direct channel which allows high value customers to place orders through a self-service web interface - without any involvement from the technical sales force.

Needs Analysis ensures that customers are presented with the best products and configuration to match their needs. Product configuration capability guarantees that for both simple and complex products, a "clean ticket" is submitted to order management. The "clean ticket" enables rework to be reduced to less than 5%. As many communication service providers have up to 55% rework, this represents a massive cost saving. Service delivery time is also drastically reduced leading to a lower cost of sale, an increase in revenue velocity and higher customer satisfaction.

Aldous natively presents users with up-sell and cross-sell recommendations as well as bundle detection or near bundle detection to maximize product and services exposure. This drives increased ARPU and customer retention.

All order types are supported, with pre-built templates available for most products, including (but not limited to) Mobile Solutions, MPLS based IP-VPN, IP TV, PSTN and Broadband.

Aldous enables use of the "as-sold" representation of a customer's installed base in conjunction with contractual data and "as-built" information, if available, from the network inventory to produce valid MACD orders.

Aldous is able to provide the functionality described above by utilizing a data driven J2EE application powered by a constraint based rules engine using eTOM processes and SID models.