file location. CenturyLink understands that Verizon would like this functionality delivered as soon as possible.

With this being the first effort to implement FTPS in production in CenturyLink, some of the work effort is generic work that will be required for any subsequent customer who is interested in implementing FTPS. Some of the work effort is specific to Verizon. CenturyLink is preparing an LOE based on our understanding of the generic customer requirements and related documentation updates.

Sincerely,

Susan Lorence CenturyLink Wholesale CR Project Manager