Business Connection Welcome Kit

In working with Verizon, you will have exposure to various segments to ensure your Business Connection implementation is a success.

Your Order Manager will implement a communication plan consisting of periodic emails and follow up calls to provide status on key information regarding the implementation, activation and porting of your service request. You can contact the Order Manager via email or phone at any time.

 Note: E-mail communication sent by your assigned Order Manager will contain their contact information along with escalation contact information in the signature section of the e-mail.

 Key milestones updates:

• Scheduling of the Onsite Order Verification Site Assessment Survey
• Scheduling of your ‘Site Ready’ Site Survey (applicable for select Ethernet services)
• Participate in the Order Verification Call (OVC)
• OVC Summary
• Service order acknowledgement
• Confirmation of the circuit install date
• Installed circuit confirmation
• Router delivery and activation ready notification
• Activation scheduled date and bridge information
• Service activation confirmation and port pending notification
• Porting scheduled date and bridge information
• Order completion confirmation and customer closure letter.

Verizon includes at no additional cost to you an Onsite Order Verification Site Assessment Survey. It consists of a physical on-site survey conducted by a Verizon approved supplier of the customer’s proposed location(s) for installing the ADTRAN 924e Gateway, and a report on the location(s)’ suitability for the installation of the Gateway with respect to Customer’s Communication Room and Equipment, Customer’s Equipment/Type of Connection, Router Location in Communication Room, and Demarcation location and cable extensions.

The Order Manager will review the site and other requirements with you on the Order Verification Call.

Customer action

Review the following site readiness details below, and take appropriate action as needed.

Site Requirements

Review Verizon’s Customer Readiness Website and the brief Customer Readiness Video. This site and video will assist you in preparing for your Verizon Network Service Installation. Reviewing the content on this site and following some simple steps will help facilitate a smooth installation of service.

Note: Site Ready Survey (applicable for select Ethernet services) – Surveys the Verizon In-Region Switched Ethernet Access Network. If a site survey is required, your Order Manager will schedule the survey with you, and an engineer from Verizon will contact you to confirm the appointment. Your local contact (LCON) must be present during the site survey to provide access and to address any additional questions about installation.

Site Not Ready

If your location(s) are not suitable, a price quote may be provided to bring your locations in compliance. You have the option to accept the quote and proceed with an order, or you may also complete the required work independently of Verizon.

Customer action

If you need to reschedule an installation due to the site not being ready the day of installation, you must notify your Order Manager at least 24 business hours ahead of time.

If your Order Manager is unavailable, you may call the Verizon On Demand Activations team at (866) 829-9719 to notify Verizon that a rescheduling of the installation is needed.

You would provide your customer name, order number, current scheduled time, and new requested time. If notification is not provided within 24 business hours, additional fees may apply.

Permits and Approvals

You should obtain all necessary permits and approvals. You are responsible for complying with all applicable codes, regulations, and laws, including but not limited to electrical, building, safety, and health.

PBX and System Requirements

The following technical interface requirements should be provided to your system vendor or technical support person. You are required to retain a vendor as soon as possible to avoid order and scheduling delays.

• For Analog interface (Key System), Verizon supports Foreign Exchange Subscriber (FXS) Loop/Ground Start signalling. The Key System must be able to accept 40 Virtual Root Mean Square (VRMS) ring voltage.
• For T1 Central Authentication Service (CAS) Interface, your PBX must support Wink Start signalling when a T1 CAS interface is ordered. This means your PBX must contain an interface card capable of supporting T1 CAS. In addition, you must specify type of framing [Extended Super Frame (ESF) or Super Frame (SF)] and type of line coding (B8ZS or AMI).
• For ISDN PRI Interface, your PBX must contain an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN) Primary Rate Interface (PRI) capable interface card. You must indicate whether Network Interconnect 2 (NI2) or 5 Electronic Switching System (5ESS) switch protocol is needed. A ‘D’ channel card may be needed (dependent upon concurrent call requirements).

To avoid significant implementation delays, it is very important that you or your vendor:

• Identify the correct interface to the system and provide it to the Order Manager during the Order Verification Call.

Note: If it is an analog interface please confirm to the Order Manager whether it will remain analog.

Customer action

Tips to confirm the system’s interface:

Have your phone/PBX vendor confirm the interface.

