e in some inventory management modules, where the IM module interacts with element managers or the agents in the network elements to get status updates and to automatically discover a new resource that is added to the network and not updated in IM module. Automation of the inventory management system is a necessity considering the evolution in communication networks to offer complex services on a multivendor environment. This increased complexity demands simple and flexible ways to allo- cate resources and to manage, maintain, and plan how networks are configured. Planning requires operators to maintain configuration records, to search the records with simple queries, and refer consolidated reports when required. A proper plan- ning process would be possible only by integration of records by a common system like the inventory manager (see Figure 20.5), where these records rapidly become manageable even when they are stored at multiple localized databases. An automated inventory management system is a key module for having flow through provisioning. The IM interacts with an order module to allocate the resources. The provisioning system checks the inventory modules for allocated resources to do provisioning and finally updates the IM with the status of the resources after provisioning or failures during provisioning. Inventory hence is a key module and needs to be automated for quick provisioning without manual inter- vention. The quality of work is also improved when the administrative burden in managing inventory records are performed by an automated inventory manager. On a single click, the IM can provide the operator information on whether proper equipment is in place to offer a specific service or new equipment needs to be installed. The links and capacity circuits that provide backbone transport can be checked and assigned. Commands to provision systems to do configuration can also be triggered from the inventory management system. There are many vendors who specialize in inventory management products. Telco