Organization chart during operation

The following chart presents information on how to build the organization that can operate an SMS service successfully. The organization chart displays the organization units and the communication between them, the text bellow explains the roles of each unit.

how the organization works
Figure 1. - Organization chart during the operation of SMS Services

Project management

The project management is ideally a two person team supported by company administration (secretary, lawyers, accountants). The project management unit is responsible for communicating with customers, suppliers (in this case the Mobile Network Operators) and the operation team (1st Level support). The task for the project management is to make sure all parties involved in the operation are getting all the necessary information. The project management is responsible for contract negotiations, billing and accounting and for making sure the time schedules and deadlines are met.

First level support

The "first level support" unit is ideally a four to five member team with the following expertise: hardware maintenance, software maintenance, end-user training, logistics, IT security. The first level support unit is responsible for purchasing or renting the hardware equipment, for installing it into a data center, for installing and configuring the software components in the system. This organization unit is also responsible for IT security it creates user accounts and provides access to the system for the customers and to the 2nd level support unit.

Second level support

The "second level support" unit is the software supplier. In most cases this is Ozeki Informatics. The 2nd level support is responsible for training the 1st level support team and for supplying all the necessary information to be able to setup the system. The second level support unit can also perform initial system configuration (e.g. service provider setup, router or VPN setup). This unit is also responsible for tracking down errors that could not be found by the 1st level support unit (errors related to configuration, software incompatibilities etc.). The second level support unit is responsible for doing custom development to adjust the system to the requirements of the customer or the project manager.

Server hosting company

The server hosting company is responsible for providing data center facilities. A clean, well organized data center is required to be able to operate a reliable system. The datacenter should have redundant power supply with generator backup. High speed, redundant internet connection and proper air conditioning is also required. The datacenter should provide 99.99% availability for the whole year.

Mobile network operator / SMS Service provider

The SMS service provider is often a mobile network operator. This company is responsible for delivering the messages between the system and the mobile users. This company should be able to provide two way SMS messaging service over an IP SMS protocol: SMPP, UCP or CIMD. The service provider should be able to provide delivery report information for each message. The service provider should have high capacity for both sending and receiving messages.

Customer

The customer is often a large organization who wants a turn key SMS solution. For each customer a proper user interface needs to be setup. The features of the user interface should be negotiated and should be customized according to the specific demands. Some customers want to use the SMS service from their company IT system automatically. These customers require an API or a connection method such as HTTP, Database (SQL), E-mail (SMTP) or IP SMS (SMPP, UCP, CIMD2). Other customers want to assign people to use the system. They need a good human interface, that allows messaging and overview of the communication.

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