Managed services provider ZCorum said San Bruno Municipal Cable TV has signed a long-term agreement for technical support services.
Until recently, San Bruno Cable received support services from Parasun, which was acquired by IBBS last year.
In the wake of that consolidation, ZCorum is attempting to step up as a legitimate competitor, explained company vice president Rick Yuzzi. ZCorum has been kicking around for at least as long as IBBS, if not longer. Where ZCorum was failing to compete adequately, Yuzzi explained, was with software tools.
The company buckled down to develop those tools, Yuzzi explained, and ZCorum now believes that even though IBBS is much larger and has a more extensive history working with the cable operators, from the standpoint of products and services, ZCorum is now on a more equal footing.
“Before, we were not in the same league. Now we’re in the same league,” Yuzzi said.
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A screenshot of ZCorum’s new software tools demonstrates |
“We had to catch up,” Yuzzi told CED. “And we’ve done that only in the last year.” He said that ZCorum’s tools are now developed enough to finally secure an invitation from the National Cable Television Cooperative to display them at its show.
ZCorum is eager to solicit comparisons with its rival. “We have mapping now. IBBS had it, but we have it too, and we think ours is better,” Yuzzi said.
ZCorum has had some smaller clients, but it is now capable of supporting larger installations. San Bruno, for instance, has between 5,000 and 10,000 cable modems to track, Yuzzi said.
Steve Firpo, business manager at San Bruno, said of ZCorum: “The engineers who came in were very knowledgeable. They worked hand-in-hand with our staff to implement the overnight cut-over and tested the system afterward to make sure everything was working properly before daybreak. We’ve been very happy with the level of support from ZCorum, both to our staff and our customers.”
In addition to support for San Bruno Cable’s Internet customers, ZCorum also handles 24/7 support for their voice customers, working with their VoIP provider, Momentum Telecom.
San Bruno also has ZCorum aiding with its Cable TV customers. “Prior to ZCorum, we were dependent upon an after-hours answering service for cable-related issues. It’s nice to finally have one company handling all the customer service issues,” according to Tenzin Gyaltsen, San Bruno’s cable TV director.