ute charges online and receive, what the IIC hopes will be, timely resolutions. This method also can help avoid situations where irate customers are left on hold on the phone while CSRs search for their billing information. The portal allows the customer to identify the problem clearly on an online version of his bill, allowing the dispute to be handled in turn, with no one waiting on hold. Naturally, empowering the customer in this way, while not wasting his or her time, is a huge step toward improving customer satisfaction and loyalty. Again, these examples apply mainly to large end user customers. Billing transactions among B2B partners, or among various IICs that exchange traffic, may involve massive transfers of raw data with little or no analysis of customer usage. Business-to-Consumer (B2C) Portals B2C portals, as we will see, provide many of the same functions that B2B portals do. The focus is on serving end-user customers, such as businesses or residences, making the functions available and the transactions involved quite different. For example, one of the B2C Web portal's primary roles is to present product and service information. Ideally, the Web portal would provide intelligent product catalog and pricing features. These would allow the portal to present customized product bundles, create special pricing or offer tailored promotions. The Web portal would use the customer's record, including factors such as loyalty, geographic location and service usage, to create the personalized options. The portal would also provide pre-qualification The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS features, letting the customer know if the services requested are available to the customer's location. Ideally, at an advanced stage, the portal would present pricing scenarios with competitive comparisons, suggesting packages or promotions based on customer data. For more advanced features, especially with business customers that want more- control over their services, portals can also provide service configuratio