r Support Systems There are both technology and business drivers influencing the market of support systems. Some of them are: Multiplatform environments: The technology focus is now toward multiplat- form-based environments. This increases the complexity on the infrastructure and business process to be managed. The net result is the requirement for a support system that can manage this environment. Emphasis on system integration: In telecom space there is an increased focus on interoperability and quick integration of products. The release of the prod- uct package in the minimum time (time-to-market) is a key factor for success of the product with multiple competitors and quick change in technology. Easy integration is possible only when the support systems managing the package are flexible to adopt the change. Mergers and acquisitions: In the current industry there are lot of mergers and acquisitions happening. Merger and acquisition is facilitated only when the new company and its product can easily be adapted to the business pro- cess and products of the master company. For example, the company being acquired has a product on order management and the master company wants to integrate this project with its existing OSS solution. If the order manage- ment product and the OSS solution are both eTOM compliant and both have a standard set of interfaces, then very little effort is required in adopting the order management solution. Convergence in telecom space: The convergence has a major impact on OSS. With convergence in network, there is a drive to have a single OSS solution that can manage a variety of networks used in different domains. Most OSS solutions now support both wire-line and wireless networks. Also when new network and management standards are defined for convergence, the OSS solution has to easily adopt these standards. Off-the-shelf products: COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) products are becoming increasingly popular in telecom and SO are standards around the same. The aTCA (advanced telecommunicati