Patent ID: 8676945

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving at least one alarm from at least one network, the at least one alarm indicative of at least one fault within the at least one network; collecting the at least one alarm; analyzing the at least one alarm with a root cause algorithm, via at least one processor, to determine a most likely source of failure; providing, via the at least one processor, a derived alarm identifying a failed circuit and corresponding customer network equipment; matching, via the at least one processor, contents of the derived alarm with defined automation rules; determining, via the automation rules, how the at least one fault will be repaired, based on observed conditions; determining, via the at least one processor, whether to proceed with an automation process, based on a flag set in accordance with a customer preference; if the automation process is determined to proceed, opening a workflow event corresponding to the at least one alarm, for automatically resolving the at least one fault; waiting a configurable time period; if the derived alarm is outstanding after the configurable time period, continuing with the automation process, and, if the derived alarm is not outstanding, after the configurable time period, closing the workflow event and releasing the derived alarm by removing it from a user display.