Better Asset Management: The business benefits of telecom networ

Business Management:

Better Asset Management: the benefits of network inventory management (report)

Chorleywood Consulting Ltd.
Market Study November 2003

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Why you need to read this report:

Gain a detailed, yet accessible and unbiased, insight into the mechanics of inventory management that is not available anywhere else
Learn how to plug potential areas of revenue loss associated with the service provisioning process
Discover the financial and customer service related benefits of effective management of network resources
Gain knowledge of the solutions market and information about your competitors through detailed profiles of vendors and systems available.

Traditional telecoms operators have always invested heavily in their networks, seeing them as their primary competence and more recently as a strategic differentiator. However, as the telecoms environment changes, the way in which networks are run and maintained needs to be reassessed urgently. Network asset management is about knowing what networks and network elements the operator has, where the components are, how they are connected and what they do.

Better Asset Management distinguishes between physical, logical and service inventories, assets which are usable and which are not, and shows how services are assembled from components in the inventory.

Make the most of your investments through asset management solutions discussed in this report, while making the service provisioning and activation process faster and more accurate. Order now to gain a comprehensive view of the asset management market and increase your revenues.

Key vendors profiled include: Axiom Systems, Cramer Systems, Granite Systems, MetaSolv Software and Telcordia Technologies.

Better Asset Management will provide you with the answers to the following key questions:

What is asset management? Including a full explanation of network asset management
Why do I need an inventory management system? Discover the benefits of having an inventory management system implemented
What are the financial benefits of better asset management? Find out how your company can increase revenues by improving asset management
Who are the suppliers of asset management solutions? Learn from detailed profiles and select the best supplier for your needs
How do I go about the process of implementing such a solution? Use the step-by-step guide to plan your implementation.

Who should buy this report

Operators - Identify which asset management solutions you need to purchase to make the most of your assets
OSS vendors - Benefit from the latest research into your competitors and use this to target your sales strategies more effectively
Industry analysts - Keep up-to-date with latest market developments and identify key players and their latest strategies

C H A P T E R 1

M A N A G E M E N T S U M M A RY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1 The importance of better asset

management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.1 Better asset management is now

strategically important . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.2 Asset management – definitions . . . . . . . . . . 4

Network asset management defined . . . . . . . . 4

Network resource management defined . . . . . . 4

Network assets defined . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Figure 1.1 Network services are composed

of complex entities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

1.2. Overview of the report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.2.1 Contents of the report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 2 Technology and processes . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 3 Business case – quantifiable and

non-quantifiable benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 4 Systems functions and

architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 5 Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Chapter 6 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2.2 Scope of the report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2.3 About the author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.2.4 About Chorleywood Publications . . . . . . . . . . 8

C H A P T E R 2

T H E C N O L O G Y A N D P R O C E S S E S . . . . . 11

2.1 The inventory and current network

architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.1.1 Inventory – the heart of the operator's

business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2.1.2 The inventory database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Information and asset management . . . . . . 12

The role of asset management in service

provisioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Keeping data up-to-date . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

The role of data reconciliation and

synchronisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

2.1.3 The physical network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Figure 2.1 Example of a multi-layered IP

network and its dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

2.1.4 The logical network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2.1.5 How inventory is used to compose

a service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Figure 2.2 Examples of physical, logical and

service resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Figure 2.3 Matching service components to

network resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.2 Future evolution of network

architectures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.2.1 Towards broadband . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2.2.2 Data circuits and convergence . . . . . . . . . . 21

Figure 2.4 Example of a complex data

network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

C H A P T E R 3

B U S I N E S S C A S E F O R I N V E S T M E N T I N

A S S E T M A N A G E M E N T . . . . . . . . . 23

3.1 Overview of benefits from better asset

management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Figure 3.1 OPEX and CAPEX saving from better

asset management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.2 Making savings on CAPEX and OPEX . 25

