The capital cost of introducing any new service is often the figure that attracts attention. However, with multi-service provision, the initial equipment costs can be exceeded by the operational costs within a few months. Because customers are keen to take advantage of the inherently flexible nature of the service being offered, changes and reconfigurations are more common than with a conventional single service, thus potentially increasing operational costs. Intelligent tools embedded in the centre of the network and manual intervention at the edges of the network have been the basis of many management processes. Intelligence and complex management functions are now migrating towards the edge of the network, reducing the degree of manual intervention needed but increasing the complexity of the management systems. In a multi-service network, some functions must be placed at the customer’s premises. However, the flexible nature of an integrated network means that the functions at the edge of the network require more configuration and monitoring than would be needed with simpler network terminations such as those used for ISDN and ADSL.