its; applications; services; solutions; and finally, at the top, value. It's interesting to observe that all of these terms appear in marketing, sales, and technical documentation, and all are important. However, the priority they are given and the qualities they each represent deserve attention. The dictionary defines the seven terms as follows: Feature: A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic Function: The action for which (something) is particularly fitted or employed Benefit: Something that promotes or enhances well-being; an advantage Application: The act of putting something to a special use or purpose Service: An act of assistance or benefit to another or others Solution: The method or process of solving a problem Value: Worth in usefulness or importance to the possessor; utility or merit There are two ways to approach the use of this seven-layer network value hierarchy. One is from the bottom up, starting with features and Downloaded from Digital Engineering Library @ McGraw-Hill (www.digitalengineeringlibrary.com) Copyright © 2004 The McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved. Any use is subject to the Terms of Use as given at the website. Telecom Market Segments Chapter 8 passing through the various layers of the model; the other is to start with value at the top and work downward. Both are valid, but must be utilized appropriately. Let's consider the functional differences between the seven layers. Features, functions, and benefits are characteristics that define the technical capabilities and defining parameters of a device or service. "A prominent or distinctive aspect, quality, or characteristic," the definition of a feature, clearly speaks to such a thing as a physical footprint (the space a device occupies in a central office), the amount of heat it gener- ates while in operation, the amount of electricity it consumes, backplane capacity, and component redundancy. Function, "the action for which (something) is particularly fitted or employed," describes the technical inner w