Inventory Management

Inventory management systems are one of the key building blocks within the service provider OSS systems stack.  Current inventory management systems are all based on manual documentation of the network resulting in issues with data quality and completeness.

NETPortal™  Inventory is a new generation of inventory solution utilizes information from the network itself to maintain data quality.

NETPortal™  Inventory supports multi-vendor equipment configuration, and multi-technology connectivity and service design for Optical, Ethernet (ELINE, ELAN, ETREE) and IPVPN services.  Inter-relationships between the various networks (Transport, Ethernet, IP) are fully supported.  Number pools and assignments are also provided for IP addresses, VLAN Ids, telephone numbers, and other numbers required for service definition. 

NETPortal™ Inventory utilizes a standardized model based on industry standards and incorporating explicit technology domain knowledge.  Equipment models utilize vendor specific equipment templates that are based on manufacturer’s specifications and contain the specific details required to discover and reconcile equipment configurations and provide all the specific details required to activate a service on the devices in the network.

NETPortal™ allows users to work with the system through an easy to use browser based graphical interface (GUI) to manage network elements, networks, connectivity and service configurations. 

NETPortal™ readily handles the users’ manual actions and updates, however its real power is apparent when the inventory capabilities are augmented with the NETPortal™  Discovery.  NETPortal™  Discovery is seamlessly integrated with the Inventory to obtain the actual network device and service configuration information from the network, either directly from the Network Elements or via EMS/NMS system(s).  Leveraging both physical and logical information, NETPortal™ updates the network device configurations, automatically builds the connectivity model and then creates the end-to-end view of each service regardless of network technology. As the network grows or changes the inventory model automatically reflects it. Unlike some IP or Ethernet only solutions, NETPortal™ can build this inventory model across Optical, Microwave, Ethernet, MPLS and IP.

NETPortal™ Inventory provides access to the inventory data and functionality through a complete Web Services interface for integration to other systems.

NETPortal™ Inventory provides a number of key benefits, including:

• Easy to use service design and assign capabilities for a wide range of services based on accurate inventory data with the ability to automate service provisioning activities using the Web Services APIs.
• Greatly reduced provisioning fallout through the use of accurate, up-to-date inventory data provided with NETPortal™ Inventory’s fully integrated discovery and reconciliation capabilities .

Fast deployment due to NETPortal™ Inventory’s standardized data model that does not require extensive data model definition.  The use of the discovery and reconciliation capabilities also vastly reduces the necessity for lengthy and expensive data migration.