Network equipment manufacturers and software and application developers are all hard at work creating new, exciting products to enhance the communications experience for business and private customers alike. From unified communications suites to visual voice mail to mobile TV, new multimedia communications products and services are being introduced at an almost alarming rate — alarming because service providers and enterprises need to be able to ensure their networks are capable of keeping pace with the changes.

 

The challenging task at hand now for many providers is to efficiently migrate their legacy networks to new next generation or IMS infrastructures, so that they can enhance their service availability and grow their customer bases. Indeed, with the various new technologies, service providers are investing heavily in their infrastructures, but the migration — or new network build-out — process is not complicated and carries a degree of risk.

 

In order to help minimize that risk, it is crucial for network operators to have an effective strategy in place, yet there are so many constituencies involved in the process, coordination and effective planning have become exceedingly difficult.

 

Fortunately, carriers have access to a solution that can simplify the planning and migration process and mitigate the risk involved. OnePlan, from VPI Systems, is a network planning system than consolidates the network planning process across and entire service provider organization, including business units, technologies, and network layers. With OnePlan, the planning complexity of network migration is eased, and service providers can focus on the actual implementation.

 

VPI Systems (News - Alert) is a ten-year old firm, originally founded in Berlin, that has made its business helping carriers break down the traditional silos that have long presented barriers to intra-organizational communication. In order to effectively create a workable plan for deploying new technology, it is crucial for an entire organization to work together.

 

Unfortunately, as is too often the case, it takes a major failure to generate a true understanding of what is required. As VPI’s Director of Corporate Marketing Barbara Pistilli explained, network planning is not yet a must have — it’s a nice to have for most carriers. On the other hand, she also expects the complexities involved with emerging technologies, particularly in the wireless space, planning will soon become a necessity, and she says VPI Systems will be well positioned to help service providers meet the challenge.

 

“It’s an emerging market, this planning part of OSS business, but as these new network services continue to grow, systems and networks may be brought to their knees because of complexity, capacity, demand, etc.,” she explained. “Carriers will then realize they need planning. As always, it’s hard to get them to see the need in advance.”

 

With VPI’s OnePlan, providers will have specific answers to concerns surrounding network planning and resource management leading up to, during, and following migration. The software collects information from various parts of an organization and compiles and disseminates that detail throughout the company, including network capacity, design, equipment and use forecasts, all of which are needed to efficiently deploy new infrastructure.

 

Further, while VPI has traditionally focused on Tier 1 carriers across the globe, the simple fact is that smaller network operators also require similar assistance. It would hardly be surprising to see Tier 2 carriers also requesting such services as they look to differentiate themselves in the IP Communications market. For that matter, even large enterprise networks today are quite similar to service providers, which may ultimately present still another opportunity for companies like VPI Networks — it wouldn’t be the first time a carrier-focused vendor shifted its attention to the enterprise space.