i2i Inventory
Serial-level stock control from purchase requisition to customer device
At a glance
- Every router and ONT tracked by serial number
- Requisition, purchase order and goods receipt in one flow
- Stock points for warehouse, partner and technician
- IP pools and landline numbers managed alongside devices
Overview
i2i Inventory is the inventory management area of the i2i platform. It follows physical equipment from purchase requisition through purchase order and goods receipt into warehouses, then to partners, technicians and customers, and records each movement in a ledger.
Devices such as routers and ONTs are tracked one by one by serial number, with a status and a history. The same area also manages logical stock: IP pools and addresses, and landline number batches. It is part of the i2i billing and CRM stack rather than a separate service, and it uses the same admin portal, partner portal and customer accounts.
What is telecom inventory management?
Telecom inventory management is the practice of knowing what equipment and resources an operator owns, where each item is and what state it is in. Physical stock includes customer-premise devices such as routers, ONTs and set-top boxes, as well as active and passive network equipment. Logical stock includes IP address blocks and telephone numbers.
Serial-level tracking matters because an operator must tell one device from another. When a router is faulty, returned or sent for repair, the record must follow that unit, not just a count of units. A stock ledger records every movement with a type and a document, so the balance at each location can be rebuilt from history.
Procurement is the front of the chain. A requisition asks for goods, a supplier commitment follows and a goods receipt confirms what arrived, ideally with the serial numbers. From there items move between warehouses, partner locations and technicians, then to a customer. Returns, quarantine and repair statuses close the loop, and the link to billing decides whether a device is sold, rented or paid in instalments.
Capabilities
What i2i Inventory does
Item catalogue
- Material groups and materials by type
- Serial or no tracking per material
- Custom attributes per material
- Vendor records and vendor devices
Procurement
- Purchase requisition with approval
- Purchase order approve, cancel and search
- Goods receipt posted to stock
- CSV import of device serials on receipt
Locations and balances
- Warehouses and partner warehouses
- Stock points for technician, customer and network node
- Stock balance per point and material
- Inventory summary dashboard
Device lifecycle
- One record per serial with history
- Statuses from in stock to scrapped
- Quarantine with scheduled release
- Batches with summaries
Movement and allocation
- Transfer between stock points
- Return with a pre-check
- Assign to a partner with payment plan
- Assign to a customer service account
Logical inventory
- IP pools and addresses
- Partner allocation and reserved addresses
- Landline number batches with history
- Older device batch inventory
Use cases
Where i2i Inventory is used
Receiving a shipment of ONTs
A purchasing team raises a requisition, has it approved and converts it into a purchase order. When the delivery arrives, the store creates a goods receipt from that order, uploads the serial numbers from a CSV file and posts it, so every unit appears at the warehouse.
Stocking a partner
A distributor needs devices to sell on. The operator assigns serial-numbered devices to the partner with a unit price and a payment type. Where the partner pays in instalments, a device payment plan tracks each one and the EMI reports can be exported to Excel.
A faulty router comes back
A customer's router fails. The device is returned after a pre-check, marked faulty or sent for RMA, and can be moved to quarantine. Its record keeps the full history, so the operator can see where it was, who held it and when its status changed.
Managing IP space and numbers
A network team keeps address pools and landline number batches in the same portal. Addresses can be allocated to partners, reserved and assigned to customers, and changes are recorded in an audit log.
FAQ
i2i Inventory: frequently asked questions
Is i2i Inventory a separate product?
No. It is a feature area of the i2i billing and CRM stack, served by the same backend and shown under the Inventory menu of the admin portal. Partners see a subset in the partner portal. There is no separate deployment, so it is delivered and installed with the platform.
Can it track every device by serial number?
Yes, for materials set to serial tracking. Each device has its own record, a status and a history, and can be found by serial number. Devices enter through a goods receipt with a CSV upload, or as a created batch.
What statuses can a device have?
In stock, assigned, installed, faulty, RMA, scrapped and quarantined. Status changes are recorded in the device history, and quarantine can be released on a schedule when its period ends. The ledger also holds movement types for return and for RMA out and in.
Does it link stock to customer sales orders?
No. Devices are assigned explicitly to a customer service account, a lead or a partner, rather than reserved from a sales order. Purchase requisitions, purchase orders and goods receipts cover the buying side only.
How does it work with i2i ACS?
The ACS reads the inventory record for a device by serial number, including its status, when it registers a device to a subscriber. Inventory therefore acts as the source of device identity for provisioning. No other integration is present in the inventory code.
Can partners see their own stock?
The partner portal shows device batches, IP pools and physical stock views for the partner. From the admin side, partner stock is visible in a read-only way. Partners can hold stock at partner warehouses that you define.
Can I import existing stock?
Device serials can be imported from CSV at goods receipt, with a sample file to download, and landline numbers are uploaded from CSV. IP pools support bulk import. Other bulk formats are not built in, so ask us how to load your existing records.