02/14/2012 by Brian Santo |  Great Lakes Data Systems (GLDS) has been named an Approved Provider for billing, subscriber management and provisioning by the National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC).

By the company’s count, its products are already being used by more than 130 NCTC member operators, along with hundreds of additional operators worldwide.

“Many independent operator members have long enjoyed the services of Great Lakes Data Systems, and we are thrilled to once again establish a relationship with GLDS for the benefit of all NCTC members,” said Doug Hull, NCTC’s senior director.

GLDS plans to demonstrate the company’s new workforce management platform WinForce Tech at the upcoming NCTC Winter Education Conference. The system is designed to be an affordable way to move customer management data out to the field, reduce field work calls and speed customer service.

WinForce gives operators “visibility into the customer’s account, let’s them manage equipment and service delivery, and gives them the ability to troubleshoot installations, and even close work orders from the field,” GLDS President Garrick Russell said. “It gives operators complete control and monitoring of their workforce and offers Tier 1 functionality, without the Tier 1 price.”

Other solutions from GLDS include both standalone and cloud-based billing, subscriber management, and provisioning capabilities. GLDS’ Windows- and Linux-based solutions are designed for operators ranging from 2,500 to more than 250,000 subscribers.

“Small operators face enormous technical, competitive and economic challenges,” according to Russell. “GLDS offers triple-play billing, provisioning and other ‘Tier 1′ features – at rates averaging 50 percent less than the large service bureaus.”