Enterprise-class software developer VPIsystems has announced an alliance with Telcordia Technologies Inc., a provider of Operations Support Systems (OSS), that will yield a new suite of flow-through tools from network planning to engineering.
"VPI's software provides a planning platform that enables one seamless flow of information to help our clients to better manage capital expenditures and refine the engineering process," explains Matthew Herdlein, director of network design and supply chain management at Telcordia. "Many of our customers are looking to streamline the planning and engineering process. By using VPI's software platform to power Telcordia Access Planner with flow-through to Telcordia Network Engineer, our customers can more efficiently plan and engineer the network to meet demand."
The new product suite helps network planners collaborate with technical marketing groups to translate the physical plan to yield costing information. Planning and design teams will use the to provide the best technology and service mix to clients. The data created at this planning and engineering stage will then be presented to the provisioning and order management processes and systems.
Since Telcordia and VPI announced their OEM relationship in December 2000, CEO of VPIsystems, Kay Iversen, said the two companies have worked together closely to identify opportunities to converge network planning and engineering functions.
"Our objective is to reduce transaction costs across the supply chain," Iversen explains. "One of the most important challenges in the business is to bridge the gap between the existing infrastructure and expected demand with minimal engineering effort. Network transparency and sophisticated optimization capabilities are essential to achieve this. Two-way data flow-through between planning and engineering can clearly deliver significant value for customers."
The new Telcordia Access Planner product powered by VPIsystems was demonstrated for the first time at the Telemanagement Forum in Las Vegas in October 2001.
For more information about VPIsystems (Holmdel, NJ), visit the company's Web site at www.vpisystems.com.