An Export System for Telecommunications Pre-Sales Decision Support

The rapid introduction of new voice services, feature options, and tariff rates by AT&T has brought about changes in the way the company markets its voice communications products. Consequently, AT&T has been implementing new and effective ways for its account teams to assess the impact of these changes on their customers. In late 1988, the Network Design and Optimization Department of AT&T's Bell Laboratories turned its attention to developing a decision support tool to assist these account teams in selecting the best solutions for their customers' voice communications requirements. The resulting tool is a knowledge-based system which advises account personnel in the qualification process for determining customer needs for AT&T's private network communications products.