Moving from fragmented automation to deterministic, lifecycle-driven operations across a global network.
Industry: Service Provider • 
Employees: 10,000+
Challenge
Manual processes and siloed automation could not keep pace with the scale, speed, and complexity of Tier 1 network operations, increasingly constraining growth, inflating operating costs, and elevating risk.
Solution
Deterministic orchestration and lifecycle-based service management using Itential to deliver repeatable, auditable outcomes across network and service domains.
Why Itential
Selected for its ability to productize automation with governance, integrate across existing systems, and scale proven operational practices across a Tier 1 environment.
When Network Scale Became a Business Constraint
A Tier 1 North American service provider operates one of the largest and most complex networks in the world, spanning wireless, wireline, core, transport, and enterprise services. At this scale, network operations are not just a technical function. They are a core business capability.
As demand for new services accelerated and infrastructure investment increased, the organization reached an inflection point. Growth was no longer limited by market opportunity or capital spend. It was limited by the organization’s ability to execute consistently at scale.
The network continued to expand across domains. New enterprise and mobile services were in demand. Modernization initiatives accelerated. But the operating model responsible for turning infrastructure into revenue did not scale at the same pace.
This created a widening gap between business intent and operational reality.
From an executive perspective, the impacts were unmistakable:
Revenue realization slowed, not because services could not be sold, but because delivery timelines stretched unpredictably.
Operating costs increased faster than the network, as headcount became the primary way to absorb growth.
Risk rose with every change, forcing teams to slow down to protect stability.
Strategic initiatives took longer to deliver value, delaying the benefits of modernization and expansion.
When Scale Becomes a Constraint, Not an Advantage
At Tier 1 scale, even small inefficiencies compound quickly.
Service activation required extensive coordination across teams, systems, and vendors. Infrastructure changes depended heavily on manual execution and individual expertise. Even where automation existed, it was often siloed within specific domains and difficult to extend elsewhere.
As volumes increased, the consequences compounded:
- Each new service or migration required more coordination effort.
- Highly skilled engineers were pulled into repeatable execution work.
- Delivery timelines became harder to predict and commit to.
- Operational risk increased with every manual handoff.
We weren’t short on demand or investment. We were short on a way to execute consistently at scale.
Network Operations Executive
Automation Helped, But Orchestration Was Missing
Over time, teams had built scripts and point automations to address specific problems. These efforts delivered value, but they also introduced new limitations.
As the business continued to grow:
- Automation became harder to maintain, govern, and extend.
- Execution varied across teams, regions, and technologies.
- Proven processes could not be replicated without significant effort.
- Visibility into service and infrastructure state remained fragmented.
Most critically, automation did not reduce the cost of growth. Each increase in volume still required incremental people, oversight, and coordination.
At this point, the question was no longer how to automate faster, but how to scale execution without scaling risk and cost.
The Need for a Scalable Operating Model
The organization reached a clear conclusion. To support growth, modernization, and future innovation, it needed to fundamentally change how network operations were executed.
That meant:
Moving from manual coordination to standardized execution.
Turning proven processes into repeatable operational assets.
Embedding governance and auditability into execution itself.
Creating consistency across domains, teams, and technologies.
This was not a tooling decision. It was an operating model decision.
Why They Chose Itential
As the provider evaluated how to modernize network operations, several requirements shaped the decision.
Execution Had to Be Deterministic
Network changes needed to follow the same validated process every time, with built-in checks, sequencing, and rollback. This was essential for operating at Tier 1 scale without increasing risk.
Governance & Auditability Needed to be Inherent
Change history, execution context, and outcomes had to be captured automatically, without relying on manual documentation or external tracking.
Integrate Into Existing Systems of Record
OSS platforms, internal tools, and network devices were already in place. The solution had to orchestrate across them rather than replace them.
Reuse Mattered
Proven automation needed to become shared operational assets, not one-off projects tied to individual teams.
Scalable Across Domains
Core, transport, mobile, and enterprise services all needed to operate under a common orchestration model.
