Times have changed, and today operators are supplying the most advanced multimedia services in an ever-increasingly competitive market, to an ever more demanding subscriber. The subscriber needs the best, and operators need to be able to see to it that they get that, but on the other hand, operators are also dealing with an ever faster evolving technology, and platforms which are increasingly more complex. Therefore, a unified and consolidated approach on network management has become indispensable. This presentation shows the very latest generation of multi-vendor network management solutions, and the different key ingredients required for a successful deployment of such technology. By means of some cases in the HFC broadband and related industries, the presentation demonstrates how this technology enables operators to generate significant operational added value, and to create that extra competitive edge.