Unified Inventory Management solution, a standards-based inventory oversight application offering communications service providers a real-time, unified view of their customer, service and resource inventory. The solution saves operators money and time by mapping services to logical and physical resources, enabling providers to more efficiently introduce and deliver customer-centric, next-generation services as well as enhance infrastructure-related financial control and compliance, forging a truly optimized and cost-effective approach to deploying and managing network resources.

With Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management, service providers can access a unified view of customer, service and network asset data without forcing system consolidation or risking data integrity. The application promises modularity and flexibility, enabling deployment either for specific business challenges or across an entire network and service portfolio. In addition, the management platform provides visibility into how each customer consumes resources across multiple services and networks.

In tandem with Oracle’s complementary suite of end-to-end telecom industry applications, the Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management app also supports a number of related business processes and priorities—for example, in conjunction with the Oracle E-Business Suite, it integrates physical asset lifecycle management processes between network inventory and financial management, supply chain and asset tracking systems. Moreover, the Oracle Communications Unified Inventory Management app works with Oracle’s Siebel Customer Relationship Management solution to enable service providers to more efficiently capture and manage customer orders, assigning appropriate network resources and activate services and ensuring speedy and accurate service delivery throughout the entire fulfillment cycle. And alongside Oracle Communications Network Intelligence, the app bolsters provider efforts to more effectively analyze inventory data, in turn improving network planning, modeling and optimization.

Another looming challenge for service providers: Order management and service fulfillment. Operators seeking to more efficiently and cost-effectively deliver

NEXT-GEN SERVICES LIKE INSTANT MESSAGING AND VIDEO CHAT WILL REQUIRE EVEN GREATER LEVELS OF PERSONALIZATION, DEMANDING CUSTOMER-CENTRIC INVENTORY MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS.

 

new services are now automating and optimizing complex order change processes, heralding a more strategic approach to navigating new wrinkles in the service lifecycle. Coupled with Oracle’s market-leading Siebel CRM and ongoing commitment to enable pre-built end-to-end processes, the company’s time-saving and money-saving Communications Order and Service Management solution enables service providers to rapidly introduce new, emerging services as well as cost-effectively scale the delivery of mass-market services through fully automated order management. It offers complete order management tools from initial order capture including inventory reservation, service prequalification and SLA commitments to complete fulfillment for services, equipment and workforce. The OSM extends from the front office to the back office, enabling operators to automate and trim the cost of the end-to-end order management process—in turn, it slashes the time, cost and risk involved in application integration, promising accurate, predictable order fulfillment for a superior customer experience.

“The communications industry as a whole has a very high operational cost compared to other industries,” Sheahan says. “There is a history and culture of doing everything custom-built. What Oracle offers is the opportunity to take the enterprise software principle of configuration and apply it with gusto to the communications space. That approach is resonating with operators that want to run a business that is leaner.”