nagement. Web-based solutions: Most inventory management solutions currently avail- able in the market are Web based or support Web launch along with the ability to be launched as a separate application. The reason for this is that most operators want to have the flexibility to work on inventory manager from anywhere, which is possible when the solution is Web based and can be launched with a Web browser to which data can be sent using the Internet infrastructure. Fundamentals of EMS, NMS and OSS/BSS Scalability: The huge volumes of inventory data and associated reports lead to an inventory database that can scale easily. The storage requirements should be planned properly when deploying an inventory management solution. Ease of use: The inventory information needs to be properly sorted based on device types. The data representation should be user friendly with the use of maps, drawing, and symbols wherever required. The inventory data repre- sented must support different views, like a physical view showing where a par- ticular device is placed (location) in the chassis, a hierarchical view that can be browsed down to get the attributes of individual elements or a service view where the elements are grouped based on services that are running/installed/ offered on the elements. There should be built-in libraries of maps, locations, floor drawings, and network object symbols available in the inventory man- agement system. This makes it easy to feed and represent data. In short, a proper use of text and graphics is expected in representing inventory data. Distributed architecture: Telecom inventory of the service/equipment pro- vider may be distributed at different geographical locations. The inventory management system should adopt a distributed architecture in collection of data and updating of data. For data lookup, the inventory management sys- tem should provide a centralized view of all data available to the service/ equipment provider. Assist network design: The network design is dependent to some extent on t