The vast array of assets that combine to form telecommunications networks makes the traditional telco business model highly capital-intensive (i.e. expensive – to build, operate and maintain). Moreover, due to the challenge of managing a range of parallel tasks such as customer orders, field work / workers / activities, network capacity, network health and customer payments, there is a pronounced, but often under-recognised, reliance on asset management data.
In days past, telecom assets were mostly physical infrastructure. However, the transformation of the telecom sector through technologies such as network virtualisation has spurred an explosion in the volume and nature of assets under management. As networks become increasingly software-centric, intangible assets like virtual network functions (VNFs) and software-defined network (SDN) objects are proliferating. This is attractive to telcos because virtual network elements, being software, can be quickly and inexpensively instantiated, scaled, or decommissioned. The asset life-cycle becomes more dynamic.
The concept of network virtualisation
Network virtualisation is an approach that disaggregates software from hardware, which is also attractive to telcos because it makes their operations more agile. However, it’s not just a case of replacing a physical network with a logical network, because a modern telecom network is a complex web of physical, logical and virtual network objects / assets.
The increased network complexity also increases complexity for a telco’s asset managers and stock controllers. Financial asset management use-cases extend across
- Warranty management
- Spare parts inventories
- Repair cost tracking
- Tracking of financial metrics such as depreciation and useful life remaining (ULR)
- Lease / supplier contract management
- Lifecycle cost analysis
- Budgeting & forecasting
- Asset utilisation and more.
Careful management of assets across the types of use-case listed above can lead to substantial cost savings, operational efficiency and improved network resilience, as well as improved financial decision-making. The sheer scale of assets under management in a telecommunications network helps to turn even the smallest optimisation into significant cost savings. By providing a complete and accurate view of all network assets, an inventory system can help avoid unnecessary asset purchases, enable proactive asset maintenance to prolong asset lifespan and improve asset utilisation by identifying and reallocating underused assets.
Accurate information transfer is essential for effective Asset Management across the entire lifecycle from asset ordering to decommissioning. If you’ve ever been tasked with auditing a Bill of Quantities (BoQ) to validate arrival of a shipment of network infrastructure at site, you’ll know that it can be challenging to confirm whether the internal and/or virtual components have been correctly shipped within the hardware / chassis. Furthermore, acceptance then initiates data transfer to represent each physical, virtual and software / licence element in an Asset Management solution. This data needs to be accurate as these records will be tracked across the remainder of the product’s lifecycle.
Life-cycle asset management
After being accepted on site, and accepted as data into the Asset Management solution, the physical infrastructure and logical network is then configured and commissioned. At this point, it becomes even more challenging to track. The virtual assets / VNFs are more dynamic and transient in nature than physical assets, often changing state or scaling in response to constantly evolving network demand and conditions.
Traditional network inventory / OSS solutions simply weren’t designed for these paradigms. It’s common to see older products struggle to cope with the diverse demands of these more modern, dynamic networks and asset tracking.
SunVizion network inventory management system
By contrast, SunVizion's Network Inventory Management System is adept at managing this increased complexity, comprehensively managing inventory data for both physical and logical network elements across operational and financial asset management use-cases. It's particularly well-equipped to handle the speed of change in increasingly virtualised networks, maintaining up-to-date inventory / asset data to facilitate network design, build and capacity planning. It has also been designed to improve the accuracy of recorded data through the use of intelligent discovery and reconciliation mechanisms.
Combined with advanced Asset Management capabilities, the transition to software-centric network models opens up opportunities for strategic advantage for network operators. In addition, by enabling automation and increasing network flexibility, virtualisation can reduce operational costs and enable quicker, more cost-effective service delivery.
As telecom networks continue to evolve, the importance of efficient, flexible asset management systems, like SunVizion's Network Inventory Management System, will continue to grow in parallel.
