which comprised the internal intranet and the other two sites. 6 Service Provisioning and Activation order transactions status emails messaging to network provisioning applications database servers Figure 6.2 Three-tier architecture with three functional groups. internal site intranet customers partners Figure 6.3 Three tiers in web server. TMF predicted in the e-Business Telecoms Operating Map (eTOM) that service providers would want to brand and push the web interface to end-customers. This is being taken a step further with service providers encouraging their channel partners to push the web interface to their own customers after rebranding the web interface provided by the service provider. This creates an all-electronic supply chain which extends to the end-user. The Capsule Communications project is an example of a solution that comprised a panoply of best-in-breed COTS products alongside significant in-house develop- ment and implementation. Whether a service provider should seek to achieve the gains enjoyed by Capsule using an in-house solution or a COTS solution depends upon the state of its systems at the time it decides to revamp its OSS functionality. Note that Capsule went from a mostly paper-based office to one that was very much electronic. This meant that it was able to start from scratch with compatible systems and software, such as SQL Server, ASP Server and Visual Basic. (In this sense, it was OSS for Telecom Networks a rare site called a "green field".) Most service providers will not find themselves in such an enviable position. Component object-oriented software provided by Netcracker, TeleGea, Telution and other vendors has helped to advance the enterprise operations and management of the service provider. In particular, the COTS software packages of these vendors allow each step in the end-to-end workflow to be assigned to a specialist software module. By contrast with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, with which many CIOs have been disappointed, integrated enterprise (including