Developed by Covad Communications Company, "Covad xLink is an electronic interface which Covad partners can use to send common business requests such as service prequalification, order entry, and order status tracking. These functions will behave in a manner exactly the same as when the partner uses the Customer Care Center. The advantage of using the xLink API is that Covad's partners will be able to directly integrate their order management systems with Covad thereby resulting in considerable time and cost savings. The Covad xLink allows ISPs, resellers and Corporate customers to integrate their internal systems with the Covad's Ordering system. This allows for seamless flow through of orders and order status between the two, otherwise disjoint systems. As the number of Internet users grows, the need for a high volume ordering system becomes apparent. It is no longer practical to order large volumes of services through an interactive system. The Covad xLink provides a standard mechanism for Business-to-Business communication. Covad xLink allows Customers to seamlessly integrate their internal systems with those of Covad. This allows for integration of business processes, which results in greater effeciency in conducting business. The Customer can use the Interface to develop customized systems to accept orders from their clients and electronically interact with Covad's OSS to qualify, place and track those orders. Adherence to standards: The interface is based on W3C standard XML (http://www.w3c.org). It is fully compliant with the standard specification, enabling numerous off-the-shelf tools (most freely downloadable) to be used to build the interface system."
References:
[January 26, 2000] "Dishing Out DSL Proves No Easy Feat." By Sal Salamon. In tele.com (December 13, 1999), pages 17-18. ['Mindful of customer frustration, service providers seek ways for making DSL mind-numbingly simple to buy.'] "...Other providers are tackling the problem at the root. 'The Holy Grail is zero-touch provisioning,' says Abhijit Ingle, senior product manager of OSS/broadband services at Covad Communications Co. (Santa Clara, Calif.) 'You want to make DSL mind-numbingly simple to buy.' Covad's tack is to invest in an operations support system (OSS) that simplifies the provisioning of DSL circuits. Covad did this by developing what it calls the Covad xLink platform, which is an application programming interface (API) based on extensible markup language (XML). xLink essentially lets service providers that resell Covad's DSL service provision the service themselves. In turn, the providers can extend this capability to customers if they wish."