• Digital PBX systems:
  
  • Will typically have one cable connected from your service provider.
  • Confirm that this cable connects to a DS1/PRI card in your phone system. The card should be recognizable as most have a single RJ45 port on the front of the card and clearly marked with a DS1, T1, or similar description.

• Analog Key-Systems and Analog PBX systems:
  
  • Will typically have multiple cables connected from your service provider.
    
  • Will typically use 66 punch-down blocks connected to an Amphenol (AMP) port or multiple RJ11 ports (may be marked FXO ( Foreign Exchange Office) on your phone system

For your key systems, have all of your lines clearly labelled and properly mapped.

• Provide Verizon with the number of digits that your phone system expects to receive and, specifically, what digits are required.

The graphic below depicts the equipment used, as well as the different configurations for analog and digital handoffs

Note: For 1 GB connection, an additional ADTRAN Netvanta 5660 needs to be deployed.

Customer Provided Device Requirements

PBX/Key System

You or your phone system vendor is responsible for all PBX and key system configurations and ongoing support. As such, you may need to obtain assistance from your vendor to modify configurations to work correctly with Business Connection. Your vendor may also need to handle the configuration and testing of other equipment and networks with which the equipment interacts.

Customer action

You have to ensure that the phone system/CPE is configured to accept inbound calls to every Automatic number identification (ANI) used for outbound calls from the phone system. Verizon does not overwrite or mask the ANI for outbound 911 calls, so in the event that emergency personnel attempt to call the 911 caller back, the ANI on the 911 calls must be reachable via the phone system/CPE.

Gateways

You have to configure the gateways based on Verizon requirements.

Firewall

You or your designated representative must be on-site on the day of installation to physically connect the Verizon VoIP equipment to the firewall, test it, and make configuration changes if necessary.
Verizon will only set up basic Network Address Translation (NAT) function on the firewall.

Customer action

Please ensure you set up any additional configurations, such as port mapping to specific hosts, e-mail, web server, or other applications.

Physical Requirements

You must take specific action and/or ensure that the following items are appropriately addressed:

• Provide a safe working environment for Verizon employees.
• Provide a location for equipment that is environmentally sound. This area must be dry and sufficiently cooled to allow the equipment to function properly.
• Provide a place to put the physical equipment, using one of the two available options:
  • A shelf on a 19-inch telecom rack.
  • A suitable table that can support the equipment weight and have the minimum dimensions of 24” wide by 20” deep with 24” of clearance for the equipment to be stacked.
• Physical mounting points and interfaces must be compatible with the Equipment.
• Provide a minimum of two 6-socket power strips.
• Cabling and wiring needed to connect ordered equipment to the DMARC (Demarcation) is supported.

Customer action

You are responsible for general inside wiring which is not part of the installation of ordered equipment (CPE) or services.

• Assume responsibility for hardware, software and memory compatibility issues related to existing equipment.

Demarcation (DMARC) Extensions

If services need to be extended beyond the telecommunications demarcation point, you are responsible for ensuring that extended demarcation facilities are installed and ready upon implementation of Business Connection. Alternatively, you may be able to order a DMARC Extension from Verizon or the third-party local exchange company (LEC). Delays in extending a DMARC may result in implementation delays.

Telephone and/or data circuit lines must be mapped and fully installed with proper demarcation. The points of demarcation must be within six (6) feet (cable length) of the Equipment. Improperly installed DMARC extensions may result in implementation delays.

Customer action

You must verify that all ancillary equipment, supplies, and materials such as cables associated with connecting equipment have been received and are on-site and available, before the installation commences.

Verizon recommends providing dial-in modem access to the Equipment, to allow remote access for testing and configuration. Remote Services can only be provided where this remote access is available. Not having a modem and standard phone line in your facilities room may result in additional charges associated with repair visits if a maintenance plan is not purchased.

Power Requirements

Adequate electrical power must be available and within reach of the Equipment.

Loss of electrical power may cause the Verizon IP Integrated Access service to cease working if there are no accommodations made for back-up power. Verizon highly recommends that you install an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) onsite.

Verizon does not provide UPS units with Verizon VoIP IP; however, if you choose to implement a UPS, the following are some guidelines for reliable communication in case of a power outage:

• Back-up the entire building using UPS. This will protect all devices and equipment from power failures, including telephony, data networking, and PCs.
• Provide a separate generator for back-up power (in addition to the feed provided by the utility company). In this case, you may still need to add UPS, because it may take a few minutes for the generator to ramp up.

