et, it would definitely have a big impact on the OSS/BSS industry. MS11: An OSS software product providing an abstraction for the IP networks, along with software products built on top of it, will dominate the OSS/BSS market after the conver- gence of telecom and IT. Currently the software products interacting with network elements commonly have proprietary interfaces. An IP based product providing an interface (standar- dized and uniform) to the networks would completely reshape the industry. Now the business models of many OSS/BSS vendors largely rely on the possession of information about the proprietary interfaces. If this information would become common knowledge, it could ruin their current business. MS12: There will be no market for commercial OSS/BSS software products as open source software is sufficient for the telecom service providers. Open source software is not seen currently and in the next 5 years as sufficient for all the CSPs' OSS/BSS needs. If, however, open source software systems able to reliably provide all the functionalities required by the CSP's were to exist, there would obviously be less or even no room for commercial software. 3 High Likelihood - Low Impact This set of miniscenarios was considered as highly likely to occur in the next 5 years. Some or parts of them can already be seen as being a reality even today; however, their impact on the OSS/BSS industry remains low. MS3: The number of software vendors serving the telecom service providers decreases. This evolution has already been a reality in the OSS/BSS industry for a couple of years. The reduction in the number of vendors has partly been the result of mergers and acquisitions (see chapter on "OSS/BSS Software Market Evolution Through M&A"), and due partly to market exits. As it is already the current state of the OSS/BSS industry, it is not seen as having a high impact on it. Delphi Study MS14: The telecom service providers will increasingly outsource most of their IT operations. This miniscenario can also be seen as a realit