emendous business value. Figure 27 attempts to illustrate the current situation with enterprise integration. The vertical axis represents the depth of integration. Depth is a relative term to reflect the amount (depth) of data being integrated. For example, in the case of order flow-through, a shallow integration may be the simple flow-through of the order number. A deep integration may be the entire order with all its constituent data. The horizontal axis represents the functional breadth. Functional breadth is a factor of the number of OSS functional areas spanned. The read out of this diagram is simple: shallow integration over a constrained set of functional components is definitely achievable. Deep integration over the entire OSS is probably not achievable today. e.g. All order information for all order types Probably Definitely Probably Shallow e.g. Order number 2 Functional Functional Breadth 8+ Functional Areas Areas Billing, OE/OM, SFA, Activation etc. Figure 27. Integration Depth and Breadth Chapter 6 - Integrating the OSS Platform 16. HOW MUCH TIME DOES INTEGRATION REQUIRE? A question IICs ask frequently is "How long will it take to integrate my systems?" Hopefully our discussion has illustrated that this question is highly dependent on the business transactions being integrated, the OSS portfolio, and the desired integration depth and breadth. In order to provide some conception of the effort integration requires Figure 28 illustrates some heuristics from our collective integration experience. The typical time range for integration between two applications is two-to-six months. This range is based on several prerequisite conditions, namely that the right connectors for the right version or release are available, and that the end point packages are implemented and stable. Months Months Months Implementation Time Per Link Figure 28. Gauging Integration Time The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS 17. INTEGRATION APPROACHES AND PHASED IMPLEMENTATION The above discussion described common bus