Note: The advantage of this approach is that less battery time is needed for each UPS. You should consult with your PBX vendor or your Order Manager for any additional power requirements as needed.

Customer LAN/WAN Network Requirements

Your LAN infrastructure must support voice and data traffic with appropriate QoS (quality of service) policies to deliver high quality voice. Verizon requires that your Local Area Network (LAN) / Wide Area Network (WAN) must meet the standards specified in the bullets below to provision VoIP IP Integrated Access services (e.g., Business Connection). Changes in Customer LAN or WAN configuration could affect the performance level of the VoIP IP Integrated Access service, up to and including loss of dial tone.

• Voice quality requires the use of switches on the LAN; use of Ethernet hubs can cause voice quality problems.
• The existing LAN bandwidth should be evaluated to ensure it can support additional voice traffic. This can be done by measuring both average and peak bandwidth availability. It is suggested that peak link utilization be below 75 percent. If there is high latency LAN performance, voice quality will suffer.
• The LAN should be set to full duplex mode (whenever possible).
• LAN switches must be set to full duplex transmission to provide high voice quality.
• You must be using a 10 Base-T or higher speed LAN, and Category 5 (CAT5) or higher wiring is required.
• Certain Ethernet switches support Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs) and Quality of Service (QoS) to support voice and data traffic. We recommend that these features, if available, be turned on.

Customer action

We recommend that you run an anti-virus/anti-spyware program on all PCs prior to the installation of the Verizon VoIP IP Integrated Access service (e.g. Business Connection).

Unsupported applications:

• Alarm , elevator, monitoring, credit card, ATM, or DSL lines 

Verizon do not port alarm, elevator, monitoring, credit card, ATM, or DSL lines as they typically use modem functionality, and we discourage using modems for any “public safety” applications. It is suggested that if communication is required for alarm systems, these remain on PSTN service.

• Modems

Verizon discourage using modems for any “public safety” applications. Modems should only be used on Verizon VoIP for services where “best effort” performance is acceptable. We do not provide performance guarantees or support of modem configurations.

Once the order is submitted by your Order Manager, the Access, Internet Dedicated Service, Voice over IP (VoIP), and ADTRAN 924e Gateway provisioning processes will begin.

Note:  With 1 GB connections, an additional ADTRAN Netvanta 5660 is required.) When the provisioning of the services is completed the following will occur:

Phase 1- Installation of your access circuit

This phase involves installing the access circuit at your designated location by Verizon or a third-party Local Exchange Company (LEC) representative and includes circuit delivery and installation, DMARC extension and remote circuit testing.

The installation of your circuit is dependent upon the type of circuit ordered, and availability of facilities.

Note: Site Ready Survey (applicable for select Ethernet services) – Surveys the Verizon In-Region Switched Ethernet Access Network. If a site survey is required, your Order Manager will schedule the survey with you, and an engineer from Verizon will contact you to confirm the appointment. Your Local Contact (LCON) must be present during the site survey to provide access and to address any additional questions about installation.

Customer action

• You and your vendor should ensure all site readiness requirements are met prior to installation of the circuit.
• Please provide access to your circuit installation location within 30 minutes of arrival of the Verizon or third party LEC representative. Site surveys and circuit installations are performed during the hours of 8:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. local time.

Phase 2- Installation of your router and connecting it to the data access facilities

Phase 2 involves installation of your router, connecting it to your data access facilities and testing connectivity. A Verizon field representative will be dispatched to your facility.

Note: Billing begins when phase 2 is completed. The service is available for your use. Since this is a new service installation there may be an overlap in service. You could be billed for Business Connection and your existing service until the porting is completed and the old service is disconnected. It is important to be ready to port you numbers as soon as this phase is completed.

Customer action

• Participate on the service install activation call (limit length of call/site visit by providing 100% accurate order information on the Order Verification Call)
• You and your phone/PBX vendor must be present on the scheduled date and time provided by the Order Manager to connect any necessary cables, and perform any necessary testing on your system. If you require an analog hand-off to a Key System, you or your vendor will need to ensure all lines are clearly labeled and properly mapped. In addition, you or your vendor may need to connect an amphenol cable to a 66 punch-down block. You are responsible for retaining a vendor to perform any required work on your key or PBX system.
• Provide access to your installation location within 30 minutes of arrival of the Verizon or third party representative. Installations are performed during the hours of 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. local time.
• If schedule conflicts arise, notify the Order Manager at least 48 hours before the scheduled dates to avoid potential service downtime, and a re-schedule of the installation.

