ives visit large customers, and CSRs reach out to residential customers. Because the Web is more of a passive channel, it does not automatically fit with these high-touch approaches. This is all changing, however, as IICs lean more towards customer self- help options. Vendors have brought custom portal packages to market that minimize technical complexities and provide more back-end integration capabilities. New, Web-based markets are also developing, such as bandwidth exchanges, which signal the IIC market's ability to catch-up rapidly in their use of Web portals. The Web Portal as an OSS Component As we have analyzed the functions of various OSS components, we should also analyze the Web portal as it provides critical OSS functionality. The first place Web portals have been applied is in the billing and customer care arena. As we have discussed, customers have been able to analyze usage, view and pay bills and examine new service offerings via Web portals for some time. More recently, ordering and trouble ticketing have moved to the Web, but with varying levels of integration supporting them. In many cases, the Web portal provides little more than dressed up e-mails. On the back end, people must still intercept requests and enter them manually into relevant systems. Only the most advanced IICs have integrated their Web portals with their OSS platforms. This has been achieved to varying degrees of success. For example, DSL wholesalers offer their customers online ordering and trouble ticketing capability, and often those orders and trouble tickets flow-through the Web to the relevant systems - but that's where it ends. An order for new services may flow to an order management system, which generally reduces errors and other communication problems, but it is a long way from flow- through provisioning. There are few, if any, examples of providers that have brought flow-through to fruition, much less extended such functionality to customers via the Web. The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS Wholesal