3.2.1 Reducing capital expenditure (CAPEX) . . . . 25

Avoiding unnecessary spending . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Choosing wiser spending options . . . . . . . . . 26

3.2.2 Reducing operating expenditure (OPEX) . . . 28

Improving network and fault management . . 28

Data accuracy reduces provisioning errors . . 28

3.2.3 Increasing operating effectiveness . . . . . . . 29

Improved service planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Figure 3.2 Moving from a ‘push’ to a ‘pull’ service

delivery environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Streamlining operations increases

productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

Figure 3.3 Interrelationship between network

resource management and OSS . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3.3 Non-quantifiable benefits . . . . . . . . . . . 34

3.3.1 Partnering with other operators . . . . . . . . . . 34

Forging service-level agreements . . . . . . . . . 34

Figure 3.4 Essential role of network resource

management/fault management in setting up

and managing SLAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Extending the supply chain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Figure 3.5 Intercompany processes involved in

managing telecoms service provisioning . . . . . 37

3.3.2 Network costing and business decision

making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

Figure 3.6 Illustration of infrastructure,

transmission and service complexity . . . . . . . . 39

C H A P T E R 4

S Y S T E M F U N C T I O N S A N D

A R C H I T E C T U R E S. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

4.1 Computerising inventory data . . . . . . . . 41

4.1.1 Network inventory management software . . 41

4.1.2 Representations of data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4.1.3 The importance of naming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

4.1.4 Tools for data management . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

4.1.5 Creating a new database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Figure 4.1 Diversity of sources of network asset

information held by an operator . . . . . . . . . 44

4.1.6 Telephone and numbers and IP addresses . . 44

4.1.7 Presentation and viewing of data . . . . . . . . 45

4.2 System architectures and

implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

4.2.1 Current approaches to OSS architectures . . 46

Figure 4.2 Information sharing in service

resource management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Figure 4.3 The role of network resource

management in total NGOSS . . . . . . . . . . . 48

4.2.2 Essential connectivity with other OSS

and BSS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Figure 4.4 Telco business and engineering

areas requiring access to network asset

information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4.2.3 Adjunct tools and services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

4.2.4 Implementation issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

C H A P T E R 5

P R O D U C T S A N D V E N D O R S. . . . . . . . . . . 53

5.1 Introduction to network inventory

management products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

5.1.1 Overview of network inventory management

products and vendors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Figure 5.1 Summary of NRM/NIM suppliers

and products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Figure 5.1 Summary of NRM/NIM suppliers and

products (continued) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

5.1.2 The market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Contracts announced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

Figure 5.2 Network management contracts

announced in year ended August 2003 . . . . . 57

5.2 Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

5.2.1 Arkipelago – ROME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

Figure 5.3 The planning process in Rome . . . . 62

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

5.2.2 Axiom Systems – AXiOSS/IMS . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

5.2.3 Cramer Systems – Cramer 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

Figure 5.4 Overview of SyncEngine

architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5.2.4 Digital Fairway – eOSS Inventory Manager . . 69

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70

Architecture and Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Services and Pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

5.2.5 GE Network Solutions – Smallworld

Network Inventory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

5.2.6 Granite Systems – Xng . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Figure 5.5 Overview of Xng architecture . . . . 76

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

5.2.7 Incatel AS – NIMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77.

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

5.2.8 Liberica – InventiX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

5.2.9 MetaSolv Software – Network Resource

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Figure 5.6 MetaSolv NRM Functionality . . . 84

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

5.2.10 NetCracker – Network Inventory

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

5.2.11 Sheer Networks – Broadband Operating

Supervisor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

5.2.12 Syndesis – NetDiscover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

5.2.13 Telcordia Technologies – Network

Engineer/Network Configuration Manager . . . . . . 93

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

5.2.14 TTI Telecom – NetCap Inventory . . . . . . . . . 97

Contact details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Product . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Architecture and platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Customers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Services and pricing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 988994

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