With new software releases for its Granite Inventory and Expediter order management products, Telcordia introduced an enhanced fulfillment suite today that gives operators an end-to-end approach to service design as well as resource and lifecycle management.

The Telcordia Fulfillment Suite takes a more service-centric approach to building complex service bundles. It includes intelligent inventory, provisioning automation and data synchronization functions in an integrated offering, which allows a single change to a service definition to flow through to other operations and business support systems.

"A key advantage of the fulfillment suite is that it is built on proven, deployed products. It's not just some idea we came up with," said Christopher Smith, executive director of Telcordia Europe. The suite is deployed in more than 60 networks worldwide.

The suite allows operators to better manage the rollout of new transaction-oriented services; develop network configurations for complex equipment and circuit layout records, using standard templates for the assignment of resources; and gain faster, more accurate provisioning and repair with integrated activation.

"Telcordia's announcement reflects the idea that service providers may be trying to solve immediate problems but they are more aware and more focused on coming up with solutions that will carry them into the deployment of new services," said Larry Goldman, co-founder and analyst with OSS Observer.

Enhancements to Telcordia's Granite Inventory product focus on the user experience, new applications and the definition, design and creation of advanced services and architecture. The focus on the user experience is both new and complicated.

"Service quality is becoming a huge factor, {while] services are becoming unforgiving," Smith said.

The user experience was enhanced by major changes to the development approach for graphical user interfaces. The new approach uses Java Server Faces, improvements in visualization of information supporting visual navigation, and subscriber self-service. Granite also better supports new applications through native discovery, reconciliation and activation functions. It uses Express Packs for IP service creation, which provide simplified, business rule-driven interfaces with pre-defined information models, data definitions and orchestration flows for popular services. The current library of Express Packs includes IP-VPN, TLS, DSL, voice over IP, SDH, Re-groom and IPTV.

The Granite architecture also now uses transparent user-defined classes and service-oriented architecture toolkits for cost-effective integration with embedded systems.

Telcordia added a new product catalog manager to its Expediter order management product, which operators can use to create, modify and abandon service concepts as the needs of their customers evolve. Expediter's embedded graphical design tool enables users to build business logic, workflow and system interfaces with minimal scripting or to use pre-defined templates and interfaces as starting points for introducing new services.

Accenture will be using Telcordia's Fulfillment Suite to replace the existing order management system at a Tier 1 operator yet to be announced and will integrate it with the carrier's existing customer relationship management system.

Telcordia has often pointed to Telecom Italia as another example of an operator using Telcordia products to transform its business. "But they still remain unique with their wholesale change out of legacy fulfillment products," Smith said.