arket scope. Based on Fig. 1, it can be hypothesized that an OSS/BSS vendor might consider four distinct market scope strategies, ranging from narrow to broad: 1. Niche strategy (also "narrow strategy"). Here, the vendor provides software only for one market segment presented in Fig. 1, except for the CRM, which ranges through several layers. The companies deploying a niche strategy possess distinct knowledge or strong customer relationships on one or several segments. E. Luoma et al. Table 1 The number of companies and total volume of software product segments and services for the year 2006 Software product segments Number of Total volume companies (million USD) 1. CRM, call center, order management $852.3 2. Network order management $168.3 3. Service quality management $363.8 4. Billing (offline) $3219.1 5. Fraud Mgt. and revenue assurance $393.7 6. Interconnect billing $292.8 7. Provisioning $672.2 8. Inventory, numbering, discovery and activation $359.9 9. Fault management $563.0 10. Performance management $1156.1 11. Remote testing and monitoring $503.3 12. Mediation $453.9 13. Charging (realtime) $1929.7 Software products total $10928.1 Services total $19038.7 OSS/BSS market total $29966.8 Market entry using a niche strategy usually takes place simultaneously with the introduction of a new technology, e.g., a new network interface or a middleware. 2. Vertical strategy. The vendor provides software in at least two market segments, but only in one of the vertical process groupings presented in Fig. 1. To be able to provide software for managing vertical processes, a vendor is required to have special knowledge on both the particular processes and the network interfaces related to this vertical process. This kind of a strategy is typical for the established firms in the OSS/BSS market. 3. Layer strategy. Software for multiple market segments (or the single segment of CRM) is provided within the same horizontal layer presented in Fig. 1. This strategy refers to focusing on supplying software on one of the horiz