Exemplary network alarm message processing systems and methods are disclosed. In an exemplary method, a network alarm message processing system receives a network alarm message provided by a network element of a wide area network, the network alarm message being in a first message format, converts the network alarm message in the first message format to a new network alarm message in a network universal message format, and provided the new network alarm message for use in conducting surveillance of the wide area network. In certain embodiments, the conversion may be based on a mapping data file and a translation rules data file associated with the first message format Corresponding systems and methods are also disclosed.