Dr. Lawrence Bernstein Received Industrial Innovation Award

Here is some background of the work that led to the award:

The Regional Bell Operating Companies and several independent telephone companies are using used the FACILITIES AND CONTROL SYSTEM (FACS) at the core of their network operations support systems since the early 1980's to manage the accounts of 100 million telephone lines in the United States. Bell Labs first developed FACS to provision the access network and the core network. The potential for both FACS grew to include network element configuration, force management and engineering decision support systems; it warranted an investment well in excess of a billion dollars. That investment paid off tenfold in terms of productivity benefits.

There were seven previous failed attempts to build such a system. Today's system required the project management of Larry Bernstein for it to become a success.

FACS was part of the huge investment in computer hardware and software tel3phone3comapnies made in the 1980s and early 1990s showed the largest productivity gains after 1995. Telephone companies subsequently saw strong productivity growth.

The innovations pioneered by this system have now become standard operating practice. Here are just a few of the groundbreaking ideas:

1. Application development using UNIX prior to the availability of the production operating system.

2. Integration of test teams with the developers to expedite system feature testing using a novel process called Cooperative Testing.

3. Work flow engine to provide ‘flow-through', thereby completely automating previously manual processes.

4. Bob Martin's FCIF interface language, a precursor to XML which is now used extensively on the World Wide Web.

5. Automatic configurations of network devices such as local switches, digital loop carrier systems to fully use in place equipment.

FACS has operated for more than twenty years; this is no small feat for software. That it they will continue to work far into the future is a testament to the vision of their designers and implementers. Many individuals contributed to FACS. It is impossible to honor all of them.

"Larry Bernstein was the seminal leaders for large, powerful teams for the FACS family. His vision, technical acumen and above all his ability to inspire and excite their talented people to advance communications technology are in the tradition of Bell Labs," commented middle manager Lou Casulli.

View the News