stomer and markets evolve, or how its own processes work. This makes dealing with an outsourcer and refining the best practices difficult. Similarly, some IICs choose to outsource to get into business while building an OSS infrastructure Chapter 4 - Developing an OSS Strategy in-house. Such IICs have traditionally had major problems with converting from the outsourcer's systems to an in-house platform. The ideal option for many IICs is to build and maintain the OSS in-house. This provides the greatest level of control and the most tailored functional options. It also comes with a much higher price tag, and places the entire risk and maintenance burden on the shoulders of the IIC's IT staff, which is also challenging to maintain and manage. More information on outsourcing options is provided in Chapter 7. RISK MITIGATION STRATEGIES The road to building and implementing an OSS enterprise is laden with risk. There are many types of risks, including technology risks, such as package limitations; management risks, such as change control and organizational change management; integration risks, such as integration limitations; and delivery risks, such as program and project management. There have been many failures. But recently, there have been more successes, primarily because the lessons learned allowed newcomers to avoid old mistakes. The software and systems integrator industries have matured, and real expectations are being set at the outset. It is the IIC's responsibility, however, to take its own steps to minimize risk through some straightforward but important business decisions. Program Management. Program Management (PM) is critical in a multi- vendor environment. Establish a program management office and enterprise- wide architecture group early on to oversee and enforce coordination and integration among applications. This is critical to avoid executing each system implementation in isolation from other concurrent system implementations and the existing OSS environment. There are significant dependencies ac