Disruptive inventory automation solution

Blue Planet, a division of Ciena, is introducing a new intelligent automation solution that gives service providers a unified view of network and service inventory, helping to eliminate costly and tedious manual processes. The new Blue Planet INS solution reduces order-to-service fallout by up to 40% and speeds up the trouble-to-resolve process by up to 30%, according to Blue Planet estimates based on customer data.

Ensuring greater alignment across IT and network operations, INS helps service providers realise the vision of a network that can quickly adapt to ever-changing end user demands, driving greater efficiencies and faster time-to-market for 5G, video, IoT and more.

According to Analysys Mason, many top tier service providers report only 70% accuracy in their inventory systems and as a result, this causes high service order error rates, slow fulfillment, and inefficient use of network assets. INS tackles this challenge head-on by providing a dynamic view of network assets and services across Layer 0 to 3. Engineered specifically to synchronise resources with operational support systems (OSS), INS proactively discovers network equipment, federates OSS/BSS data into a unified view, and reconciles discrepancies to show how assets are being utilised.

The solution can interface with OSS and other management systems without significant disruption to current business operations, ensuring openness and reducing vendor lock-in while also enabling automation of holistic business processes. Additionally, with INS’ flexible policy engine service providers can program the network to adapt and take specific actions when a change in inventory is detected, thus simplifying and accelerating the reconciliation process.

Blue Planet’s team of service professionals drive additional business value by sharing best practices and successful inventory management strategies that improve operating efficiencies and accelerates the introduction of new services.

“The Blue Planet team understands the challenges of having multiple, legacy inventory systems and the adverse impact on business processes. By gaining a single view of our network assets and systems, INS is an optimal way to transition to automated operations which ultimately drives greater agility and stronger customer satisfaction,” commented Kevin Coyne, Chief Operating Officer, FiberLight. 

Dana Cooperson, Research Director, Analysys Mason added, “Across the globe, service providers are turning to intelligent software tools to eliminate fragmented and manual processes so that they can improve network operations and quickly roll-out new services. An accurate view of inventory will play a key role in helping providers to operationally transform and reap the full rewards of software-based networks. Blue Planet INS addresses this issue through a minimally-disruptive approach to discovering, federating and reconciling network/service and inventory data to create a single source of truth.”

Kailem Anderson, Vice President of Portfolio and Engineering, Blue Planet, a division of Ciena said, “Our customers are fed up with legacy inventory systems that are hindering digital transformation. Getting control of your inventory is one of the most critical ways service providers can deliver powerful experiences to end users. In today’s increasingly competitive landscape, providers can’t afford to not make network automation the foundation of their digital strategy.”