s, for example, have refined this kind of Web strategy, offering users personalization capabilities and providing services focused on specific geographic areas, including news, weather, traffic, restaurants and other local information. IIC reduces customer churn by providing value-added services in addition to network services, effectively discouraging customers from switching to another provider. The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS The energy industry provides some strong examples for new Web ideas. For years, electricity has been exchanged much like a commodity. Suppliers have maintained trading desks that buy and sell excess power to and from other suppliers, much like traders on a conventional commodity exchange. This system is migrating to the Web and being extended to the commercial customer. Online energy exchanges have begun to proliferate, using the Web to replace more expensive value-added networks (VANs) that had been used to support power exchange. Taking the process a step further, Web-based energy businesses, enabled by deregulation, have emerged. These businesses, many of which support "reverse auctions," allow energy users to shop for energy by posting their needs to a Website that allows various suppliers to bid for their business. To attract and retain customers, these sites often provide services that let the customers enter specific information about their energy usage and the equipment they use. The site then generates reports that recommendation ways to save energy and reduce costs. For example, a manufacturing company might discover from a Website that it can purchase a gas-fired turbine, have it installed on premises and have a specialized company maintain it for them as a way to reduce energy costs and dependency on outside suppliers. It's not difficult to envision that site then providing another reverse auction in which gas turbine sellers bid for the right to sell a turbine to the manufacturing company. In this complex example, the Web provides a virtual marketplace f