Itential met these requirements by providing a unified orchestration platform designed to operationalize automation across complex, multi-domain environments.
Standardizing Execution Across the Network
The first focus was infrastructure operations.
Using Itential, the provider integrated network devices, controllers, and internal systems into a single orchestration layer. Existing scripts and automations were reused where appropriate, but execution was standardized through deterministic workflows.
This allowed teams to:
- Define validated processes once and execute them consistently.
- Coordinate actions across systems and vendors.
- Reduce dependency on manual intervention and tribal knowledge.
One of the earliest production use cases involved large-scale network upgrades. Previously, these upgrades required careful sequencing and significant engineering effort to minimize risk.
With orchestration in place:
Once the process was orchestrated, it stopped being fragile.
Network Engineer
Multiple devices could be upgraded simultaneously.
Execution time dropped from tens of minutes per device to just minutes.
Engineering effort was reduced from dozens of engineers to a small, focused team.
Just as importantly, these upgrades became repeatable and auditable, building confidence in the orchestration model.
Services stopped being tickets and started behaving like managed resources.
Service Delivery Lead
Bringing Structure to Service Delivery
As confidence grew, the provider expanded orchestration into service delivery.
Enterprise and mobile services were modeled end to end, allowing provisioning, validation, and updates to be executed as coordinated workflows rather than disconnected tasks. To support this, the organization introduced lifecycle-based service management.
Instead of treating service activation as a one-time event, services were tracked through defined states, with attributes and history captured as they evolved.
This shift delivered immediate benefits:
- Clear visibility into service status and history.
- Consistent execution across orders and changes.
- Structured rollback and remediation paths.
Service teams no longer had to reinvent delivery for each new request.
Production Impact at Tier 1 Scale
Across network and service domains, the impact was measurable.
Accelerated Service Delivery
- Enterprise service activation reduced from 45 days to less than one day
- New service creation timelines reduced from 18 months to approximately three months
Infrastructure Operations at Tier 1 Scale
- Time to deploy edge and core infrastructure reduced by more than 70 percent
- Network change productivity improved by 25x
- Network faults caused by manual errors reduced by nearly 98 percent
Enterprise & Mobile Services
- Tens of thousands of enterprise services onboarded and managed
- Service migrations executed through structured lifecycle stages
- Pre-checks, post-checks, and validation standardized across deployments
Mobile Infrastructure Expansion
- Large-scale device onboarding and migration across transport and backhaul
- Nearly 100,000 automated jobs executed in a single year
- Substantial reductions in manual effort and operational risk
Measurable Outcomes
Across production deployments, the provider achieved:
70%
Reduction in Time
to deploy new infrastructure
25x
Productivity Improvements
for network changes
98%
Reduction in Network Faults
caused by minor errors
100k+
Productivity Hours Saved
by engineers automating jobs
100k+
Days
of accelerated revenue realization
What changed was not just speed, but consistency. The same processes ran the same way, regardless of scale.
A Platform The Organization Can Build On
Over time, the orchestration platform became a shared foundation across teams. Existing automation assets were reused rather than replaced. New use cases were added without introducing new tooling silos.
The network operated with greater consistency, and teams spent less time coordinating execution and more time improving outcomes.
Just as importantly, the organization established something harder to quantify but critical at Tier 1 scale: operational confidence.
Paving the Way for AI, Intentionally
With deterministic orchestration and lifecycle state firmly established, the provider has positioned itself to adopt AI when organizational readiness aligns.
The foundation now exists to:
- Expose trusted operational capabilities to AI systems safely
- Allow AI to reason over accurate, structured lifecycle data
- Ensure all execution remains governed, auditable, and predictable
When AI is introduced, it will augment operations rather than replace control.
Orchestration stopped being a project and became how we operate.
Network Operations Leader
A Scalable Operating Model for Tier 1 Networks
By moving from fragmented automation to deterministic orchestration and lifecycle management, this Tier 1 service provider transformed how it operates its network.
The organization delivers services faster, executes change more safely, and scales proven practices across domains and teams, without sacrificing control.
