ese companies is its longevity. Some of these companies are now well established, but many still have questionable futures. Selecting an application means creating a long- term partnership with the vendor, not just buying some software. In a worst- case scenario, if the vendor goes out of business or is even acquired by another vendor, the IIC could be left stranded with an unsupported application. Young vendors tend to have quality control and other support problems that can be a concern for IICs. On the positive side, however, newer vendors are generally more willing to negotiate and deal on price. Beyond start-ups, there are the few established OSS vendors that were in business before deregulation. The primary player in this area is Telcordia, the former Baby Bells' research and development arm once known as Bellcore. Telcordia serves largely ILEC clients, but offers various applications in most OSS functional areas supporting almost any IIC business model. The company has seen limited success in emerging IIC markets though. It is often still viewed as part of the old guard, though its interconnection service bureau has seen some success with newer IICs. Chapter 5 - The Enterprise OSS Platform Some vendors are beginning to crossbreed. Vendors that traditionally served mobile providers are moving into landline markets, and vice versa. The type of application and its architecture will generally determine whether a vendor can make this shift successfully. Many applications, such as object- based inventory databases, are designed to be technology independent, and do not require much modification when serving one type of network or another. Other applications are more network technology specific, such as activation and provisioning systems, and are not suitable to shift. Applications aside, it's the vendor experience that counts in the long term. If a vendor is moving into new markets, the IIC must consider the risk of being an experiment. The IIC must ask how much experience the vendor has solving its specific pro