New report – Inventory of the Future

I’ve recently been co-opted to lead the development of an “Inventory of the Future” transformation guide on behalf of TM Forum and thought you, the readers, might have some interesting feedback to contribute.

I had previously prepared an “Inventory of the Future” discussion paper prior to being invited into the TMF discussions about a month ago. However, my original pack had too much emphasis on a possible target state (so those slides have been omitted from the attachment below).

https://passionateaboutoss.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Inventory_of_the_Future_v9a.pdf

Instead, before attempting to define a target state under the guise of TM Forum, we first need to understand:

1. Where carriers are currently at with their inventory solutions
2. What they want to achieve next with their inventory and
3. What will the future environment  (in say 5 years from now) look like that inventory will exist within. Eg
   1. Will it still integrate with orchestration (resource allocation), fault management (enrichment, SIA, RCA, etc), etc?
   2. Will it manage a vastly different type / style of network (such as massive networks of sensors / IoT that are managed as a cohort rather than individually)
   3. etc

This, dear reader, is where your opinions will be so valuable.

Do the objectives (slide 3) and problem statements (slide 4) resonate with you? Or do you have an entirely different perspective?

Would love to hear your thoughts in the comment section below!! Alternatively, if you’d prefer to share your ideas directly, please leave me a personal message. Leave a personal message if you’d like to see the rest of the report (as it currently stands) too.