If your phone/PBX vendor is not present on the day of installation, your installation may need to be re-scheduled and additional charges applied. For PBX and key systems with an analog interface, a vendor may not be required in this phase. The Order Manager will advise.

Phase 3- Porting of phone numbers

The third phase consists of the porting of phone numbers from your active lines over to the new circuit and router. A Verizon field representative may be dispatched to your facility.

Customer action

Participate on porting call (limit length of call/site visit by providing 100% accurate order information on the Order Verification Call)

• TIPs: Identify all portable and special lines during the Order Verification Call to avoid potential service interruption.
• Have your phone system vendor appropriately configure any PSTN lines or fax lines not moving to Business Connection prior to porting.
• Your phone/PBX vendor must be present on the scheduled date and time provided by the Order Manager to perform any cross-connects, programming, and testing. If you require an analog hand-off to a Key System, you or your phone/PBX vendor will need to ensure all lines are clearly labeled and properly mapped. In addition, you or your vendor may need to connect an amphenol cable to a 66 punch- down block. You are responsible for retaining a vendor to perform any required work on your key or PBX system.
• Provide access to the installation location within 30 minutes of arrival of the Verizon or third party representative. Installations are performed during the hours of 8:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. local time.
• If schedule conflicts arise, notify the Order Manager at least 48 hours before the scheduled dates to avoid potential service downtime, and a re-schedule of the porting.

If your phone/PBX vendor is not present on the day of porting, a potential service interruption may occur, and the porting of your numbers may need to be re-scheduled and additional charges applied.

Service Delivery Expectations

Business Connection involves multiple products being ordered and provisioned. The Order Manager will provide you with an estimated due date after your order is placed.

IMPORTANT: When no delays are encountered, and facilities are readily available, for the service installation type of T-1 (1.5 Mbps), your service can generally be delivered within 53 to 77 calendar days. For the service installation type of Ethernet, your service can generally be delivered within 81 to 105 calendar days.

Examples of delays that may impact the delivery of your service:

• Obtaining accurate and complete details for your order.
• Obtaining accurate list of all phone lines including DID (Direct Inward Dial) lines to be ported.
• Confirming the correct service delivery method (hand-off) your phone system (analog, digital, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP))
• Obtaining your Customer Service Record (CSR) from the previous carrier.
• Facilities not available from your underlying carrier/service provider.
• Receiving Firm Order Confirmation (FOCs) from your underlying carrier/service provider for the specific circuit that will be installed over your facility.
• Completing customer readiness requirements such as physical space or cable conduit requirements.
• Retaining a phone/PBX vendor to prepare your phone system.

These types of delays will extend your service delivery date.

Customer action

To prevent customer related scheduling delays, provide accurate and complete order and telephone number details during the Order Verification Call, ensure all site readiness requirements are completed, and have your phone vendor retained and scheduled by the router delivery, activation and porting dates provided by your Order Manager.

Software updates and on-going maintenance

You  have to ensure that all systems and equipment are at the minimum revision levels that we have certified for use with Verizon’s VoIP service.

Feature support

You are primarily responsible for the set-up, monitoring, and maintenance of certain features of Business Connection. The following are some of these features:

• Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) integration with third-party authentication servers
• Virtual LAN (VLAN) and firewall configurations after initial installation.

Troubleshooting/problem resolution

Business Connection includes an ADTRAN 924e Gateway with a Verizon 7x4x24 maintenance agreement. (For 1 GB connection, an additional ADTRAN Netvanta 5660 router is required.) This agreement covers 7 days per week, 24 hours per day with best effort 4-hour on-site equipment replacement, if needed. You are responsible for contacting us to report troubles or issues on the Verizon Enterprise Center portal or by contacting VoIP Repair.

We will use various industry standard procedures to test the installed equipment. You will be the point of contact noted on any trouble tickets and required to work with Verizon to resolve the problem.

