order number is used to collect data from the trouble management module, per- formance reporting module, and billing modules, SO that the customer can view any information corresponding to the specific order that the service provider opens up to the customer. A customer can place more than one order and there would be a multiple order status that the customer will track even if the services are offered as a single bundle. While provisioning is the key process dealing with configuring the network to deliver the service desired by the customer, the order management OSS/BSS Functions system provides the relevant information to provisioning module to trigger the provisioning operation. Some of the features of an order management system are: Preorder data collection: This involves collecting the customer details and vali- dating credit (credit check) to ensure that the requested service can be placed. Accepting orders: This activity includes creating the order and making changes (editing) to the order based on a customer request. Integration with inventory database: The order can be successfully completed only when the required inventory to offer the service is available. To satisfy the order, the required resources are reserved or when the resources are not already available they are procured. In the usual scenario, the inventory man- agement system ensures that the resources to offer a service is always available by issuing reports when a specific resource is low and needs to be stocked. Initiate provisioning: When the service provider has flow through provision- ing modules, the order management system triggers the provisioning modules to complete the order. The input to provisioning with details of the service and the SLA parameters comes from the order management system. Customer view of order: The customer needs to be notified on the status of the order. The order management system centrally tracks and manages the order and notifies the customer on the order status. Initiate billing: There are multiple modules t