To succeed, providers of IP-based services must differentiate their offerings based on quality, rather than competing merely on price. While some customers are attracted by the promise of converged networks, many will stay on the sidelines until providers can guarantee their availability and performance with relevant, understandable service level agreements (SLAs). Since you can’t guarantee what you can’t measure, providers must first be able to accurately quantify the quality and performance of their converged networks and service offerings -- from their customer's perspective.

This session will present an overview and guidelines for overcoming the end-to-end, service assurance challenges. It will also cover why network operators need to implement a deliberate, converged service assurance strategy that is pervasive, continuous, and comprehensive, and one that also provides the essential information they need in order to assure quality experiences for their customers. Not doing so leaves a VoIP, IPTV, or VPN service at risk for crippling service degradations and outages, and carries with it a steep price tag, including an escalation of customer care costs, eroding profit margins, subscriber churn, and damaged provider reputations.

As director, video service assurance at Brix Networks, Laura Holly is the company's expert for all things relating to IP-based video -- including IPTV, video-on-demand, and video distribution, among others -- and she has overall responsibility for market development and product management activities in these areas. Prior to joining the Chelmsford, Mass.-based firm in March 2000, Holly worked at LiveVault Corporation, where she led that company’s product marketing efforts. Previously, Holly spent 10 years at Digital Equipment Corporation where she held engineering and technical positions of increasing responsibility. Holly earned her B.A. degree in Psychology and Computer Science from Smith College.