Equipment requirements

All equipment must be Verizon-certified, maintained with approved up-to-date software releases, and utilize configurations approved by Verizon. We support two certified software releases for every device—the current certified release and the previous certified release. It is your responsibility to ensure that all of your devices remain on the current certified release. You may contact us to obtain Operating System (OS) upgrades.

Service disruptions can hurt a company's bottom line and compromise an organization's mission. The economic and reputational imperatives of the current market have shifted the discussion from IT disaster recovery to an enterprise-wide business continuity focus.

Organizations of all sizes and industry types should have ongoing, enterprise-wide Business Continuity Programs that develop, prepare and exercise the various areas of continuity from critical business processes to IT service availability. The Business Continuity Program should address areas such as Emergency Response, Impact Analysis, Business Continuity Plans, Disaster Recovery Plans, Supplier Plans, Exercises, and ongoing Business Continuity  program management. 

The goals of today’s most relevant Business Continuity Programs are those providing organizations with an enterprise-wide business continuity focus, that not only includes strategizing and planning for IT service availability and disaster recovery but addresses the ability to manage all areas of critical and continuity activities of the program to help prepare and mitigate the impact from ever-increasing risks threatening to interrupt organizations’ critical processes.

Verizon helps our customers to effectively prepare and maintain continuity during planned and unplanned events to help reduce the risk and impact from disruptions. Please contact your Verizon account team for further assistance.

Easily Manage your Services Online

The Verizon Enterprise Center makes it easy for you to monitor, manage, analyze and optimize your Verizon products and services online. Available seamlessly between desktop, tablet and smartphone – you can act on your crucial data wherever your work takes you.

Business Connection repair needs

Business Connection customers should report issues to the Verizon Customer Service inbound call group.

Be prepared to provide the following information when you call:

• Service identifier (e.g. a phone number)
• Contact person, name and number
• Local Contact Information and Local Access hours for the affected site
• Internal ticket number, if applicable
• Description of trouble
• Time the event began and duration of event
• Severity (impact to entire site? multiple users? single user?)
• Frequency (constant occurrence, if intermittent – how often?)
• Call Example. Please include this information in your example -
  • Dialled From Number & Dialled To Number
  • Date & Time of the Call
  • Result of the Call

Other customer service and support options

Repairs/trouble tickets

Invoice/billing issues

Sales/ordering support

Also see the Manage your account with Verizon Enterprise Center section of this Welcome Kit for information on making changes to your Business Connection Services yourself. The link is available in the left hand menu

Integrated Administrative Console (IAC)

The Integrated Administrative Console (IAC) bridges your computer and telephone networks into a single IP network that is manageable, scalable, and resilient. Your designated administrator(s) can manage telephone features and privileges across your entire enterprise.

With Business Connection, the managing of your product features is simple within the Integrated Administrative Console (IAC).To access the IAC, go to the Manage Account > Product Tools > Network Management> Voice Over IP (IAC-Admin).The IAC opens in another browser window.

Note: You will need special permission for the IAC access. The user credentials for access will be gathered during the ordering process. If you have any issues or need additional users to be entitled with permission to the IAC you may contact the Verizon Enterprise Center Help Desk. Please be sure to have your Verizon Enterprise Center User ID and your Enterprise ID when you call.

Information and training for the IAC portal can be found on the Customer Learning Portal.  Click on the Training link for more details as to courses, user guides and virtual coaches available for VoIP IP Trunking  

• All training and information can be found on the Customer Learning Portal.
• Please see here below an indicative list of course, Virtual coaches and user guides below in relation to VoIP IP Trunking (including Business Connection).
• VOIP Training Instructor-Led Courses:
  • IAC IP Trunking (90 mins)
  • IAC VoIP Reporting (60 mins)
• VOIP IP Trunking related User Guides: 
  • Integrated Administrative Console (IAC) IP Trunking & IP Integrated Access User Guide
  • VoIP Reports Guide for Traffic Reporting User Guide
• VOIP IP Trunking related short User guides available to help you configure specific features:
  • Caller ID & CNAM for IP Trunking & IP Integrated Access - PBX
  • Call Forwarding for IP Trunking & IP Integrated Access - PBX
  • Call Intercept
  • Calling Plans and Account Codes
  • Create a Hunt Group
• VOIP IP Trunking related Virtual coaches: 
  • Virtual Coach – Verizon Enterprise Center – Call Forwarding in VOIP