 the customer in future interactions. If a service is provided jointly with other providers or operators, then the pri- mary service provider must have interfaces with the other service providers or network operators to monitor and support the service. 8.9 Conclusion The TOM has provided a reference framework for thinking about telecom opera- tions in toto. Many OSS vendors find the TOM invaluable in navigating telecom OSS for Telecom Networks operations. Thinking about OSS involves thinking about telecommunications at an abstracted, or "meta", level. Although it is sometimes necessary to think in concrete terms of switches and cables, this can sometimes cloud the real issues involved in operational management of a carrier. An analogy is that in thinking about inventory management for a frozen food supplier, it is often superfluous to think in terms of peas or beans. One might be bet- ter served by abstracting to frozen produce with a certain lifespan which is carried in packages with certain properties of weight and density, and so on. In other words, one must abstract upwards to what is relevant, and that is what the TOM does for telecom operations. Telemanagement Forum:el 9.1 Introduction The Extended Telecom Operations Map TM (eTOM) is a business process framework which places the service provider's enterprise within its overall business context. In addition to the operating processes involved in delivering telecom services, the wider enterprise of the service provider and its business interactions along with its relationships to other organizations are represented. Moreover, the eTOM describes the processes and interfaces that are required to insert the service provider's busi- ness into an e-business or e-commerce setting. The Telecom Operations Map (TOM) sought to provide a general framework for the automation of the operations side of carrying on the business of a telecom serv- ice provider. Of course, this included the interfaces between the various com- ponents, all of which were internal to the enterpr