25 September 2009. The OJSC North-West Telecom and STEP LOGIC have signed an agreement about further deployment of the Maintenance system for communications (SEPSS). The system will automate the main business-processes and standardise the activities of the key branches across the North-West Federal District.

The deployment of the SEPSS will contribute to more efficient network management: it will simplify network maintenance, reduce service time and operational costs, increase the flexibility of the network and reaction time to the constantly changing market conditions.

The secure access to the databases in SEPSS is achieved using appropriate technologies according to the functions.

By now SEPSS has been deployed at the St.- Petersburg branch of the OJSC NWT which has more than 2 million subscribers and more than 300 exchange stations. The industrial use of the system will start with the access network . The SEPSS is now connected via an interface to the billing system, which allows providing a subscriber with an uninterrupted service at the first point of call at any sales office.

The agreement stipulates the extension of software functions to ensure more efficient use of network resources of the OJSC NWT, an automated search for the optimal routing and the migration of all data bases onto a single server.

Furthermore, the SEPSS also allows quicker bulk transfer of subscribers in large cities for the replacement of the exchange.

When signing the Agreement, the CEO of the OJSC NWT Vladimir Akulich said: The SEPSS will be the basis for automation of almost all our business-projects and we hope for major business and financial impact: these include the increase in ARPU and higher retention of subscribers due to increased loyalty and customer satisfaction. The SEPSS will allow customers faster access to services, reduce maintenance and testing times and make the subscription process more transparent.

The president of STEP LOGIC Yury Kantarovsky commented: The SEPSS is based on IRONMAN developed by SIEMENS, which has been long used at Deutsche Telecom and France Telecom. STEP LOGIC has used the technologies and know - how to develop the SEPSS for the Russian provider of the communications services OJSC North - West Telecom. The new system, which has been fully adapted to the Russian conditions, features comprehensive development support to manage the resources and provide services through an uninterrupted business-process, which includes all operational functions.

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STEP LOGIC has been working at the Russian market of network and system integration since 1992. The company employs more than 650 people and has offices in Moscow, St.-Petersburg, Kazan and Yerevan. The research and development is carried out by more than 350 engineers and system architects certified by the leading global manufacturers. The company has high authorization level at Alcatel, APC, Avaya,  Cisco Systems, EMC, FSC, HP, Huawei, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel, Siemens, SUN etc. The services provided by the company include corporate networks, Triple play networks, systems for videoconferencing and contact - centres, information security, data processing and storage, complex engineering works and comprehensive technical support, monitoring and maintenance of the IT system including outsourcing.