Case Study

How Telecom Italia Replaced Departmental Black Boxes with Unified Orchestration

Patchwork scripts and disparate management systems were replaced with a single Itential + Cisco NSO platform – automating 100+ software upgrade processes across the network that serves over 100 million customers in Italy and Brazil.

Challenge

Many departments, disparate management systems, and a patchwork of proprietary scripts created a long time to market, high implementation costs, and configuration errors driven by intensive manual work – with knowledge locked inside a few specialists.

Solution

Itential + Cisco NSO became a single orchestration touch point across operations, service, IT, and network management – programmatically managing software upgrade processes through closed-loop automation that crosses departmental silos.

Why Itential

Deep Cisco NSO integration, a low-code workflow builder, 300+ codeless integrations with auto-generated extensions, robust pre/post-check and rollback validation, and a flexible self-service interface – abstracting the patchwork into a single shared view.

The Challenge

Manual Network Management Leads to Configuration Errors & Lack of Standardization

TIM is the brand of the Telecom Italia Group, providing fixed and mobile telephony, internet, digital content, and cloud services to over 100 million customers in Italy and Brazil. At that scale, network service delivery involved many departments – and the disparate systems behind them produced complex operational processes, a long time to market, and high implementation costs. Intensive manual configuration tasks for each requested service left teams vulnerable to errors and dependent on deep, narrow expertise.

The team worked with a handful of different scripts and solutions – many proprietary, many known to very few people. Every change began with figuring out which tool to use and who knew how to run it. The result was confusion across the NetOps team, fragmented handoffs, and no end-to-end view of services across departments. What the network needed was a platform that could unify those departments and orchestrate services across their networks and tools as a single, shared operating model.

Three Forces Behind the Patchwork

Each one slowed service delivery – and made it harder for any one team to see, understand, or change the network as a whole.

Proprietary Scripts, Hidden Knowledge

A handful of scripts and solutions, many proprietary and understood by only a few engineers. Every change started with figuring out which tool to use and who knew how to operate it.

icon showing multiple silhouettes, symbolizing a team

Disparate Departments, Fragmented Handoffs

Network service delivery spanned many departments with their own systems and processes. Cross-functional handoffs were slow, and a unified end-to-end view of services across teams did not exist.

Manual Work, Inevitable Errors

Intensive manual configuration tasks for each requested service left the team vulnerable to mistakes, dependent on narrow expertise, and unable to scale to the volume the business needed.

In the old way of doing things, everything was its own little black box. We had to find ways to bring teams together, to speed things up from service request to delivery by making handoffs smoother.

Network Architect

Telecom Italia

TIM did not need another script. They needed a single touch point that could orchestrate every department’s work and treat the network as one shared operating model.

Why Itential

Why They Chose Itential

TIM needed network automation – and more importantly, a single touch point that orchestrated across cross-departmental silos. Doing so would improve efficiency, simplify network management, and shorten time to market. Five capabilities from the Itential + Cisco NSO platform anchored the decision.

A Platform Built for Cross-Departmental Orchestration

Five capabilities sat at the center of the decision – together giving TIM a single touch point across operations, service, IT, and network management.

Explore the Platform

Cisco NSO Integration

Deep integration and support for Cisco NSO and for all network device technologies – the foundation that let TIM treat heterogeneous network elements as a single addressable layer.

Low-Code Workflow Builder

Low-code workflow management for maintenance automation, service order management, and configuration management – letting NetOps build, change, and own automations without rewriting code for every variation.

Out-of-the-Box Integrations

Codeless integrations to more than 1,000 systems and the ability to auto-generate integrations for in-house developed systems – automating the full end-to-end path from service request to service completion.

Pre/Post-Checks, MOP Analytics & Rollback

Automated pre- and post-check processes, log collection, MOP analytics for pre/post comparison, and final validation or optional rollback – turning risky software upgrades into engineered, repeatable processes.

Self-Service Delivery

A flexible operator interface for activating and controlling upgrade services – enabling cross-department participation in orchestrated network workflows without each team needing to know the underlying tooling.

The Solution

Itential + Cisco NSO as a Single Orchestration Touch Point

Instead of choosing among scripts and proprietary tools for each change, TIM programmatically manages software upgrades as closed-loop automation through Itential + Cisco NSO – speaking one shared language across operations, service, IT, and network management.

Closed-Loop Software Upgrades

Software upgrade processes orchestrated end to end as closed-loop automation: service request, configuration, pre/post-check, validation, and rollback – managed as a single execution rather than a series of manual handoffs.

box with organizational lines below icon

Patchwork Abstracted into One View

Cisco NSO + Itential abstracted the patchwork of vendor systems and technologies into one network view, so designing automated procedures no longer depended on knowing which script controls which device.

Cross-Departmental Operating Model

Operations, service, IT, and network management share a common language and a single orchestration point – turning siloed black boxes into a shared, business-oriented operating model.

Network Admin vs Network Services, Each Focused

Network administration teams focus on managing infrastructure. Network service teams focus on custom client solutions. Both work through the same orchestration platform, without stepping on each other.

The coupling of Cisco NSO + Itential offers great flexibility in building our automated services and at the same time transforming Telecom Italia’s department’s interaction, enforcing a business-oriented view.

Francesco Burgio

DevOps Engineer, Telecom Italia

The Outcome

Increasing Efficiencies & Reducing Time to Market

With one orchestration touch point across departments, TIM moved software upgrades from a patchwork of manual processes to a single, governed operating model – reducing errors, accelerating time to market, and freeing each team to focus where they add the most value.

100+

Software Upgrade Processes

Automated execution and validation of a 100+ task operational process for the delivery of software releases across the network.

↑

Increased time to market

of services from a singular upgrade process to multiple upgrades

1

Orchestration Touch Point

A single shared platform across operations, service, IT, and network management – replacing a patchwork of proprietary scripts and disparate management systems.

100M+

Customers Served

Fixed and mobile telephony, internet, digital content, and cloud services across Italy and Brazil – now delivered through orchestrated, error-resistant upgrade processes.

From Black Boxes to a Business-Oriented View

With Cisco NSO + Itential, what used to be siloed black boxes of automation are now a shared, business-oriented operating model – making cross-departmental handoffs smoother and shortening time to market for every customer service.

What’s Next

TIM’s eventual goal is to use Itential and Cisco NSO to orchestrate end-to-end network configuration across the IP and SDN-enabled transport domain – eliminating manual processes entirely from service delivery.

Continued focus areas include extending the orchestration model to additional service domains, deepening the cross-departmental workflow catalog, and treating the closed-loop automation library as a shared organizational asset across network and operations teams.

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