Rostelecom – deployment of an omnichannel communications service
About Rostelecom
Rostelecom is Russia's leading provider of digital services. Subscribers to broadband internet access exceeded 13 million, while pay TV - 10 million.
Rostelecom needed a solution to deploy an omnichannel communications service for its customers. The solution was to be deployed on Rostelecom's infrastructure and used by all the company's units to send messages to subscribers. Under the terms of the tender, the solution would support messaging via SMS, Viber, Email, Push, Telegram, WhatsApp, VK, Facebook, USSD channels with phased commercial launching of the channels.
Building an efficient and fault-tolerant infrastructure
The WINGS Notification Server is hosted on a cluster of 4 application servers: 3 servers to provide the required peak performance of 3000 messages per second and 1 server to maintain throughput in the event of a server failure.
The total throughput of the solution is 4000 messages per second. All servers work in parallel, traffic from the sending systems is evenly distributed between the servers by a balancer. If one of the servers fails, it is excluded from balancing and all traffic is directed to the remaining servers.
WINGS provides 24-hour support services for the deployed solution in accordance with Rostelecom's SLA. As part of the support, the response time to first-priority problems is only 15 minutes.
The total throughput of the solution is 4000 messages per second. All servers work in parallel, traffic from the sending systems is evenly distributed between the servers by a balancer. If one of the servers fails, it is excluded from balancing and all traffic is directed to the remaining servers.
WINGS provides 24-hour support services for the deployed solution in accordance with Rostelecom's SLA. As part of the support, the response time to first-priority problems is only 15 minutes.
Integration with Rostelecom infrastructure
The WINGS Notification Server can be used by all the structural units and affiliated branches of Rostelecom in Russia. Sender systems were integrated with the Notification Server through the Rostelecom integration layer. The standard WINGS Notification Server integration protocol was adapted to meet customer requirements.
Using templates
Messages are sent to subscribers based on templates. Employees at Rostelecom offices set up message templates through their personal dashboards in the Notification Server, while the sender systems send the template ID, recipient number, values of variables to be substituted into the template text and some other parameters to the Notification Server.
Template functionality has been refined to adapt to Rostelecom's business processes. So, after a new template has been created by an employee, it undergoes mandatory moderation before it can be used to send messages. When an already used template has been changed, messages will continue to be generated according to the old template, until the changes are moderated.
Template functionality has been refined to adapt to Rostelecom's business processes. So, after a new template has been created by an employee, it undergoes mandatory moderation before it can be used to send messages. When an already used template has been changed, messages will continue to be generated according to the old template, until the changes are moderated.
Launching of SMS and Viber
At the first stage, Rostelecom launched customer communications through the Notification Server via SMS and Viber channels. Rostelecom actively uses message fallback – it first sends messages to Viber, and in case of non-delivery, re-sends them via SMS. This approach is justified, as it cuts SMS messaging costs.
The specifics of Viber and SMS are hidden for systems sending messages. The sending channels are managed completely on the side of the WINGS Notification Server.
The specifics of Viber and SMS are hidden for systems sending messages. The sending channels are managed completely on the side of the WINGS Notification Server.
Email sending
E-mail is sent by the Notification Server via Rostelecom's mail server. This allows you to send emails at no additional payments to providers.
Tracking the read status of messages is implemented by means of the WINGS Notification Server.
Tracking the read status of messages is implemented by means of the WINGS Notification Server.