same phone call, then this would be an example of order- ing through sales. It is also possible that after the customer clarifies queries with sales, the customer logs onto the Internet and places an order online with an online order management system, which would be an example of direct order placed by the customer with order management system. 3. As part of placing the order, the customer and service related details are saved in the order management system. This information will be used for fulfillment, OSS/BSS Functions assurance, and billing functions. This step involves the order management system requesting the service provisioning and configuration module to acti- vate the service. 4. To configure the network and its elements, the service provisioning mod- ule sends commands to the network provisioning and configuration module. Network provisioning, as already discussed, takes care of elements in the network and the connectivity between the elements. The intent here is to configure the service at a network element level. 5. Before configuring elements, the network provisioning and configuration module first interacts with the inventory management module to check the availability of resources. The inventory management system does all the func- tions to make the resources requested for offering the service and informs the network provisioning module when it can go ahead and configure the selected resources. 6. Based on inputs from the inventory module, the network provisioning mod- ule now configures the network to offer the requested service. This includes configuration of elements, setting up the connectivity, and ensuring that the services are offered on a secure platform. 7. Next a test management module checks the configurations performed by net- work provisioning and the configuration module and ensures that the service is working as intended. The interaction between the test management module and network provisioning and configuration module ensures that all bugs are reported and fixed. 8. The network