tegration project is product catalog integration. Many different OSS applications incorporate product catalogs. They are often considered the brain or engine behind a given package, but vary in functionality depending on the package's purpose. For example, in a CRM package, the product catalog often defines the screen flow and data capture process used to create sales quotes and record orders. In an order management package, the product catalog can define the way an order is decomposed; as well as define dependencies among products and create linkage with product provisioning flows. In a billing system, the product catalog defines product, product bundle rating and discounting, and creates the links to events that contain the rateable elements used for pricing. Other packages may contain notions or fragments of product catalogs, e.g. financial systems or SLA management. Synchronizing these catalogs across package boundaries to support the business as the product mix evolves is critical. From an integration viewpoint, order flow-through goals are totally dependent on a common definition of products across all of the integrated applications. So what is the problem? Every product catalog not only has its own range of functions, but also uses its own definitions for products and other data it maintains. Basically, product catalogs drive each application's functionality. The Ultimate Guide to Building and Delivering OSS/BSS Product and service flexibility is defined through the product catalog. For progressive carriers, product catalogs are volatile. Frequently, there are new product launches, product/service changes, bundled offering roll-outs and updates, pricing changes, promotions, engineering changes and geographic availability changes. A single transcription error can result in many errors, since one product will impact many orders and many customers. Each application product catalog has a different data model, different content format and a different interface. Integration requires a separately maintained set o