In a step toward improved information sharing between carriers, Ameritech has debuted a software component that allows customer service representatives from competing carriers to access its pre-ordering operations support systems through a Java-based interface.

The component, AmPOS from Oakland, Calif.-based Telesphere Solutions Inc., allows competitive local exchange carriers that are planning to resell Ameritech's local services to interactively search for and reserve telephone numbers and service due dates, as well as retrieve customer service records.

"AmPOS allows CLECs to access Ameritech's OSS functions and receive the equivalent functionality that Ameritech's own customer service representatives use in the provisioning of retail services," said Joe Rogers, director of information technology at Ameritech Information Industry Services.

The AmPOS system is built on Telesphere's PowerGATE development environment, a system for building electronic bonding gateways designed to help incumbent LECs, CLECs and interexchange carriers capture new potential revenues. The platform allows Telesphere to quickly build gateways for networks based on Telecommunications Management Network, EDI or proprietary standards.

Although the Federal Communications Commission has pushed back its deadline for interoperability between competing carriers' ordering systems, Ameritech's aggressive stance in going after new long-distance customers made the new system a priority, the two companies said.

"The system came about primarily as the result of a request from Ameritech," said Venkates Swaminathan, vice president of technology at Telesphere. "Our focus has always been on electronic bonding and mediating access, so we saw clearly the need for CLECs to have access to some of the [incumbent] LECs' information systems.

Java technology allowed Telesphere to eliminate worries about what platform the carrier would use to run the system. "Had Java not been available to us, we would have been forced to make a choice between Unix, Windows NT and any other operating systems our customers had in place," said Swaminathan. "Undoubtedly, someone would be at the wrong end of that choice. The idea of using Java was to make this platform independent, so the customers wouldn't have to add any new boxes in addition to the software.

Java also builds some security into the system, Swaminathan said. "It gives us the ability to prevent some customer service representative from doing malicious things to the server," he said.

"Right now, the system runs over an intranet, but we know that eventually the Internet will be used. At that point, we plan on introducing some encryption technology to ensure security.

The system's architecture is built around a client-server model, with a reseller's server and a user interface at the client end. The interface can run on any Java-compatible Web browser, ensuring that the customer service representatives who use the system will be familiar with the interface.

The system has a variety of transaction set, segment and data element validation rules for Ameritech pre-ordering transactions that are built into the client interface so that errors can be caught before pre-ordering queries are sent. It also features an auto-assignment system.

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