Comarch Network Inventory

Comarch Network Inventory Management stores the complete information about network resources and presents current, historical and future state of telecommunications/IT networks.

The system enables modeling links, planning, designing and configuring equipment, address assignment and control, resource numbering and preparing reports. It also provides detailed network element information and allows the user to search the database using a wide range of criteria.

Functionalities:

• Multi-layer information model – the idea is to represent the same equipment and connections in several layers, with technology-specific information included in the dedicated layer providing a consistent view of the network for the operator without an information overflow.
  The layers represent both physical and logical information of managed network, including: physical network resources, infrastructure, physical connections, digital transmission layer (SDH/SONET (STM-n, VC-4, VC-12, OC-n), PDH (E1, T1)), telephony layer, IP-related layers, GSM/CDMA/UMTS-related layers as well as ATM and FR layers
• History tracking - inventory objects (equipment, connections, numbering resources etc.) are stored with full history of changes which enables change tracking; a new history entry is made in three cases: object creation (the first history entry is made); object modification (for each modification a new entry is added); and object removal (the last history entry is made)
• Auto-discovery and reconciliation – enables to keep the stored information up-to-date with the changes occurring in the network. The auto-discovery tool enables adding new network elements to the inventory database, removing existing network elements from the inventory database as well as updating the inventory database due to changed cards, ports or interfaces
• Network planning – future object planning support (storing future changes in the equipment, switches configuration, connections, etc.); plans are executed or applied by the system logic – object creation / changing actually take place and planned objects become active in the inventory system; enables visualization of the network state in the future
• Inventory-Based Billing enables accurate calculations of customer charges for inventory products and services (e.g. equipment, locations, connections, capacity); this module is able to calculate charges for services leased from another operator (vendor) and resold (with profit) to customers, and to generate invoices
• Inventory and Console Tools allow user-friendly management of important objects used in the application (creating templates (Logical View, Report Management, Charts), editing symbols and links, searching for objects, encrypting passwords and notifying users of various actions/events)
• Wizards and templates provide flexibility but do not allow for inconsistent manipulation of data; new objects are created with an object creation wizard (so called template), which enables defining all attributes and necessary referential object (path details for connections, detailed elements (cards, ports) for equipment etc.); the user can define which attributes of an object should be mandatory / predefined and if they should have a constant value
• Process-driven Inventory – by introduction of automated processes, all user tasks related to inventory data are done in the context of a process instance; changing the state of the network (e.g. by provisioning a new service) cannot be done without updating information in the inventory; this assures real-time accuracy of the inventory database

Benefits:

• End-to-end view of multi-vendor, multi-technology networks
• Reduced network operating cost
• Improved utilization of existing resources
• Quicker, more efficient change management
• Visualization and control of distributed resources
• Seamless integration within the existing environment

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