 and supporting more than 50 distributors and a direct sales force for 270 multi-national customers is a daunting challenge. But, whether we're serving as a "carrier's carrier," providing trans-border, wholesale network services to fixed, wireless and Internet providers or offering voice, data and Internet services internationally, it's the OSS backbone that empowers the global enterprise. OSSs themselves are complex entities. We're talking about software designed to embody and automate all of a network's complexities, with layers of intelligence, integration logic and business processes added in. Implementing an OSS platform, to this point, has been more art than science, built more on faith than fact. Today's OSS applications, capabilities and integration environments simply didn't exist a few years ago. Deregulation and the surge in Internet-based technologies have guaranteed radical changes. As a result, service providers have had to learn as they go, with little guidance in the form of standards, benchmarks or accumulated knowledge. The Internet infrastructure industry is beginning to turn a corner, however. We now have enough experience and wisdom to tackle OSS challenges more effectively, and with more confidence. We moved through the first wave of OSS experimentation and have seen the successes and failures. We have a foundation on which we can build. Building on that foundation means sharing knowledge and collaborating throughout the Internet infrastructure industry with other innovators to develop business models, processes and OSS platforms that can handle whatever the future may bring. Predicting the future is a near impossibility, which makes it critical for service providers to build businesses and OSS platforms that can adapt to whatever the future brings. Adaptability adds complexity, however, as applications and processes constantly change. In an integrated environment, one change can have a widespread effect. Systems transactions are altered, processes shift, and interactions with suppliers and 